Keating Claims Oklahoma Spending Enough on Schools, Senator Hobson Disagrees

"I hope this isn't Governor Keating's subtle way of saying he doesn't support additional funding for our public schools, but I'm afraid that might be the case."

"When someone goes to the lengths that the Governor does to try to show that we're already spending enough on education, even when it's obvious we aren't, it tells me that he really isn't very interested in giving our school children the resources they need to succeed. That's disappointing, especially coming from a Governor who's spent so much time claiming that he's fighting the good fight for education."

"Depending on which statistic you use, Oklahoma is either 50th, 46th or 41st in per pupil expenditures. We're in the bottom ten, no matter how Governor Keating tries to juggle the numbers. That may be fine in his world, but for people who are interested in building a top-flight education system and a first-rate economy, it's unacceptable."

"I'm sorry if our low ranking in education funding scared Governor Keating, but until we drag ourselves out of the bottom 10, he should be scared. Oklahoma will never reach true prosperity as long as the leader of our state continues to preach the message that we're doing fine on education funding."

"Governor Keating likes to say Oklahoma should be more like Texas. Maybe he should take a cue from Governor Bush and his Republican colleagues in the Texas Legislature. Last week, the chairman of the Texas Senate Education Committee, a Republican, proposed a $2.5 billion increase in school funding. Governor Bush called it a 'great start.' That means Texas, which already spends more on education than us, is getting ready to jump light years ahead of Oklahoma."

"Unlike Governor Keating, the Texans aren't sitting around trying to make excuses for why they're not doing more for education or going to great pains to show that they're already doing enough. Instead, they're getting down to business with a Republican governor in the lead. Governor Keating should follow their example."

"I'll continue to work with the Governor to improve education and I'll be happy to use whichever statistic his people manage to pull out of their bag of tricks. The one thing I refuse to do is to pretend that our schools are adequately funded when they clearly are not. That is a short sighted approach that hurts our school children and our state."