You Really Ought To Give Iowa A Try

Statue of Meredith “Music Man” Wilson, Mason City, IA, ID’d by Tom Spencer

In a May 22, 2018 post Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs contributor Mike Brake extolls the virtues of our southern neighbors and oozes Texas Envy  through commentary about the Fort Worth school district’s billboards inviting Oklahoma teachers to cross the Red River and sign up.  He includes comments from a Fort Worth Schools spokesman as support for frequent OCPA talking points about which I’ll now comment.

Brake reports Fort Worth focuses on teacher pay, making that a priority.  The events in Oklahoma this past legislative session should make it clear that Oklahoma districts, if the resources were available, want to do the same, but Brake is not convinced.  He demonstrates Texas’ priority by citing this 2016-17 data from TXsmartschools.org to show that 61% of their $50.8 billion in education dollars go to instruction:

He compares that 61% to the 53.7% cited by the Oklahoma Office of Educational Quality and Accountability for 2015-2016.  The clear message is that if Oklahoma school districts just cared as much about putting dollars in the classroom, our teachers would be paid more.  Here’s the OEQA chart:

But interstate data comparisons are problematic for many reasons that a real research and policy organization would take care to point out.  I looked for low hanging fruit that might narrow the gap and can only document $64 million of capital (function 4000) expenditures included in the OEQA calculation that should be removed for comparability which increases Oklahoma’s percentage to 54.4%.  I’m confident further inquiry would turn up other discrepancies that make Brake’s comparison useless because data for both states, compiled using the same methodology, from the National Center for Education Statistics tells a very different story, the most recent year being 2013-14.  Here it is:

The calculations in the margin are mine, showing Instruction Expenditures as a percentage both of Total Current Expenditures for which the Texas-Oklahoma gap narrows from 7.3% down to 3.7% and almost disappears to 0.5% using Total Expenditures—must be that Friday Night Lights stadiums in Texas put Catoosa press boxes and Owasso turf to shame (the primary difference between Current and All is capital expenditures, you know–classrooms).

So here’s the real difference, with a simple calculation to illustrate.  The most recent (2013-14) Oklahoma State Department of Education Annual Report shows Oklahoma districts employ just over 52,000 certified staff.  Funding an average raise of about $6,100, which Mr. Brake says would put Oklahoma pretty close to Texas’ average teacher salary, costs (with 17% for employer burdens) about $370 million.  If at least 85% of that goes to Instruction it raises Oklahoma’s percentage of the Total Current Expenditures using NCES data to 58.1%, essentially even with Texas.

See the game here, the classic chicken or egg.  “Teacher salaries would be higher in Oklahoma if only we prioritized Instruction”; or is it “Adequately funding teacher salaries in Oklahoma is the right way to increase spending on Instruction.”  Translated, our teacher salaries are low because our teacher salaries are low.

Next Brake’s Texas Envy really kicks in arguing that if only Oklahoma relied more on property taxes like Texas does then we too could have Texas sized teacher pay.  Here’s how he says it:

“If Oklahoma schools received the same dollar amount in both state and federal funds—and if local areas increased their share of support to K-12 public schools (from 42 percent to 49 percent) to match the share local areas contribute in Texas—it would result in an additional $824 million in support for local schools.”

Besides Texas Envy he doesn’t explain why this would be an improvement (other than a nod to stability with not a word about inequity).  My response, as the song lyrics go, “You really ought to give Iowa a try.”  Their teacher salaries are higher even than Texas salaries and they get there with 51.7% coming from state revenues.  Using Brake’s logic all we’ve got to do is keep our federal and local revenues the same and push our state share a percent higher than Iowa’s and we gain the same $824 million.  The algebra is simple, though it apparently impresses Brake.  Either way what he proposes is raising taxes by $824 million.

Then he doubles down on his discovery that increasing the share of spending that goes to Instruction is also a way to increase teacher pay and lower class size by advocating a 65% requirement.  Such a simple statement, devoid of any definitions or specifics, is just bluster and adds little to the conversation.  I explained why such simplicity doesn’t cut it in How Do I Leap The (60% that is)? Let Me Count The Ways .

He advocates school district consolidation with which I have no quarrel because I suspect it can improve opportunities for students; I doubt it will fund teacher pay raises.  Where’s the OCPA’s consolidation proposal?

After this, salivating envy, he lauds a series of statements by the Fort Worth spokesman:

Texas, with its anti-union traditions, doesn’t permit school employees to bargain collectively.  Though if increasing teacher compensation is the goal, I suspect teacher pay is highest in states where private sector unions are the strongest.

Texas has an elementary class size requirement of 22.  Is Brake aware that Oklahoma law, written almost 30 years ago ( House Bill 1017 25th Anniversary  and Once Upon A Time ), requires 20, but Oklahoma funding, decimated by OCPA style state finance, doesn’t support it ( see this on my friend Rick Cobb’s blog:  https://okeducationtruths.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/remembering-hb-1017/  ).

And, of course, the real source of Texas Envy—it has no income tax.  Brake clearly interjected that thought into the conversation and opines that our Okie going south would “get an extra 5% raise” because there is no income tax.  This, despite the fact that the Oklahoma income tax on $52,000, single, standard deduction, one exemption is $2,045 which is 3.9%, not 5—but I haven’t read an OCPA Limited Thinker yet who really makes facts a priority.  Also our fleeing teacher will need to prepare for property taxes that are double the rate in Oklahoma.

It’s a good thing that Brake calls attention to the Fort Worth billboards; hopefully the good work of our legislature is sustained and the $52,000 seems less attractive to Oklahoma teachers.  It’s a bad thing though that Brake, on behalf of a supposed “research and policy” organization that is financed by tax exempt donations, continues to put out poorly researched misinformation.  It is fine for the OCPA to advocate for greater reliance on property taxes, even with local options as Texas appears to have, but to do so repeatedly with no mention of the vast inequities in property tax valuations among school districts or the years of litigation that have embroiled Texas school finance over those inequities, is simply not informed or honest work.

One more good thing, maybe having seen the TXsmartschools.org data they will reform their own data tool and get rid of their double counting and inflated numbers.

As always lunch is on me for the first to ID the photo location.