Tulsa-Area Community Leaders Urge Legislature To Fund Education

A coalition of community leaders and school districts met to ask the legislature to do something now to fix the crisis in education funding.

The Tulsa Chamber of Commerce and education advocacy group Impact Tulsa report a tremendous economic impact of cutting jobs at school - both in immediate salaries and long-term educational results.

They're coming forward as a group demanding the legislature take action to come up with a solution to roll back the expected cuts.

They're upset about the news that districts in Tulsa county have cut 330 teachers, and 337 other support jobs like teaching assistants and librarians.

5/3/2016 Related Story: TPS Approves Cuts, Eliminating 142 Teaching Positions

"It's a direct economic issue because of the number of jobs, but it's also an issue for businesses like Mill Creek who are concerned about workforce needs in 
the future," said Jeff Dunn, Mill Creek Lumber and Tulsa Chamber of Commerce. 

The business and education leaders said today they recognized it would take political courage to roll back tax exemptions, or raise taxes, but speaking as a group - they didn't have one solution they're after - except to get more money put into education.