Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters claims he’s trying to move teacher merit pay to the top of his agenda for the ongoing legislative session.
In an interview with Hilliary Media Group during the Conservative Political Action Conference held in early March in Washington, D.C., Walters said more money needs to be paid to Oklahoma’s “best and brightest” teachers, so they stay in the state.
“We have some great folks, but the problem is they only stay five or six years,” he said, insisting that Oklahoma needs to implement merit pay that could be as much as $10,000 per teacher. “We need less administrator pay and more teacher pay.”
Walters also advocated for school choice and to pay “award-winning” teachers more money before they decide to leave Oklahoma. The school choice and merit pay issues already have the support of Gov. Kevin Stitt, House Speaker Charles McCall and Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat. All three are “champions” of both issues, Walters said.
One of the reasons Walters was in Washington was to speak to congressmen about federal government overreach into “our schools.” Walters also noted that he wants to “empower each individual teacher” and not a national teacher union. The state superintendent also claimed “most teachers” are not part of a teachers union and are not aligned with the union’s proposals.