Cannaday: 'Watch the cuts'
Local legislator wary of deregulation, privitization

By Doug Russell, News Editor

Jan. 21 — One of the biggest challenges facing members of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee, as well as the Education Committee, will be to ensure that any adjustments they have to make in funding Oklahoma schools don’t cut into the quality of education those schools provide.

That’s the word from state Rep. Ed Cannaday, a retired educator and a Porum Democrat who belongs to both committees.

Schools across the state are experiencing major difficulties as expected state funding continues to be cut, shutting some programs down completely, absorbing staff reductions and doing other things to save money. Some legislators are proposing deregulating certain things, such as class size, in an effort to save money. At present, elementary schools are not allowed to have more than 20 students in a class unless they have a teacher’s aide in the same classroom.

Proponents of the smaller class sizes say that this helps students by allowing more individual instruction per student. Opponents don’t disagree that more individual instruction can be helpful, but point out that mandating small class sizes puts an increased demand on schools to fund teachers, aides, or both.

In May, Gov. Brad Henry vetoed a Senate bill that would have allowed schools to disregard the class size mandates, saying the bill would have effectively ended decades of education reform.

In addition to the smaller class sizes, the bill would have weakened a teacher’s right to a due process hearing and would also have endangered such programs as full-day kindergarten and school librarians, Henry said.

The Oklahoma State School Boards Association supported the bill, while the Oklahoma Education Association opposed it.

Class size is an issue on the table again this legislative session, as lawmakers try to find ways to cut funding without cutting services, Cannaday said. “One proposal to possibly increase class sizes makes the increase subject to approval by not only the board and the administrator, but the school employees themselves,” he said. “One of our major challenges will be in what do we want to deregulate.”

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