REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT

74
Dale Derby

Jacob Rosecrants 46

Earl Sears 11

Regina Goodwin 73

Meloyde Blancet 78
Karen Gaddis 75

Carl Newton 58
Glen Mulready 68

George Young 99

Cory Williams 34
STATEMENT ON TEACHER WALKOUT
I am in favor of teacher pay raise but what do we get for increase in salaries. They get a raise then I expect improved scores on
the National Average.
I'm a former teacher, just months removed from my 8th grade classroom at Roosevelt Middle School in SW OKC. Al
working as hard as I can to make sure we provide the funds as requested by OEA, I will stand in solidarity with our t
state employees if an acceptable deal hasn't been reached by April 2nd.

We had two different bills that would have assisted our State budget with funding issues such as teacher pay raise, transportati
care programs, and assisting state agencies that needed to be addressed. As we all know they failed!
The people have a right to be upset. We have time to develop a plan for our teachers and other programs we must address bef
walkout. If we fail once again we have no one to blame but ourselves.
The time is now to invest in Oklahoma.
Representative Earl Sears

As always, teachers have my full support and are deserving of a long overdue raise. Protests and walkouts are actions of the un
should hearing our teachers, not hurting them. A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work is in order. The budget should be fair and
on the backs of those who can least afford it. We need to increase the Gross Production Tax (GPT) to 7%, however 5% on all w
the minimum compromise. The itemized deduction cap at 17.5K, capital gains tax and restoring income tax on higher wage ea
provide recurring revenue. Others recommend a 3-6 cent gas tax at the pump, $1.00 cigarete tax and hotel/motel tax. This ap
$800 million dollar plan will provide for a $6000 teacher pay raise and a $2500 state employee pay raise. Let’s get the budget fi
ready, we must have the will to do right by the people.

I support the teachers

I voted for several bills (even though I didn't like them) that would have raised recurring revenue that could have funded a teac

I ran for office because I was so upset about our State Legislature's systematic defunding of our public education system.

We either pay now and invest in our kiddos OR we will all pay later in higher incarceration rates, lower employment rates, lowe
skilled workers so as to expand our job base, higher mental health issues and costs and greater incarceration rates.

Funding public education and working with officials to ensure our kiddos get the best possible FREE public education is the onl
progress as a state economically, ensuring we have good jobs and a strong public infrastructure for the long term.
Today, I am approaching you as a teacher, not a politician. When you spend the greatest majority of your life preparing to teach
and then using your teaching skills after you’ve finished your career as a mentor or a behavior management facilitator or whate
NEVER walk away from being a teacher. I became a politician because I saw the world through the eyes of a teacher: when I re
watched the Legislature promise my friends and colleagues raises in pay for year after year and then not provide the funding fo
raises. I heard them promise beter teaching conditions like smaller class sizes, like adequate textbooks and technology, like eve
necessities such as paper and pencils, art supples, working office machines, heat when it’s cold and air conditioning when it’s h
not supply them because “The money’s just not there!” But the money always seems to be there for more charter schools, for
prisons, for corporate welfare, for slush funds for naughty legislators, for studying school consolidation to death! Year after yea
until you just can’t take it any more and your self-respect is in shreds. And then you act, and you’re willing to try things you’ve n
considered before - like striking (But you’re a law-abiding citizen!), like abandoning your students for a day or two (But what wi
Will they go hungry? This will put a hardship on their parents. I can’t desert my students like that!) until you think of your own
deserve so much more from me - more time, more opportunities, more everything!). This is your time to act - you are ready, y
organized, you have a plan. Now, ACT ON YOUR PLAN, BE WILLING TO SUFFER, SCREW THEM TO THE WALLS, DON’T GIVE IN UN
ACHIEVED YOUR GOALS! YOU’RE TEACHERS! YOU’RE FEARLESS! And I’m standing right there beside you!
Rep. Karen Gaddis

I agree that our teachers deserve a teacher pay raise. We have been working on a pay raise for the last 2 years. The major obs
is SQ 640 which was voted in place by the voters of Oklahoma in the 1990s. SQ640 requires a 75% majority to pass a revenue
Since its inception more than 25 years ago we have not successfully passed a revenue measure. In other words it only takes 26
legislators to stop a revenue measure. Thus the impasse that we seem to be against on raising revenue for a teacher pay raise.
working and looking at all ways we can come up with funds to make a teacher pay raise. Thanks for your inquiry, I hope this he
understand beter the difficulty that we have in raising revenue in the State.

I strongly support a teacher pay raise and have demonstrated that with many past votes. I do not support a walkout.
I support our public education community. I understand their frustration and agree with their need to push this issue to the fo
glad they included staff and state employees. I support their need to walk-out. I am ready to acquire the revenue needed an
would be a great start.

I support the teachers and the demands they have listed. We have eliminated nearly $2 billion from our budget by reducing th
lowering the gross production tax, eliminating the intangible tax, and a variety of other fiscal gimmicks. I oppose all those meas
think it is unreasonable to ask to have $1.4 billion of funding restored and invested into education. I do not support regressive
with a disproportionate impact on the middle class and working poor.
SENATOR DISTRICT

Dewayne Pemberton

30

David Holt
STATEMENT ON TEACHER WALKOUT

As a retired educator, I am fully supportive of our teachers and education in general. I fully support a well deserved raise for ou
teachers. I support local control, therefore school districts that vote to allow their teachers to walk on the Capitol have the righ
do so. I do not believe a walkout is in the best interest of our young people or the state as a whole, and I hope we can come
together with a bi-partisan effort to avert that from happening. Senator Dewayne Pemberton

Though I can’t predict the impact a walkout might have on the handful of legislators that have stood in the way of common sen
solutions to our education crisis, I certainly understand the desire by teachers to take dramatic action. As a parent, my two chi
are public school kids and if a walkout comes to pass, we’ll be ready to accommodate the situation until a solution is found. A
legislator, I will continue to support the revenues that would bring a resolution to this crisis.