OKLAHOMA CITY — Newly-elected State Superintendent Ryan Walters presented his updated, $3.512 billion budget to Oklahoma senators on Wednesday less than a week before the start of the 2023 legislative session.
Walters inherited the budget from Joy Hofmeister. Walters made changes to that budget, including eliminating across-the-board raises for all teachers which Hofmeister had previously promised.
Walters cut $60 million from the budget and is proposing teacher raises to be determined by merit.
Lawmakers challenged Walters Wednesday on his plan for the raises.
"What might happen to a teacher's pay if their rating goes down in a future year?" said Sen. Adam Fugate (D-Oklahoma City).
Walters responded saying the additional pay for a teacher not reaching their goals could go back down to what it was before a previous raise kicked in.
"First of all, I think that what we do is we continue pay, so this is pay on top of, this is an incentive pay that continues to follow the teacher and is with the teacher," Walters said. "But if the teacher were to drop in the evaluation system, yes sir, I believe what we would expect is for the pay to go back to where it was."
The incentive model would boost teacher pay by $2,500-$10,000 with a total cost of $150 million. Hofmeister's proposal would've been to give $5,000 raises across the board, costing $309 million.
"I believe that we have to incentivize our best teachers to work with the most students who are struggling the most," Walters said. "I believe that we have to have an incentive pay plan that is rewarding teachers that is seeing growth with students that are identifying that through their performance as educators."
2 News couldn’t reach Walters’s office for an interview Wednesday but did hear from Tulsa-based State Rep. Melissa Provenzano, who sat in on the meeting. She said his budget lacks specifics.
“I’ve not seen a successful model (of merit-based teacher pay) that really stands the test of time, which is why I came with an open mind of, ‘Maybe this will work. It sounds attractive on paper.’ But the proof is in the pudding. We haven’t seen it work in other states,” Rep. Provenzano said.
Provenzano uses her past experience as a principal at Tulsa and Bixby public schools, respectively, to speak out on education issues, but said the only bi-partisan agreement was that the meeting did not go well.
“My fellow democrats and the republican peers that I have good, strong relationships with, left concerned that we didn’t have more of a clear idea,” she said.
“So does this mean (the proposal would apply to) all certified staff? If that’s the case then you’re also doing merit pay for librarians. And how do you do special education teachers? And we can’t just have one metric.”
Walters presented the budget to a state House sub-committee last week. Both chambers and Gov. Kevin Stitt will have to approve the budget before it's adopted.
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