Senate Democrats respond to GOP education announcement

OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate Democratic Leader Julia Kirt, Assistant Leader Carri Hicks, and Sen. Mark Mann made the following remarks after Senate Republicans announced their education proposal at the Capitol on Tuesday. 

“It’s good to see the majority party prioritize reading, teacher salaries, and getting more teachers in the pipeline, but these are disjointed initiatives, not a long-term plan for student success.”– Senate Democratic Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City. 

“This package raises the amount of public dollars going to the private school voucher scheme to $275 million dollars, and we know the vast majority of that is going to wealthy people that already had their kids in private school anyway. Public dollars belong in public schools with public transparency and legislative oversight.” – Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City.

“The Republican proposal would be paid for by lowering the state’s investment in the Teachers’ Retirement System. We are confident this will put a COLA for retired educators at risk.” – Sen. Mark Mann, D-Oklahoma City.

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For more information, contact: 
Sen. Julia Kirt at 405-521-5636 or Julia.Kirt@oksenate.gov 
Sen. Carri Hicks at 405-521-5543 or Carri.Hicks@oksenate.gov
Sen. Mark Mann at 405-590-4471 or Mark.Mann@oksenate.gov