Latino Leaders Discuss How OKCPS Bond Proposal Will Impact Minority Students

We are weeks away from the election on November 8 and those within OKCPS will see a bond issue on their ballot. 

This is the biggest bond election in OKCPS history, News 9 spoke to leaders in the Hispanic community who aren’t sold on the issue. 

“Mixed feelings, the good thing is that it would be good to have our kids in good facilities just like everybody else around the city,” said Dr. Raul Font, the President of the Latino Community Development Agency. 

Leaders within the community are questioning how the nearly $1-billion bond will help students.  

“The other part is it doesn’t address the elephant in the room which is academics,” said Dr. Font. 

Font, who is a longtime educator, said while new buildings and renovations are nice, they don’t fundamentally fix issues students are facing. 

“This will not help our kids in our schools, which the majority are Latinos, and the second biggest group is African Americans and those are the kids that are failing. The school district has never revealed what they are doing different and this money sure isn’t going towards curriculum,” he said. 

Superintendent Sean McDaniel said the money from this bond will help “take the district to the next level by creating truly transformational learning opportunities for our kids.” 

Leaders are also concerned about just how much of those funds charter schools will see, if any. 

“We believe those should be available for all public-school kids and the families that are all asked to pay this additional tax whose children are in charter schools, we would like to see those benefits as well,” said Chris Brewster the Superintendent for Santa Fe South Charter Schools.  

The district said charter schools sponsored by OKCPS that are district owned buildings will get some funds, but they don’t have signature projects assigned to them like the other OKCPS schools. 

We know that there are still a lot of questions surrounding charter schools and this bond. We are working with the district to get those answers for voters.