Possibility of adding five days to school year without raising teacher salaries has Capitol phones ringing off the hook

By Jennifer Mock
Published: July 26, 2007

House and Senate Republican leaders received about 150 phone calls Wednesday urging them to not support merit pay increases or additional days added to the school year without first bringing teacher salaries up to the regional average.
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Roy Bishop, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, said he and more than 200 of the group's members are in Tulsa this week at a summer leadership conference and are making the calls.

At the end of the last legislative session, House Speaker Lance Cargill and Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn Coffee, both Republicans, said they would not consider any future teacher pay increases without merit factoring into the decision. Cargill has said he supports higher teacher salaries, but only for Oklahoma's best teachers.

Earlier this month, state schools Superintendent Sandy Garrett, a Democrat, requested five days be added to the school year and an additional hour tacked onto the school day to help Oklahoma students better compete in a global market.

Bishop said he and his teacher members are opposed to both proposals unless they are tied to a salary increase for all teachers. The teachers making the calls were provided with a script from the organization but were also urged to use their own wording if they wanted. The calls are an effective way to tell lawmakers a significant number of teachers are opposed to the proposals, Bishop said.

"They have made their intentions clear,” he said. "We want to make sure we have our say.”

Response
Damon Gardenhire, spokesman for Cargill, criticized the teachers making the calls for being against an idea before it has even been thoroughly discussed. The House plans to hold an interim study this summer to look at the feasibility of adopting a merit pay salary model in Oklahoma, and Cargill welcomes all ideas in the study, Gardenhire said.

"This demonstrates that the teachers' union is opposed to good reforms regardless if they come from Democrats or Republicans,” he said. "It reflects the tendency of the teachers' union to protect the stagnate status quo instead of trying to move our children's' future forward.”

Sen. Mike Morgan, the co-president pro tempore and a Democrat, had not received any calls as of Wednesday afternoon.

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Comments

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Yeah, I don't have a problem with extra days as long as a pay raise goes with it and testing is given at the end of the school year, not a month and a half before school ends. Merit pay gets my hackles up. I agree we should reward good teachers, but there is no fair way to do it becuase we all teach different types of kids and they always want to base it on test scores. What about elective teachers and untested subjects? They don't even get a chance.
Carrie, Norman - Jul 31, 2007 10:43 PM
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Gee, Carrie, it sounds like those kids could really benefit from an extra hour per day and five additional days per school year.
MartzMimic, Oklahoma City - Jul 31, 2007 9:58 AM
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I urge the legislators to just spend one day trying to teach students in a low income/low motivation school. Welcome to reality! Some of Oklahoma's BEST TEACHERS choose to teach in these schools, doing the best they can with these students who have unsupportive home lives that devalue education. Merit pay will never recognize these teachers because their students will never be able to compete with students who have the support and benifits of some of Oklahoma's "better" (i.e. affluent, two parent family) districts. Merit pay will only cause good teachers to leave low income districts for more affluent schools. Additionaly, anyone who thinks that a teacher is ever "only there to get their paychecks" must be dreaming. There are plenty of other jobs with much less stress and high paychecks that we could choose. We chose to teach becuase it is what we love to do.
Carrie, Norman - Jul 30, 2007 2:36 AM
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Our really GOOD TEACHERS will see that this might improve the quality of our graduates in Oklahoma. A few extra days and hours might also be good for the teahers who are only there to get their paychecks.
Janice, Moore - Jul 27, 2007 8:25 AM
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