It must be nice to have $3 million stuffed in the couch cushions of your office.Because that’s essentially what Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters told us last month when he dropped a bombshell that he’d allocated $3 million to purchase Bibles. And now he wants another $3 million from lawmakers to buy even more.His dream is for every classroom to have a hard copy of the Bible on its shelves.My dream is for every classroom to have an experienced, top-notch teacher and for every child to be literate in both math and reading.Of the two, perhaps Walters’ dream is more achievable.Maybe that’s why we’re spending millions on Bibles.A Walters spokesman told Oklahoma Watch that the funding for the first $3 million purchase has come from payroll savings amid an exodus of education department staff. But it really doesn’t matter if Walters found the money buried in canning jars in the backyard of the State Department of Education, obtained private donations or pinched pennies to get it.To put it into context, that $3 million is a drop in the bucket when it comes to nearly $4 billion the Legislature allocates to fund our public schools each year.The problem is that by spending loose change on a bizarre religious crusade, we’re again ignoring the giant purplepolka- dotted elephant in the room — our terrible student achievement outcomes and the fact that we can’t get people to work in our schools.What message does this expenditure send about our education priorities?We’ve long heard excuses from our legislators that there’s no extra money to address the basic needs of our children.We’ve heard that there’s no appetite to expand free and reduced price lunches to ensure no child is learning with an empty tummy.We’ve heard that there’s no money to give school staff members a small stipend to help them pay their bills or to boost bus driver wages so that more people want to drive our children to school and athletic events.And, we’ve heard that there’s no money to increase teacher salaries.Meanwhile, in January, we hit a new record in emergency teaching certifications. That means we’re employing a growing number of people with no education experience in a subject or grade level.In most places, that would be a neon flashing sign that our teacher shortage is worsening, and we need to take it seriously at our Capitol.At the rate we’re going, we’ll have bookshelves filled with ...
