Recruiting & retaining teachers within our state is vital to our educational sustainability. Oklahoma must provide competitive pay and benefits for educators in the post secondary and higher education institutions to retain and recruit the best for our children. The Oklahoma Constitution directs the Legislature to fund public education. In 2018, Oklahoma educators took a stand to improve Oklahoma schools in response to Oklahoma’s failure to prioritize funding quality public education. Oklahoma still ranks 35th in the Nation for teacher pay, 46th in student spending, and our students are being supervised by unprecedented numbers of adults who have been emergency certified due to a shortage of qualified educators. And recently an executive order allows non-credentialed state employees to serve as substitute teachers in public schools.  As Governor, Connie will insist that our Legislature uphold its duties to not only properly fund education, but also to remove the obstacles faced by those higher education students who cannot afford to complete education degree programs. The time is now to end the exodus of Oklahoma teachers.