Conservatives Remain All Talk No Dough On OHLAP

The Oklahoma conservative power structure and its puppets in the GOP-dominated legislature continue to give lip service to increasing the number of college graduates in the state, but its hollow rhetoric is never matched with real action.

This all-talk-no-action political maneuvering in the George W. Bush era of The Big Lie has left the state with a history of unfunded mandates related to education. Just look at the underfunded Oklahoma Teachers’ Retirement program. Just look at the state’s low per student spending compared to other states and its chronically low teacher salaries and benefits. Yet the conservatives continue to argue they care about education. Yeah, right.

Now it appears, the next educational funding mandate on the neoconservatives’ ideological chopping block is the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program (OHLAP), which gives needy students free public college tuition if they meet strict grade and class requirements. The program has been so successful it is long past time the state gives it permanent funding. News reports say 15,000 students are benefiting from the program this year.

This is a good thing. The state needs to increase the number of its college graduates to grow the economy and improve its overall quality of life. Many of the students involved in the program would probably never get a college education if they did not get help.

Gov. Brad Henry, who recently won reelection in a landslide victory over Ernest Istook and who thus has much political capital to spend, has proposed a simple but effective way to solve the program: Devote 1.25 percent of state income tax revenue to the program.

But the state GOP empire and its propaganda ministry, The Daily Oklahoman, are balking at this solution because they want to eliminate the state’s income tax to ensure rich people make more money. The money to operate the government’s functions here will have to come from somewhere. Who do you think will end up paying more in other taxes, fees, and college tuition, if the GOP has its way: Rich people or middle class people?

In a recent editorial (“Promise keepers: OHLAP needs more funding ideas,” January 29, 2007), The Oklahoman pointed out state Rep. Ken Miller, pictured above, an Edmond Republican who is a vice chairmen of the House Appropriation and Budget committee, makes a “valid point” when he criticizes Henry’s proposal because it is tied to a tax some people want to eliminate.

But Henry’s proposal solves the issue right now on real terms. It should be adopted because, again, it solves an unfunded educational mandate. The state should deal with the state income tax issue separately. As usual, the GOP and the state’s power brokers are taking a stand against public education as they talk as if they support education. It is the same old ruse.