oklahoma magazine - governor brad henry

8/8/2019 Oklahoma Magazine - Governor Brad Henry

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THE EDUCATIONI S S U E

GARDENMASTERS

G O V E R N O R



Education was the primary component of Brad Henry’s gubernatorial crusade when he hit thetrail in 2002, and though the Governor waselected nearly eight years ago, he’s yet to stopcampaigning.

When Henry took ofce in January 2003,Oklahoma was suffering a revenue crisis hailed

by many as the state’s worst. Such a nancialclimate would test any political mission, letalone a public policy that called for increased teacher pay and benets, and extra spend-ing through new programs proposed for stateschools, colleges and universities.

Henry is leaving ofce amid much of thewild political fanfare present when he joined. Inthe nal stretch to vacating ofce, Henry closed

Brad Henrymade educationa top priorityduring his tenure asOklahoma’s governor.

By Joe WertzPhotography by Jeremy Charles

42 OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE| AUGUST 2010


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out his last legislative session in late May, after discussions to produce a $6.7 billion budget for the2011 scal year were nearly derailed.

Throughout his two terms, Henry pestered legislators and challenged both educators and students,increasing expectations and accountability for both.

“My whole approach to education is all about children,” he says. “Our children are our futureleaders, and our goal should be to make sure that every child in Oklahoma has every opportunity tosucceed and every opportunity to go to college.”

Cutting EdgeAmong the rst orders of education business when he took ofce, Henry in 2003 appointed theEconomic Development Generating Excellence, or EDGE, task force, a panel of public and privateleaders who later recommended establishing a $1 billion research endowment to fund projects and

private-public partnerships throughout the state.With conservative estimates on the return of monies invested in the endowment, Henry says the

state could “give out $40-$50 million in research grants every year,” to “universities, businesses and entrepreneurs who have a good idea.”

Alfred G. Striz was among those with an idea in need of funding. Striz, a professor at the schoolof aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Oklahoma’s School of Engineer-ing, applied for EDGE funding with a plan that involved the research, testing and production of unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used for commercial applications. Striz’s pre-proposal ap-

plication was approved by the EDGE Policy Board, although his project wasn’t among those nallyapproved for funding.

Since its formation, the EDGE Endowment Grant is among the most sought funding sources for researchers in Oklahoma’s aerospace and high-tech industries, says Striz, who expects to apply for the grant again in the future.

“They’re huge. What you have is a real boost to the companies that are involved,” Striz says,adding that the EDGE program helps combine the resources available on public campuses and in the

private sector. “In our case, it’s a combination of the university doing the research and some of thedevelopment, but also the companies who already have developed stuff… all getting together and working together.”

By working together, schools, researchers and companies have the best chance of establishingnew industry in the state, Striz says, especially in elds – like his commercial UAV program – thatare so cutting edge, they don’t exist until built.

Universities and colleges benet from the research component, but also in “workforce develop-ment,” which Striz says extends beyond where a classroom ends.

“You’re training students for a future in research and development in the industry, and that’s agood thing,” he says, noting that the educational and economic benets of such research funding

don’t just apply to the major research universi-ties like OU and Oklahoma State University.High level academic institutions.

“It goes further than that. We’re also inter-ested in getting vo-tech involved,” he says.“Somebody needs to train the people that aregoing to be working on these things to servicethem and to maintain them. In aviation, in our case, somebody needs to train the pilots that y

these things remotely. It’s larger than just higher education.“We have a lot of advantages in Oklahoma

because the labor force is cheap, we have good laws for startup companies,” he continues, thestate’s really supportive. We have a really good climate here in Oklahoma.”

The legislature in 2006 invested the rst $150million in the endowment, which is a far cryfrom the amount Henry and the taskforce hoped for, unnished business that Henry laments ashe prepares to leave ofce.

“I’m disappointed that we haven’t found a permanent funding mechanism for the EDGE

research endowment,” he says. “I made sure wehad the initial deposit of $150 million, which Iwas only able to do because we had some yearswith big surpluses, but I’ve been pushing thelegislature every year to help dedicate a revenuesource so that we can initially reach that billion-dollar mark.”

Bright, Young MindsWhile higher education and increasing thestate’s number of college graduates has been acornerstone of his education policy, Henry, inhis 2010 State of the State Address, noted theimportance of focusing on the state’s youngest

students, strides that have led to the adoptionof both full-day kindergarten and a voluntary pre-K program that he said is becoming a modelfor other states throughout the country.

Henry says it’s easy to lose focus on invest-ing in early childhood education because thedividends aren’t immediately felt.

“We’re not going to see the fruits of thoseefforts this year or next year, or two or veyears down the road,” he says, adding that thestate might not feel the effects for a decade or even a generation, when it will “really begin totransform” the state, and its perception around the country.

“I predict people will be looking at Okla-homa from every corner of this nation, saying,‘What’s going on? We want to be like Oklaho-ma,’” he says, “and that’s just a big, big thing.”

Ace Up His SleeveIn 2005, Henry signed House Bill 1020 and Senate Bill 982, which funded teacher payraises and the Achieving Classroom Experi-ence. The ACE Initiative added course require-ments for high school students and required incoming freshman in 2008-09 to pass four of six end-of-instruction exams in certain core

First Lady Kim Henry and Gov.

Brad Henry photographed at theGovernor’s Mansion. The couplehave been staunch advocates

for public education.




subject areas before they were given diplomas.Henry says that creating a “higher stakes

environment” helps students raise the bar for academic standards. One of the ACE Initia-tive’s biggest changes was the inclusion of end-of-instruction exams, rather than end-of-semester exams, which Henry says didn’t offer much consequence to teachers or studentswhether passed or failed.

“The teachers really didn’t like it becausethe students didn’t put as much effort intoit and didn’t score as high,” he says, addingthat switching the type of testing requires thatschools offer remediation to help students passthe tests.

“It’s not enough just to make these examshigh-stakes, so if you fail you don’t graduate.It was more than just, ‘You have to pass theseexams to graduate,’” Henry says. “If you havetrouble we’re going to help you, and we’regoing to makesure you knowthis so you have a

basic knowledgeof these coresubjects that arecritical in termsof going to col-lege, or even if you choose not to go to college.”

But college preparation is a big componentof what the ACE Initiative was designed for,the governor says. The program required freshman entering in 2006-07 to completea college preparatory curriculum. Parentsmay opt their children out of the program,

but tuition waivers for up to six credit hours

a semester are given to high school seniorswho meet certain eligibility requirements for concurrent enrollment. Henry says the number of high school students concurrently enrolled in college or university courses has increased to roughly 50,000 from 29,000 since the initia-

tive has been active.“It’s been pretty amazing,” he says. “For the rst time in 2005, students could take a college

course tuition free, and so it gave them incentive to do that, even some students who didn’t think they’d go to college.”

The tuition waivers gave many students that were unsure of attending college a “free shot”at trying out university education, and Henry says many of them did well and were inspired tocontinue their education after high school.

“The bottom line for me is education is the number one priority of the state of Oklahoma. And within education, our priority is to create more college graduates,” he says.

Taking A ChanceThe state’s budget shortfall shaped the 2002 gubernatorial race, and Henry was an early and vo-cal proponent of enacting a state lottery to bring more black to Oklahoma’s balance sheets.

Funding – “Just getting more dollars in the classrooms, to the students” – was just one of anumber of challenges facing education when he took ofce, Henry recalls .

“I set about very early on to try and provide new revenue sources for education and speci-cally for the classroom through the education lottery.”

After taking ofce in 2003, Henry moved quickly on proposing and organizing support for the Oklahoma Education Lottery, which faced strong opposition politically – largely along partylines in the state House of Representatives, which rejected the Governor’s efforts – and on moral

grounds, by groups like the Baptist General Convention.Henry managed to put the vote to the people in November 2004,

through State Questions 705 and 706, which amended the state

constitution to authorize the lottery and create a correspondingtrust fund. Voters in all 77 counties overwhelmingly approved themeasure, and the rst lottery tickets went on sale in October 2005.

The act stipulates that 35 percent of lottery revenues bedirected to education, which has since brought in more than $330million.

“When I rst came into ofce, we were facing at that time the worst budget shortfall in our state’s history, and now we’re leaving on one even worse,” Henry says. “But we’ve gotten through

both of those.”

Bonds AboundHenry also led the legislature through a $475 million capital improvements bond that added

buildings, classrooms, laboratories and equipment to “every college and university” throughoutthe state, a “pool of projects” Henry says is still cur rently active. Along with the capital improve-

ments bond, Henry pushed to fund an endowed chairs program that matches private donationsdollar-for-dollar with public funds.“Prior to the endowed chair program, it was difcult for our colleges and universities to com-

pete for the best and brightest professors around the country – around the world, really,” Henrysays. “That really makes a big difference. If you really want to improve the quality of education,you’ve got to start with the educators.”

First, ForemostBoth through inuencing her husband and on her own, First Lady KimHenry has helped make an indelible mark on education in Oklahoma. Inthe classroom for 10 years, Kim Henry spent most of her teaching career inShawnee, where she taught high school history, economics and government,

both regular coursework and advanced placement curriculum.In the classroom, Kim Henry learned that raising expectations yielded

elevated results, a theme mirrored in her husband’s education policy and perspective.“One thing that I found, especially working with teenagers – and this is

a generalization, it’s not all kids – I found a good portion of your kids willonly do what’s expected,” she says from her ofce at Sarkeys Foundation in

Norman, where she serves as executive director. “They won’t go the extramile, they just do the bare minimum to get by, and if you raise those expec-tations, the kids perform at what you expect them to do.”

Both Kim and Gov. Henry agree that teachers are the rst and primarycomponent of education reform, a rst building block in a framework for students to nd high-paying jobs and help fuel the state’s economy.

“We always talk about, ‘We need to bring more jobs in Oklahoma,’ butreally the number one thing businesses look at before they move, relocateor build in a state is the number of college graduates. Do you have your

“This is beyond my control, andthe people will ultimately decide,but I hope that I’m remembered as

the education governor…”

Surrounded by school children, edu-cator and First Lady Kim Henry, Gov.Henry signs the 2005 ACE Initiative,which raised Oklahoma academicstandards. File photo.




2010 VISION IN EDUCATIONLEADERSHIP AWARD

The Tulsa Community College Founda-tion will honor Gov. Brad Henry for hisconsistent support of education, access and excellence for Oklahomans during his twoterms in ofce at the 2010 Vision in Edu-cation Leadership Award dinner Tuesday,Sept. 7 at the Renaissance Tulsa Hotel.Presenting sponsor is Cherokee NationBusinesses. Media sponsor is Oklahoma

Magazine .During his two terms in ofce, Henry

has placed great emphasis on improving public education by raising teacher salariesand benets, putting more resources inthe classroom and setting higher academicstandards for students. He increased stu-dent participation in Oklahoma’s Promise,a college payment plan for low-incomefamilies resulting in a growth of 12,000 to

19,000 students during his terms. Henryalso successfully fought to let votersdecide whether to establish an educationlottery to benet the state’s classroomswhich voters overwhelmingly passed in

November 2004.“In addition to his many contributions to

our state’s primary and secondary schools,Oklahoma’s colleges and universities havealso greatly beneted from Gov. Henry’sdedication to excellence in education,”says TCC President Tom McKeon.

The Vision Award is presented annuallyto an individual dedicated to education

excellence and community leadership.Past honorees include Montie Box, David Boren, John-Kelly Warren, George Kaiser and Paula Marshall.

Event guests will enjoy live entertain-ment, ne dining and a special tribute toHenry. Stuart Price, chair of the OklahomaState Regents for Higher Education, willserve as honorary event chair. VisionDinner efforts are led by TCC Founda-tion trustee and dinner chairwoman, MaryShaw, along with the support of her com-mittee.

Individual tickets are $150. Sponsorship

levels for the dinner range from $2,500 to$20,000. Funds raised by the event willsupport scholarships and special programsfor students and faculty. Thanks to gener-ous donations the TCC Foundation givesmore than $1 million annually to programsand scholarships to support students,faculty and staff.

For more information on the 2010 Visionin Education Leadership Award Dinner sponsorships or tickets, please contact theTulsa Community College Foundation at918.595.7836 or [email protected].

work force up to par for what I’m going to need?,” Kim Henry says, adding that the benets to qual-ity of life extend beyond simple economics.

“Go out on the street, stop somebody and ask them to name three people that have really changed your life,” she says. “I bet for the vast majority of people, one of those three will be a teacher.”

Henry agrees.“It’s pretty academic,” he says. “College graduates earn more money in their careers; they are less

likely to end up in prison; they are less likely to end up on social programs; less likely to end up ondrugs or a life of crime and more likely to contribute to society through taxes, through philanthropicgiving and so forth.”

From a scal and economic standpoint, Henry says the challenges facing his successor “remain to be seen.” He is disappointed by the lack of a permanent funding mechanism for the EDGE endow-ment, but is optimistic whoever is elected to the governor’s post in November will see the value inmaking it a source for research and entrepreneurial enterprise. Henry was able to raise teacher pay,

but fell short of his goal to match Oklahoma salaries with the regional average.“We got within $1,000,” he says. “Of course it would be nice to get to the national average, but

the goal is to get to the regional average. We were on track, we were $1,000 short, and couldn’t quitemake it. I’m disappointed in that.”

Henry will leave ofce this winter, and while his capitol contributions might be over in a direct,formal sense, he doesn’t expect to stop the campaign.

“This is beyond my control, and the people will ultimately decide, but I hope that I’m remembered as the education governor and the governor who really made strides in education throughfunding and reforms.”

48 OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 2010

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oklahoma magazine - governor brad henry

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