With state budget in crisis, many Oklahoma schools hold classes four days a week

[FriendlyFire]

I suggest Republican states cut school to two days a week
They would save even more money that way.

Making America Great again !

With state budget in crisis, many Oklahoma schools hold classes four days a week

NEWCASTLE, Okla. — A deepening budget crisis here has forced schools across the Sooner State to make painful decisions. Class sizes have ballooned, art and foreign-language programs have shrunk or disappeared, and with no money for new textbooks, children go without. Perhaps the most significant consequence: Students in scores of districts are now going to school just four days a week.

But funding for classrooms has been shrinking for years in this deep-red state as lawmakers have cut taxes, slicing away hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue in what some Oklahomans consider a cautionary tale about the real-life consequences of the small-government approach favored by Republican majorities in Washington and statehouses nationwide.

Oklahoma has not raised teachers’ salaries since 2008, and the average salary in 2013 — $44,128 — put the state at 49th in the nation, according to the latest available federal data

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...1f359183e8c_story.html?utm_term=.9289e19f335a

 

[Valka D'Ur]

So... school only 4 days a week, and no textbooks?

Sounds a bit 3rd-world.

The way I explained taxes to people who ranted about them (while simultaneously demanding to know why they should give me the time of day when I was a census taker) was this: "You don't like the traffic situation downtown, right? The roads are in disrepair, and the snow removal is dismal, right? That's because this costs money, which is provided by taxes and transfer payments. Every name collected on the census means more $$$$/person transferred from the provincial and federal governments, so there will be more $$$$$$ to fix the roads, improve the snow removal and parking, get schools built (schools are important even if you don't have kids, since one of those kids might grow up to be the doctor or firefighter who will save your life some day), and so on."

Some people thanked me and said they'd never heard it explained like that before, and it made sense. They answered the census questions, and pondered how the census and taxes would benefit them personally.

So anyone who complains about shoddy or nonexistent infrastructure or services had best not be someone who also wants zero taxation. In this case, you really do get what you pay for.

 

[Hrothbern]

I suggest Republican states cut school to two days a week
They would save even more money that way.

Making America Great again !

Was it not under Reagan, that it was decided to improve schools because it had become too difficult to find new recrutes for the army that were not a practical analphabete ?

EDIT
That seems to be the minimum required

 

[Ryika]

Well if they don't have books, make them use laptops instead.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Well if they don't have books, make them use laptops instead.

If a school district can't afford books, how are they going to afford laptops? They don't come equipped with textbooks already downloaded.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

No point standing up if you would have needed a stepladder anyway.

Brilliant bit of wit there @Ryika.

 

[Cutlass]

So... school only 4 days a week, and no textbooks?

Sounds a bit 3rd-world.

Many American conservatives envy the 3rd world for how successful they are at keeping most of the population poor. None of that uppity social mobility for them!


More to the point, if the federal government wasn't an enabler of these things, what they should do is cut off 100% of all federal revenue to any state that has any city or county which does not meet at least basic education availability. And then further classify that state as not having recognized schools at all. So those students want to join the military, sorry, they never went to high school, so are not meeting basic eligibility. They want student loans, they have to go to high school first to qualify.

Raise the cost to the state of the state being scumbags.

 

[Ryika]

If a school district can't afford books, how are they going to afford laptops? They don't come equipped with textbooks already downloaded.

Wait, are you telling me they can't afford laptops either? That's terrible. Sounds like their budget should be increased so they can at least afford laptops.

 

[uppi]

Many American conservatives envy the 3rd world for how successful they are at keeping most of the population poor. None of that uppity social mobility for them!


More to the point, if the federal government wasn't an enabler of these things, what they should do is cut off 100% of all federal revenue to any state that has any city or county which does not meet at least basic education availability. And then further classify that state as not having recognized schools at all. So those students want to join the military, sorry, they never went to high school, so are not meeting basic eligibility. They want student loans, they have to go to high school first to qualify.

Raise the cost to the state of the state being scumbags.

But, but, but ... state rights!?!

 

[Broken_Erika]

The answer is obvious, Privatization! make all schools for-profit with zero oversight or regulation. (with at least 40% of the curriculum dedicated to promoting their sponsors products, and all historical textbooks written by fox news analysts as well as manditory classes on how free-thinking leads to COMMUNISM!) Make our Schools Great Again!

 

[El_Machinae]

Well, now teachers have a day off. And they can privately tutor rich kids, supplementing their income. win/win

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I bet the parents are ecstatic, having to arrange an extra day's childcare per week.

 

[Ryika]

I bet the parents are ecstatic, having to arrange an extra day's childcare per week.

That means that new jobs have been created! Amazing.

 

[Cutlass]

But, but, but ... state rights!?!

States got their rights. The rest of us don't have to subsidize them.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

That means that new jobs have been created! Amazing.

That's not the point. Some parents could afford to pay for it, while others would have problems - likely in addition to the problems they already have.

See, that's one of the advantages of 3-generation households and not treating grandparents/senior citizens like aliens who need to be quarantined or sent off on an ice floe. My parents never needed to worry about who was going to babysit me when they had to work, since my grandparents were right next door in the other part of the house we all lived in.

 

[Ryika]

That's not the point. Some parents could afford to pay for it, while others would have problems - likely in addition to the problems they already have.

Then maybe it was a bad idea to have children.

See, that's one of the advantages of 3-generation households and not treating grandparents/senior citizens like aliens who need to be quarantined or sent off on an ice floe. My parents never needed to worry about who was going to babysit me when they had to work, since my grandparents were right next door in the other part of the house we all lived in.

Or maybe if one person could make enough money to support the household in an average job, that would be a much more universal solution.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

See, that's one of the advantages of 3-generation households and not treating grandparents/senior citizens like aliens who need to be quarantined or sent off on an ice floe. My parents never needed to worry about who was going to babysit me when they had to work, since my grandparents were right next door in the other part of the house we all lived in.

Yeah, my parents never had any interest in the unpaid babysitter business until they were the ones who needed babysitting. If I based my operations on justice they'd have been shipped off to that ice floe.

 

[Akka]

That's not the point.

You really have serious trouble with sarcasm, haven't you ?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Then maybe it was a bad idea to have children.

And these people were supposed to know, at least 6 years in advance, that they would need extra childcare and the money to pay for it?

Or maybe if one person could make enough money to support the household in an average job, that would be a much more universal solution.

What makes you think that the non-working parent would always be home? There's this thing called shopping, and errands, not to mention volunteer work. Stay-at-home spouses don't necessarily stay at home 100% of the time.

 

[Kozmos]

And these people were supposed to know, at least 6 years in advance, that they would need extra childcare and the money to pay for it?

Ideally, people should roughly know how much a child costs from 0-18 at the lower end yes.