I have been in a meeting at the Oklahoma Science and Math school which is funded by OKLAHOMA TAX PAYERS. Some of the parents came to discuss what extracurricular activities their chosen ones were going to get to do at this school on the weekends and they wanted the school to come up with some of the cost for weekend free time so their kids could go to events. If any other school had weekend events, PARENTS and/or STUDENTS must pay for the cost of events, yet because Oklahoma Science and Math parents were so used to having the OKLAHOMA TAXPAYERS (also known as Oklahoma state governemt) pick up the tab for room and board for nine months and allowing the school's teachers and staff to also drive them around in state funded automobiles on the weekends along with being cared for 24/7 on Saturdays and Sundays too, this is another example of a WASTE OF OKLAHOMA TAX PAYER MONEY! This school is an excellent specially funded school, but Oklahoma Tax Payers should not be paying for room and board for these students that are hand picked through an exhaustive search for the ones the adminstration committee feels deserve to attend. What Oklahoma public school could not benefit if they had teachers with the high caliber training that these kids at the Oklahoma Science and Math school get. These kids are juniors and seniors in high school.

TULSA PUBLIC SCHOOLS SHOULD NOT BE ASKING FOR MORE MONEY. Building a building or throwing money at the system does not make a better student. What people should be complaining about is having higher standards. PARENTS should sign an agreement they will be an equal
partner in helping their child SUCCEEED! When
the child comes home, the parent should take equal responsibility that homework gets done. Have the parents sign the homework papers in elementary and middle schools. When the school asks for parents to come in for parent/teacher conference, parents should come!
Many of the high-risk low producing test
score schools having poor parent involvement. They don't make sure homework is done. They don't have a high attendance with parent/teacher involvement. They don't make sure their kids are coming to school well fed with proper sleep.
Many depend on the government to feed their child. How in the world did old-timers ever get
along on a fraction of what people used to get
paid without the government providing breakfast and lunch to the ones in need? Yes, the teachers back then were allowed to give a guick swat and usually down right in front of the class for all to see! So students a long time ago shut their mouths and behaved so they would not have to go through such embarrassment. Now Tulsa World Ken Neal write a swat is cruelty! Did his parents never give him a swat for disobeying a rule of conduct? Schools are limited by what they can do to make the undisciplined kids (and there are a bundle of them these days) shut their mouths when the teacher is talking, not bully others and keep their hands to themselves, not steal other students belongings.
At HOLLAND HALL, students don't even have to have locks on their personal lockers! Imagine that!
PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY is EXPECTED from students that go to HOLLAND HALL. Public schools don't force these
low income parents to do their own part.
Special needs parents -- are they accountable to see their own child do the very best they can to help their child grow in education at the high price taxpayers are paying for their
child's education? AGAIN -- NO! Do many special ed. classrooms have special needs kids just doing nothing and some sitting all by themselves in a room where they are just being
cared for like a babysitting at $12,000 or $13,000 a year to taxpayers? I think if you had videos put in all special need classrooms, you would find there is a lot of down time where students are not being constantly taught life skills and they are just resting or playing. Is that education that OKLAHOMA TAXPAYERS should be forced to pay for?
Do public schools allow children to come to school and allow kids to use foul language?
I had a friend that went through college and got her education degree. She could not wait to teach in elementary school. She was assigned to a Tulsa public elementary school. She taught one year only because she said the kids were
allowed to be disrespectful to the majority of all the teachers at the school and their language (cursing) was awful, and no one forced the
parents to be accountable for their child's
actions. Usually if you meet the parents, you will understand exactly why their child is allowed to act in the manner they do in public school. MAKE THE PARENTS BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR CHILD'S HOMEWORK AND CONDUCT.

Why do good teachers like to teach in private schools? Higher standards! Accountability!
Parents are interested and take an interest for their child to succeed! Many do sacrific. You will see in one of the free magazines this week
the JOHN 3:16 mission ministry Rev. Steve and his son have a good story to tell. The son said he attended Holland Hall. Why not public? You can ask him.

The Oklahoma State Senate constantly insists the
Oklahoma Science and Math kids go free. OKLAHOMA PEOPLE SHOULD WRITE TO THEIR STATE SENATORS and district reps to make their voice heard. OSSM should be termed a PRIVATE SCHOOL WHERE THE PARENTS PAY THE ENTIRE COST! If they allow a special school such as the Oklahoma Science and Math to have
the very best in teachers, the very best in
discipline, the very best in hands-on interactive
learning, then the same standards should apply to
all Oklahoma public schools.

I personally have taught all of my children to
read before they entered K-5.
By taking an active interest in your child's education, public schools can be succcessful.

Dooming your children to a life of poverty has nothing to do about voting for a newer school or many of the other things where millions of dollars are spent for public education votes.

The people on the front page of the T.W. newspaper today want to know where GOVERNMENT FUNDED PROGRAMS with TAXPAYER MONEY can help Hurricane evacuees. ARE TAXPAYERS RESPONSIBLE TO HELP THEM? NO! Should they be thankful for every charity organization that tries their best to help them? Yes! Are they more than capable of looking for a job themselves? Are there people that don't have family living nearby that have survival skills when life turns an UNEXPECTED twist of fate? Yes! Are there churches and organizations that give out free food/(all kinds of other help too) for every meal downtown? Yes! Hurricane Andrew was one of the worst hurricanes in Florida, yet there was not this mass federal government spending to make sure people were financially provided for after the hurricane was over. Many in Hurricane Andrew had to find other shelter and jobs and relocate when there was nothing left of their homes from total devastation. We can apply the same non-sense to our public school SPENDERS THAT
SNOWBALL all kinds of votes into one. That's how are wonderful Arena got voted for. The almost $200 million dollar arena never would have passed if it was a vote all by itself and those that decides on how to word the votes know that. Is there any way we can start voting on
issues one by one in public education and other votes for the City of Tulsa and for Oklahoma poll votes?

EXAMPLE:(have we ever approved of this as a single vote issue?)
Oklahoma State Regents approve of spending Oklahoma taxpayer money AND I DO MEAN A LOT OF MONEY on allowing Oklahoma School of Science and Math kids to be treated "SPECIAL". Why is this A WASTE IF TAXPAYER MONEY AND UNFAIR TO OTHERS?
There are many in Oklahoma that are chosen as
National Merit Finalists that attend regular public high schools all over Oklahoma. Not all of these students make straight A's that are accepted to the Oklahoma School of Science and Math during their stay there or when they give their official transcript. Is it fair to knock
out the high school students that actually do have a 4.0 grade point average? Is it fair only
this school gets to hand pick their students? Hand pick the discipline/tolerance rules?

SANDY GARRETT APPROVES OF THE OKLAHOMA SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND MATH where these kids get free room/board/tuition. DOES SHE SPEAK OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF HER MOUTH? SHE THINKS ALL PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS SHOULD BE TREATED FAIRLY?

How many successful people have you met that lived in what government would call poverty with very little income that their parents made with very little material things in life, yet because of their DETERMINATION, HARD WORK AND DESIRE TO MAKE A BETTER LIFE FOR THEMSELF they made it to the top!

Having city councilors that understand their own needs in districts the city councilors actually live in too are also important.

Susan, I have a serious suggestion:

Quit typing posts in all capitals, and make your comments more succinct.

It's bad form to have a comment that's longer than Bates' initial post. His are long enough as it is. ;-)

Shortly after Siloam Springs rejected a millage increase, the school administration announced that it was cancelling the purchase of new computers and instead upgrading the existing ones. So until they were deprived of their money fix, they didn't even consider buying some friggin' RAM to get almost as good results at a fraction of the cost.

Bad bureaucrats! Bad, bad bureaucrats!

And of course, a "quality education" "for the children" requires a specially designed building on the most expensive real estate in town, and lots and lots of layers of administrative overhead.

Transporting people to a central processing facility, on the factory model, is stupid, when information is the cheapest thing there is to transport.