Earlier this week, the Oklahoma Senate proudly unveiled a comically bad proposal that would rob from the Oklahoma Teacher Retirement System to fund things like teacher pay raises, private school tax credits, and literacy initiatives.
Here are the details via KOCO:
The Oklahoma Senate has proposed a plan to allocate $254 million to education initiatives, including teacher pay raises, literacy funding, and more, by redirecting funds from the Teacher Retirement System.
State Sen. Adam Pugh, a Republican from Edmond, wants to give every teacher in Oklahoma a $2,500 pay raise as part of the investment in schools…
"Not only do we need a plan, but we have to invest in the people implementing that plan," Pugh said.
The proposal also includes funding for literacy and math coaches and raising the cap on the parental choice tax credit.
Listen, I don’t want to be too critical here. I guess it’s nice to see lawmakers doing something to address low teacher pay and our state’s low reading scores, but this proposal is dumber than a stoned kid in detention.
First of all, is it really a “teacher pay raise” when you're tapping into teachers’ own retirement to pay for it? To borrow an analogy from one of Ryan Walters’ old Trump Bibles, that would be like robbing an old Peter to pay a young Paul!
Second, since when is dipping into retirement savings to pay regular everyday expenses ever a good idea? Good luck finding an Edward Jones advisor who will advise that!