Gross Educational Negligence?

Tulsa World columnist Guerin Emig is concerned about "Oklahoma’s gross educational negligence, which threatens to bleed teachers and students to death."

Negligence? One hopes Mr. Emig will dig deeper. He will likely be surprised to discover that:

• Oklahoma's public school revenues are higher than ever.
• Even when adjusted for inflation, Tulsa Public Schools per-student spending in 2016 ($12,180) is only down slightly from a decade ago ($12,261).
• Using data that the Oklahoma State Department of Education reports to the U.S. Department of Education, economist Benjamin Scafidi points out that between 1993 and 2014, TPS enrollment decreased by 3 percent and the number of teachers decreased by 4 percent—but non-teaching staff increased by 147 percent.
• TPS employs more non-teachers (3,258) than teachers (2,377).
• TPS employs 22 individuals with salaries in excess of $100,000—several of whom have the job title “executive assistant.”