Teacher of the Year Heather Sparks Misleads Oklahomans

Oklahoma Teacher of the Year Heather Sparks wrote an opinion piece for the Oklahoman yesterday, which Oklahomans for Responsible Government found to be misleading. I agree.

I would expect someone that holds the title of Teacher of the Year to at least perform a little rudimentary research prior to asserting that ODOT "scrape[d] together $4.3 billion in new funding for state road and bridge projects."

As OFRG correctly states, that $4.3 billion is part of an 8 year plan. They do not even have the funding guaranteed yet. Additionally, if their funding is cut (which is the most likely scenario in the event that SQ 744 passes), then they lose federal matching dollars in addition to state dollars.

By the way, Oklahoma's public schools blow through that much money in about 14 months. And what do they have to show for it?