The Kingfisher Times & Free Press
Safety cited by parents removing children from public schools
s
Mike Brake
Independent Journalist
Proponents of educa-
tional options in Oklahoma
say that many parents who
Jul choose to withdraw their
04 children from traditional
public schools cite safety
concerns as high on the list
ld of reasons.
2018 rs, A December 2017 study
y-
by the Statewide Virtu-
Page al Charter School Board
a- showed that 41 percent of
A005 ed
nd
those enrolling children
in online schooling cited
Clip to “bullying or threats from
ift
resized classmates” as a primary
es
42% reason. That was more than
m “overcrowding or limited re-
al
sources” or “problems with
iff staff or administrators,”
both of which were listed by
a- 34 percent.
nt,
Seventy-seven percent
an listed a “safe educational
of
environment” as a major
al plus of online schooling.
lp
Shelly Hickman, com-
n- munications director for
rs
Epic Charter Schools, said
or Epic receives 35 to 40 ap-
to plications per day from par-
ents wanting to enroll their
r- children, and that there was
he
a “slight uptick” this spring
ca after the school shootings in
gh Florida and Texas.
“We can’t make a clear
es connection, but we do think
o- that school safety has been
er a solid, consistent reason
al why people have enrolled
s, in virtual school,” she said.
y- Hickman said that most
ad parents pulling their chil-
nd dren from brick-and-mor-
of tar schools cite a range
a of factors, including aca-
ed demic issues. Whatever
d, factors are at work, Epic
ir has grown to serve nearly
ng 20,000 students, making
it one of the half-dozen
te largest school districts in
m Oklahoma, Hickman said,
en with 1,299 graduates in the
es, Class of 2018.
The same motivations
tend to drive parents who
choose homeschooling.
While some focus on reli-
gious instruction and others
stress academic rigor they
believe is lacking in many
public schools, many ho-
meschool parents also cite
safety as a priority.
According to a Septem-
ber 2017 report from the
National Center for Educa-
tion Statistics, there were
1.7 million homeschooled
students in 2016, or about
three percent of the nation’s
students.
“When asked to select
the reasons parents decided
to homeschool their child,
the highest percentage of
homeschooled students had
parents who said that a
concern about the environ-
ment of other schools, such
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
as safety, drugs, or nega-
tive peer pressure was one
reason to homeschool (80
percent),” the report said.
“The highest percentage
of students’ parents report-
ed that among all reasons,
a concern about the envi-
ronment of other schools
was the most important
reason for homeschooling
(34 percent),” the report
said. “Seventeen percent of
homeschooled students had
parents who reported dis-
satisfaction with academic
instruction at other schools
as the most important rea-
son for homeschooling,
while 16 percent reported
a desire to provide religious
instruction as the most
important reason for home-
schooling.”
Oklahoma homeschool
advocates say it is hard to
differentiate between an up-
surge in interest in homes-
chooling due to safety issues
and the steady increase in
interest that has endured
for some years, thanks to a
multitude of concerns about
public schools expressed by
parents.
But Paul Rose, president
of the Oklahoma Christian
Home Educators Conso-
ciation, said he has seen
a marked trend in recent
years in parents opting for
homeschooling because of
safety issues.
“That was not on our ra-
dar screen when this move-
ment started,” Rose said.
“In the early years of home-
Spiropoulos
[Continued From Page 4A]
should influence their poli-
tics. Krauthammer believed
politics should be governed
by rational, empirical ar-
gument, not faith, but re-
spected those who differed
and was a powerful voice in
defense of religious liberty
and expression. I don’t care
whether someone with
Krauthammer’s principles
calls himself liberal or con-
servative – either way, we
are friends.
Andrew Spiropoulos is the
Robert S. Kerr, Sr. Professor
of Constitutional Law at
Oklahoma City University
and the Milton Friedman
Distinguished Fellow at the
Oklahoma Council of Public
Affairs. The views expressed
in this column are those of the
author and should not be at-
tributed to either institution.
[First published in Oklahoma
City Business Journal.)
VACATION TIME
IS HERE!
schooling, parents tended
to be more concerned with
religious issues and having
more control over the con- A
tent of what their children
were being taught. Now I
would say that at least half
are focused on child safety.
“It is a big step for a
family to move away from
a brick-and-mortar school
and assume 100 percent
of the responsibility for
educating a child,” he said.
“There are reasons homes-
chooling numbers continue
to grow each year. And we
anticipate that we will see a
continuing surge this year
as the summer goes on.”
State government
retirement data
available on line
By Curtis Shelton
Policy Research Fellow J
OCPA has expanded
its data tools to include
information on state re-
tirement systems and total
government finances. One
of the new tools examines
the Oklahoma Public Em-
ployees Retirement System
(OPERS), which was creat-
ed in 1964 to provide bene-
fits to state employees. Users
can view retirees’ yearly
benefits, total contribu-
tions, and years of service.
An analysis of the top
recipients shows that the
average yearly benefit of
the 100 highest earners
is $116,692. The highest J
pension in this system is
t
$176,775 a year. Of the top
100, the average duration
of service is 30 years and
the average total employee
contribution is $137,329.
Because these pensions are
based on a person’s final sal-
ary, top earners were mostly
in leadership positions and
had longer years of service.
The average yearly benefit
I
for all retirees in OPERS is
$17,648 with an average to-
tal contribution of $16,272
and 21.3 years of service.
The data tool also uses
the CDC Periodic Life Table
which allows OCPA to cal-
culate the future potential
benefits remaining for each
beneficiary. The average po-
tential benefit of the top 100
earners was $1,899,112 per
person while the average
potential of all beneficiaries
is $277,861 per person.
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