Oklahoma Leaders Participate In 'Teacher For A Day' Program

<p>News 9 was on hand for State Sen. David Holt to serve as &ldquo;Teacher for a Day&rdquo; at Quail Springs Elementary. Holt is one of dozens of Oklahoma lawmakers and community leaders who are participating in the program.</p>

Tuesday, January 24th 2017, 12:41 pm



A post-election tweet leads to a takeover of dozens of Oklahoma City Public School classrooms. Nearly 50 community leaders including 18 legislators, were teachers for the day.

This all started after that penny sales tax for teacher raises failed during the November election. Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent Aurora Lora tweeted:

"Might be time for elected officials to learn what it's like to walk a mile in the shoes of a teacher. Anyone open to that?”

State Senator David Holt (R) Oklahoma City was one of those who responded to Lora's tweet and on Tuesday he was teaching reading at Quail Creek elementary.

You know this intellectually but you’re always reminded how hard of a job it is to keep 20, 7-year-olds on task and learning,” said Senator Holt.

That is exactly what Mrs. Bentley was hoping for when she volunteered to have someone come into her class.

We know how important our job is but I think it’s important for the representatives to see what we do and that this job is critical for the future and if don't invest in our teachers we're going to create a bigger problem” she said.

It's a lesson Sen. Holt may already comprehend. He has proposed a $10,000 teacher raise the past two years.  He likely wasn't the one Superintendent Aurora Lora was tweeting about when she also said:

"If (every) elected official in the US spent some time learning what it's like to be a (teacher), I think we'd see very (different) support (for) public ed."

“I sent out that tweet as my response to helping people understand how urgent it is we get adequate funding for schools,” said Lora on Tuesday.

The hope was lawmakers wouldn't just see the need for a teacher pay raise but the effects cuts are already having in the classroom. But Lora admits most legislators who participated were already friendly to education.

Still, Holt said he did get some valuable anecdotes to take back to the Capitol.

Lora said if other legislators couldn’t make it on Tuesday but wanted to visit a classroom, she would make that happen.

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