© 2024 Public Radio Tulsa
800 South Tucker Drive
Tulsa, OK 74104
(918) 631-2577

A listener-supported service of The University of Tulsa
classical 88.7 | public radio 89.5
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

State Senator Proposes $10,000 Raise over Four Years for Oklahoma Teachers

Oklahoma lawmakers were told not to propose teacher pay raises without a plan to fund them.

State Senator David Holt wants to raise teacher pay $10-thousand dollars over four years, and he’s filed a dozen bills with funding ideas.

"Things I've proposed include the expansion of the applicability of the sales tax, include looking at nonappropriated agencies and what they pay to the state," Holt said. "It includes tax credits. It includes apportioning new revenue growth to teacher pay."

Other funding proposals include slashing the number of superintendents by 60 percent and exempting teachers from state income tax.

"If you pass them all, you would have over $1 billion worth of revenue to fund this teacher pay raise. You don't need that much money. You probably only need about $550 million," Holt said. "What I've tried to produce is a menu of options that my colleagues can choose from to try and put a teacher pay raise into action this year."

Holt’s plan would give 42,000 teachers a $1,000 raise this year and $3,000 raises each of the next three years.

"We obviously have some other important issues on our plate, including the budget crisis, but I still think that our highest priority this legislature has to be teacher pay because we have let it go on too long," Holt said. "We cannot have the future for our state that we want if we do not have competitive teacher pay."

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.