Isaac Julian

5554 Cowboy Circle

Stillwater, OK 74075

Governor Kevin Stitt

2300 N. Lincoln Blvd
Oklahoma City, OK 73105

March 25, 2019

Dear Governor Stitt,

I have some concerns regarding the state of our education system, and I hope that you will take
them into consideration. Did you know that the average Oklahoma teacher’s salary is the lowest
in the region? When it comes to the education of future generations, do you not think it crucial
that the teachers of Oklahoma be paid a fair and competitive wage? From what research I have
done, I have found that the retention rate of Oklahoma teachers is in dire need of improvement.
According to the Oklahoma Education Coalitions website, more Oklahoma teachers left the
profession than joined it between the years of 2010-2015. Nearly 11 out of 100 teachers leave
the state or profession each year, and according to Matt Barnum’s article “Why Teacher Pay
Matters: Recruitment and Retention Can Improve Results”, the secondary reason for teachers
leaving their posts have to do with their compensation. That is startling information, don’t you
agree? With our education system ranking at 48th in the nation, as stated in the article by Scott
Montgomery with Education Week, is there any policies that can be put into place to help remedy
this? In this letter, I hope to provide you with sufficient enough information that may help you
see the importance this matter has to me and begin to see ways in which you could make change
to the education system for the betterment of both educators and students alike.

During my adolescent years going through school, I had had several teachers that would often
buy school supplies with their own money just so that we could do cool projects that would catch
our interest in a certain subject, but the school no longer had money for some of them. I
remember going up to one of my teachers one day and asking what was bothering her as she
looked extremely stressed, and I remember her telling me that the schools art budget did not have
enough to cover the next art project and that she was busy trying to budget on how she would
cover the expenses so that we would be fine. At the time I did not put much stock into it. I had
always thought that teachers were paid well enough that they were able to go out of their way
like this. I was terribly mistaken. These teachers would often go out of their way just to make
sure that students stayed interested enough in school so we wouldn’t drop out.

Over the last decade or so, the teacher to student ratio has become more and more stretched.
Many teachers are taking in more and more students per class than ever before with many taking
in over 30 per class. That is a large amount of responsibility to have on one person. The
Oklahoma Education Coalition states that we are in a steady incline in student enrollment from
year to year; however, they imply that the teacher retention rate is declining. As we continue to
decline in teacher retention and incline in student enrollment, it is safe to assume that the
teachers that stay are having more and more students added to their responsibility. This allows
for less time for each student to get any help that they need as the teacher is busy attending to the
rest of the class. This can lead to lower test scores and cause more students to become less
interested in their subjects. When I was unable to get the help that I needed in order to
understand certain material during school, I was more prone to act out and not do well in class.

In my years following high school, I have experienced what it was like to be paid a fair wage,
and because I felt that I was being paid fairly, I was more willing to put more effort into
everything I did and I did so happily. The thought of working for anything less than what I made
there, elsewhere, was impossible. I would not feel valued, and therefore my work performance
would mirror that. You could say that this ties into the old saying, “You get what you pay for”,
where the more money you invest into someone or something, the bigger and better the possible
outcome will be. So why are we not investing more into our children’s futures? According to
The Oklahoma Education Coalition, Oklahoma would have to invest well over a billion more
dollars annually in per-student spending to reach the regional average amongst our neighboring
states. That translates out to me that we have a bit of catching up to do, don’t you agree?

The solution I propose is that of the 75% of tax revenue that is generated from Marijuana sales,
that 25% is distributed amongst Oklahoma teachers as a year-end bonus. The remaining 50%
would have to be split between hiring more teachers’ aides that will help balance out the student
to teacher ratio a little bit better, bringing back some of the extracurricular trade type courses to
all schools to keep young minds interested and engaged, and school supplies, like new desks,
school repairs, updating the library, anything that would help create a better atmosphere for our
kids to learn in. This way we do not have to do budget cuts elsewhere to make this happen, and
we are actively doing something to battle the decreasing retention rate of teachers, as well as
giving the kids of tomorrow a better learning experience, boosting overall morale. According to
Connor Hansen with Fox 25 news, The Oklahoma Tax Commission collected more than
$300,000 in tax revenue from the 7% Marijuana tax in just January alone. That is enough to
cover a $5,000 raise for up to 60 teachers! Just imagine where our education ranking could be at
a year from now if we were to go with my proposal. If the amount of people that get their
medical marijuana cards continues to increase at the rate it has been, we could easily reach our
goal. Who knows, we may even do so well that other states will take notice and begin to
improve on their education system as well. Wouldn’t that be great? It would be nice to start a
chain reaction like that, where the progress of one, becomes the progress of many.
So, Governor Stitt, what are your views on this matter? Do you believe that we should be
investing more into the future generation’s education? If so, do you think my proposal has given
you viable enough information to think about? If in the off chance that you do not believe there
to be any problem in our current education system, would you be willing to get back with me as
to why you feel that way? I really would like to see Oklahoma get out of the bottom ten ranking
and leap closer to the top 25. If after reading this letter you feel like this is a matter looking into,
I would be glad to offer assistance wherever I can. Thank you, Mr. Stitt, for taking the time to
read my letter, and I look forward to hearing what your thoughts are on this matter. I hope that
you and yours have a blessed day.

Sincerely,

Isaac Julian
Works Cited
Barnum, Matt. The 74. 22 August 2016. <https://www.the74million.org/article/why-teacher-pay-
matters-recruitment-and-retention-can-improve-results/>.

Hansen, Connor. Fox 25 news. 13 February 2019. <https://okcfox.com/news/local/oklahoma-reaches-

more-than-300000-in-tax-revenue-from-medical-marijuana>.

Scott Montgomery. "Education Week." 17 January 2018.

<https://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/quality-counts-2018-state-grades/highlight-
reports/2018/01/17/oklahoma.html>.

The Facts About Oklahoma Education. March 2019. <https://www.okedcoalition.org/get-the-

facts.html>.