$1.3 Million Less Funding for Sallisaw Public Schools

$1.3 Million Dollars Less-That's the cutback in funding Sallisaw Public Schools must deal with and why 120 administrators, teachers, staff, students and parents from Sallisaw attended a rally at the state capitol in Oklahoma City on Monday. Representatives from several other county schools attended the rally as well.

Scott Farmer, Sallisaw Schools Superintendent, said the school system's budget is $1.3 million less this year than it was in 2009. That has resulted in cutbacks in staff and other areas. Farmer said no school employee has been fired because of the cutback in funding but the system has eliminated 15 positions through retirement. The decreased funding is hurting rural schools, such as Sallisaw, the most, he said.

Overall, state funding for education is about $200 million less than it was in 2009, but the state's schools have about 40,000 more students. Many at the rally flew banners and held signs that read "678,000 Reasons To Fund Education". 678,000 is the number of students in the state's public school system.

Farmer said it was estimated that between 25,000 and 30,000 attended the rally, sponsored by the Oklahoma Education Coalition. "It's time we took education seriously," Farmer said and he urged everyone to ask State Rep. John Bennett and State Senator Mark Allen to support education. Bennett can be emailed at john.bennett@okhouse.gov. Allen is at allen@okstate.gov.

Farmer will be on our new show here at THE MIX 105.1 called County Talk at 2:00 on Friday, April 11 discussing how to keep Sallisaw Schools funded.

For more stories visit us at www.kxmx.com

By Sally Maxwell
News Editor