Skip to main content

Sandy Garrett has the right idea

State School superintendent Sandy Garrett’s proposal to expand the school day by an hour and the school year by five days is, simply put, a good idea.

Actually, it’s a really good idea.

With a national average of 180 school days and a 6.5-hour day, Oklahoma’s 175-day school year and its 6-hour school day is proof we’re far behind the curve.

But, thankfully, Garrett wants to change that.

She talks of the need for all Oklahoma students to be able to compete on a global scale. She talks about how students need to be educated to solve problems which have arisen yet, using technology which hasn’t been developed.

She’s right.

Just think back 30 years — eight track tapes were the vogue (there were no compact discs) and everyone had a record player. Cable television was in its infancy and the personal computer was still years away.

DVDs hadn’t been invented yet.

There was no such thing as digital photography.

Yet, somehow all these things were developed and, today, are part of our world.

Thanks to an educated population.

Garrett is right when she talks about the need for students to be in class longer and she’s right when she talks about the need to remove interruptions from those classrooms.

As the spouse of a public school teacher — and a former substitute teacher myself — I am well aware of daily problems faced by our state’s school teachers.

And things need to change.

But Garrett may be the voice in the wilderness.

Because it will take a great deal of legislative courage to do what she’s asking to do.

Courage that most of our state lawmakers don’t have.

Democrats and Republicans alike will give Garrett’s proposal lip service, but I predict that few will really do anything to adopt the idea.

Already one House member is saying the longer year proposal is a bad idea and Moore Republican Paul Wesselhoft is calling for a 15-day expansion instead of five.

Of course, neither proposal came out until after Garrett spoke last week.

And while I’m not going to question the motives of either lawmaker at this point, both proposals give me reason for concern.

It reminds me of 1990 — then, lawmakers struggled for months with a mammoth education reform package known as House Bill 1017.

The wrangling, political intrigue and sanctimony seemed to go on forever.

The schools, the teachers and the kids suffered.

Finally, the bill passed.

But shortly thereafter, a group of short-sighted activists circulated an initiative petition, misled the voters and rammed State Question 640 down the public’s throat.

Since then our secondary education system has struggled with inadequate funding. And we sent a message to the rest of the world that any innovative thinking was going to be greeted with public disdain.

Sure, today, you’ll hear about how state lawmakers have passed record school budgets.

But it’s not working.

Instead of working with schools, lawmakers issue endless press releases blaming teachers and teacher’s unions.

Funny thing, teachers are the closest to the problem.

They are in the class.

They know the students.

They know the issues.

And I tend to believe them over some of the “public servants” we have at 23rd and Lincoln.

So I’m pleased that Sandy Garrett raised the issue.

I applaud her for doing it.

I just hope state lawmakers will have the courage to act.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-pastor suing Moore's First Baptist Church

MOORE — A former official with Moore’s First Baptist Church is suing the church for his termination, and for “spreading false rumors about his mental health throughout the community,” court documents show. Jimmie D. Lady, the church’s associate pastor, filed the suit in Cleveland County District Court last week seeking $10,000 in actual damages and $10,000 in punitive damages for “severe emotional distress and mental anguish as a result of statements made about him when his job was terminated.” Lady’s attorney, Andrew Hicks of Houston, claimed church officials terminated Lady for being bi-polar, then spread rumors about Lady in the community. “Although a man of God, Dr. Lady cannot ignore the dramatic, adverse effects these untrue and unfair accusations have had on him and his family,” Hicks said. “First Baptist Moore’s efforts to tarnish Dr. Lady’s reputation have threatened his family’s livelihood. Through this suit, we hope to restore Dr. Lady’s good name.” Church officials denied...

Dear Daniel...about that graduation

Dear Daniel: By the time you read this, your graduation ceremony will be over. You and 500 or so of your friends have reached the first big intersection on that road we call life. Congratulations. As I watched you sit at the Ford Center last Thursday, I couldn’t help but remember your childhood. Granted, you are not my son, but instead, you’re the son of my closest friend. And, therefore, you are family. You were only 3 months old with I met your father. We both went to work for the Oklahoma Legislature and both found ourselves stuffed into this tiny office with no windows and very little space. Your dad had been there, maybe two days, at the most, when he told me he was going to be taking several weeks off. I wasn’t too happy about that. I’d started a week before he did and I didn’t understand why he was so special. I remember cussing him and pretty much acting like schmuck. Later, when he returned, he told me how his newborn son had to have heart surgery and that’s why he wasn’t at ...

Of Jazz and Rain

It’s dark. The neon reflects in the rain-slicked streets. Around me, a million cars seek a path known only to them. Inside my car it’s quiet. The steady hum of the tires on the pavement and the slow, fluid sounds of Dave Brubeck’s Take Five fill the void. Somehow, for me, that piece of music sounds like rain. The saxaphone splashes notes against the windshield like so many raindrops. The sun has long since faded for the day. For the week, maybe. Above me, the sky hangs low, moist and soft and gray. Colors are more vivid — the red dirt, so prevelent here in Oklahoma, has been washed way. Brubeck continues. In my mind I see a single man, wrapped in a dark overcoat, moving quietly through the rain-soaked street. I change lanes and merge smoothly toward the downtown exit. Near Broadway and 23th Street the aroma of newly baked bread hangs heavy in the moist air. It swirls and blends with the smell of my large coffee, and takes my mind places on this late, wet night that I haven’t visited in...