"Representative Drennan?"~ 4.15.18

As many of you might have noticed if you recently listened to national news or are Oklahomans, our legislature was taken to task for nine days this month as teachers walked out of their classroom and urged the Oklahoma government to not only give them well-deserved raises, but more importantly fund the actual classrooms so they have supplies and textbooks in which to teach. Our national ranking is 49th in the US (originally garnering 50th!) and number 1 in overall budget cuts. At the same time, Oklahoma is #2 in prison incarceration. Is there any correlation there? Many of my colleagues spend hours day after day and even walked MILES to the Capital and felt defeated by legislators who refused to discuss educational needs with their own constituents, and even turned off the microphones when a representative mentioned funding education! After we learned that many of those same highly-paid legislators often ran opposed in the elections, I had a pretty strong epiphany to consider investigating whether to run for office. That even sounds odd to see it in print! As I made a request for district and house leader information on Facebook, I was amazed at the support I received from friends, fellow educators and those who offered to help campaign! As I looked further into the facts, our representative is a former teacher who is doing a great job (and already had 2 others running for office.) Our Senator, however, was very self-serving, not available to meet with the teachers, was not supportive AND has tenure until 2010. Will I want to consider another venture along with my writing and leading workshop career in a year or so? Only time will tell. #rememberinnovember