Statement by Senator Stratton Taylor
Senate President Pro Tempore

"This may be Governor Keating's idea of a Christmas present to Oklahoma teachers, but it looks more like an April Fool's joke to me. It's really hard to give any proposal serious consideration that suggests funding teacher pay raises by cutting school lunches, packing more kids into the classroom and firing other teachers. I'd like to think of some charitable way to describe the report, but 'crazy' is about the only word that comes to mind."

Statement by Senator Stratton Taylor
Senate President Pro Tempore

"No matter what face the Governor's office tries to put on it, I don't know anyone who thinks that cutting school lunches, cramming more kids into classrooms or firing teachers is going to improve our public schools. No other state has taken that approach because it's unbelievably bad policy. The report and its suggestions are just as crazy today as they were
yesterday."

An educational version of the Rural Economic Action Plan (REAP) launched in 1997 is being introduced by Senator Frank Shurden. The Henryetta Senator has authored a bill aimed at helping smaller and rural school districts in Oklahoma secure funding for capital improvements and updated equipment.
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A controversial, cost-shifting education program drafted by the Governor's office will get a full review from a key legislative committee in the coming weeks, according to the leader of the Oklahoma State Senate.

Senate President Pro-Tempore Stratton Taylor called on Governor Keating and others to join Senate leaders in their fight against a workers compensation rate increase approved in September by the Board of Property and Casualty Rates.

"I understand the Governor and others have unveiled a workers' compensation proposal, but I have not seen the details about this plan. Obviously, this is something for the legislature to consider next year," said Taylor.

Southwestern Bell's latest offer to give $30 million to education is "peanuts," according to a Senate budget leader who has been pushing for a much more substantial school investment from the telephone company.

State Senator Larry Dickerson is calling for Governor Keating to apologize for remarks he made in a recent television interview, saying his comments were both inappropriate and offensive.

In an interview aired on KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City and KHBS-TV in Fort Smith, Arkansas this week, Keating said that methamphetamine is a "white trash drug" used "by the lower socio-economic element of white people." He also referred to crack cocaine as a "black trash drug."

A new report indicates that Oklahoma consumers may ultimately be the big losers if Southwestern Bell succeeds in obtaining proposed regulatory changes now being deliberated by the State Corporation Commission. The analysis warns that the telephone company, not consumers, is likely to be the biggest beneficiary of the new regulations, preserving its monopoly status while gaining unprecedented authority to set rates for consumers without state oversight.

The leader of the State Senate is challenging Southwestern Bell to specifically detail what it alleges are "inaccuracies" in a report that is highly critical of the telephone company's bid to win new regulations for itself.

Statement from Senator Cal Hobson,
Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education