Essay Example on Oklahoma: A History of Cultural Diversity & Inclusion

Introduction

The state of Oklahoma is comprised of multiple cultural races with some distinct languages dialectics. The state has gone through multiple historical events from experiencing dust storms, the discovery of oil sediments, battles, and forced resettlement cases involving the tribes located in the state. The state recognizes its Indian heritage and has imposed their symbols in their state flag as a measure of solidarity and inclusion of needs. The term Oklahoma gets derived from two words that are Ukla, meaning a person and Huma, meaning a red form; hence the term red refers to its indigenous Red Indian heritage. There exist some school districts within the state, with each district providing significant value to its inhabitants and children of school-going age. A school district can, therefore, get defined as an area where schools are situated and governed by ahead of the authority. The state has 537 school districts that serve more than 700,000 students and has a total of 13 larger school districts when compared to other states within the United States (Kerrigan n.p). These get comprised of both public and private schools. Also, multiple debates and forums got held based on voting in which idea would be better for school districts within the area by either considering consolidation or not. The term consolidation gets used about merging of one or more school districts to form a better and stronger school center within the state. Numerous key developments have taken place regarding the issue with multiple stakeholders, and parents get divided between considering the idea of consolidating their school districts while others not in support of such creativity. The thesis of the paper, therefore, revolves around whether the state of Oklahoma should or should not consolidate its school district.

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Should the State of Oklahoma consider School District Consolidation?

School district consolidation in Oklahoma could help the state save up to 30 million U.S. Dollars helping state taxpayers to reinvest. Governing bodies within the state are of the view that school district consolidation would help the state reduce the number of superintendents and other operational costs to resort the income earned on other state workings while reducing the number of schools within the vast area. The state governance mandated the consolidation of school districts, which spend 60 percent less on its budget costs constructing institutional expenditure (Ballard and Jeffrey 15). Their view was increasing educational investment while saving time and eliminating wasteful expenditures within the state; hence having a considerable number of school districts is deemed wasteful. Having a considerable number of school districts would enable easier governance and funding for education. Administrative consolidation would involve combining existing administrative efforts while not shutting down any particular school within the state.

Furthermore, consolidating school districts within the state would mean that the areas receive an additional 500,000 U.S Dollars per student in consolidation. The additional fundings get aimed at improving transportation costs, and further administrative actions brought about by merging school districts. Numerous small schools in the area got reported to be already sharing administrative functions as a measure of buying and purchasing in bulk at affordable pricing (Ballard and Jeffrey 15). Hence, approving consolidation would improve administrative savings and eliminating inefficiencies. Proposers of such views aim at consolidating jurisdictional efforts inlined with approved statements that can be influential to how the state carries out its efforts and mitigate unnecessary claims on governance, abolishing inefficiencies and incapacitated resumptions.

Should the state of Oklahoma not consider School district Consolidation?

Consolidation attempts to unify two or more components to make a better and stronger unit. As such, needing school district consolidation can be a resounding economic aspect when viewed from a financial gain standpoint. At the same time, in the real sense, it would be difficult to achieve such resumptions. The State of Oklahoma has over 537 school districts, some of which get privately owned while others are public (Kerrigan n.p). Such a significant state school district number would provide a resounding challenge to any state government on how it would go about consolidating them to form a diverse uniformed self.

The schools within the state are diverse in terms of their population composition and resources; hence it would be difficult to merge them into one component due to bearing different characteristics. There is also a need for geographical consideration as numerous school districts within the state are of vast distances; hence promoting consolidation of such schools with numerous others would mean more distance coverage by the children, long bus rides, and increased cost used for transportation (Kerrigan n.p). Furthermore, such implements would mean that the children and staff persons would have to forgo benefits found in their particular area and resort to a newer and unexplored region that may not have a similar appeal to them.

Consolidation of school districts within the area would provide multiple challenges to administrative heads in that they would have to come up with newer trends to counteract the effects of school mergers and extra workings accompanying such developments. Such would mean increased strain in terms of service delivery from teachers, food stores, and unexplained traffic derailments due to unsolicited transport delays offered by the number of bus trips within and outside a given state region (Kerrigan n.p). Such impediments can lead to tension building and increased stress levels in the administration.

Preferred Policy Position

My stand is against practicing or putting into effect the need for the consolidation of school districts within the state of Oklahoma. My view gets based on the number of unexplainable setbacks that would couple such a move. Consolidating such a large number of school districts requires a considerable amount of planning and resource allocation, which can be tiring and time-consuming. As such, consolidation of the school districts would furthermore impede educational progress in schools due to a shift in activities and adoption of new and unexperimented systems for financial gain. There would be increased costs incurred due to increased transport costs to be undertaken if the given state undertakes consolidation and inadequate labor force market due to numerous personnel. The students would, therefore, serve derailed educational progress by having to readjust their timelines to cater to new strategies and changes brought about by such actions.

Conclusion

In summary, there is a need to be considerate of the multiple functions depending on the school districts within Oklahoma State. The immediate need should get placed on what effects the consolidation claim would have on the state and its inhabitants. There is a need, therefore, for a collaborative venture against which unrealistic claims and ideation get readily eradicated as they bear no resounding importance to the state and inhabitants.

Works Cited

Ballard, Stephen C., and Jeffrey Maiden. "An Examination of School District Spending and Student Achievement in Oklahoma." Journal of Education Finance 44.1 (2018): 1-22. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?output=instlink&q=info:8BDOy8ExDc4J:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_ylo=2016&scillfp=15854679349797789641&oi=lle

Kerrigan, Steven M. Consolidation, and Reorganization of Schools and School Districts in the United States from 1993 to 2012: An Examination of the influence of State Policies and Laws on Educational Restructuring. Diss. Rutgers University-Graduate School of Education, 2019. https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/60880/PDF/1/