Oklahoma Education and You

Recently, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt remarked, “The teachers that I know are thankful that they got a pay raise, but they don’t do it necessarily for the money. They’re doing it because they’re focused on that next generation and making a difference in kids’ lives. It’s such a noble profession.”Governor Stitt is right that teaching is a noble profession, but Oklahoma cannot solve a labor shortage by relying on nobility alone.

Oklahoma, like the rest of the country, is facing a serious problem with public education. If we can trust the National Center for Education Statistics, student achievement is lagging, and the gap between students experiencing poverty and their peers is growing. Research shows that the quality of a child’s teacher is one of the most significant factors influencing their learning and later-life outcomes. However, teacher preparation programs are not producing enough graduates to fill the number of teaching vacancies each year. In Oklahoma, over 4,000 teachers leave the profession each year, while teacher preparation programs produce just over 1,000 graduates.

Oklahoma has taken a fragmented approach to the teacher shortage for too long. The state lacks a coherent, organized strategy to actually grow the teaching profession. Instead, the focus has been on a myriad of teacher retention strategies, alternative pathways to certification, and intermittent pay raises that have not adequately improved teacher pay relative to inflation over the past 40 years. The recent change to Oklahoma’s state minimum salary schedule has barely restored the buying power of a beginning teacher’s salary to that of the early 1990s.

As of 2021, over a quarter of Oklahoma Teachers were 55 years old or older. Oklahoma needs an infusion of inspired, young, well-educated, and trained college graduates to enter the teaching profession, as the job is simply not attractive enough to fill current needs.

One way to rebuild Oklahoma’s teacher pipeline, while also improving reading and math proficiency, would be to take the following steps: expand CareerTech programs that lead to paraprofessional credentials; allow high school students interested in teaching to transition from those programs into paid half-day tutoring roles while they complete online university coursework; provide scholarships and OSDE reimbursements to schools that employ the tutors for high-dosage reading and math support. These coordinated steps can help develop a sustainable teacher pipeline.

This system will require (1) coordination between common education, the career tech system, and higher education; (2) funding for expanded online night courses offered by Oklahoma’s regional universities; (3) increased funding for career techs to add programs leading to paraprofessional credentials; (4) increased funding for common education to provide reimbursements for tutors; and (5) scholarships for aspiring teachers. Each of these concrete steps builds the infrastructure needed to sustain the teacher pipeline.

In the 1960’s, John F. Kennedy helped inspire a generation to see public service, including teaching, as a career choice. People still aspire to find meaning in their work, but we are failing to inspire today’s students to answer the higher calling of teaching. While teachers may not teach only for money, the state cannot build a profession on sacrifice alone. Wages should reflect the vital role teachers play in strengthening the state and must be more competitive to address supply and demand.

I believe more young people will choose teaching when we provide a system that gives them the opportunity to explore a career in education, married to a career pathway from high school through college that demonstrates how much we value teachers. The old adage that you get what you pay for applies to education as well.