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The Ballad of Oklahoma Education Funding

Matt Trotter
/
KWGS

It's been decades since Woody Guthrie wrote a protest song, but his influence continues to reach people today — people like former teacher Robertson Brown, who taught art and art history for 14 years in Broken Arrow public schools.

A big Guthrie fan, Brown was a on a Tulsa Public Schools bus to the state capitol Monday when the inspiration for a song struck.

"There's a song called 'The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd.' It has a really neat melody, and I just thought it kind of fit," Brown said. "We maybe messed with it for an hour.

"I'm not looking for a record deal or anything. No, I just play for fun. Just for fun.

Brown didn't have a title for the song after the rally Monday, but he sang it on the east steps of the capitol, his wife Jennifer holding the lyrics he jotted down so he could play the guitar.

Well, come gather 'round me teachers, a story I will tell Of public education in the land we love so well Well, you see it's underfunded, you must do more with less Guess they make more building prisons or printing bogus tests You can own a Thunder franchise, you can have the BOK Without good public schools, well no one's gonna stay So if you care about the future, this isn't red or blue It's for the kids of Oklahoma, it's the only thing to do Well, before my song is finished, I've got one more thing to say 49th in this great nation will never be OK.

Brown thinks the song was well suited for the education funding rally that thousands of teachers, parents and students attended.

"And it's kind of an insider song for teachers, like the 'bogus test' thing and 'do more with less,'" Brown said. "And that's kind of the reason why I got — sad to say, I'm a painting contractor, and I could walk out of a class and make more money the next day."

It's a big difference from when the lanky Pennsylvania steel town native first came to Oklahoma.

"All the public schools in Tulsa were just light years ahead of where I went to school," Brown said. "I mean, they were great schools, and I've just watched that kind of deteriorate."

And though Brown still loves Oklahoma enough to stay, he's ready to see state leaders pull the education system out of its current next-to-worst ranking.

"The cornerstone of our democracy is public education. I absolutely believe that. They're just gutting it here, it's like they just don't quite get it," Brown said. "You know, it's very shortsighted; in the long haul, you've got to have educated people if you want to have a republic."

It's up to lawmakers to fix Oklahoma's public schools, but thousands of people like Rob Brown are going to be watching to make sure they do.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.