Tulsa teachers have earned a respectful retirement incentive as well as the administrators.

The teacher's who have dedicated the past 35 to 40 years to teaching students in the classroom by spending their professional lives exclusively with Tulsa Public Schools no matter the hardships or sacrifices.

These teachers were the ones who stayed in there to get TPS through racial integration, endured many lean decades of budget deficits, no new books, no teaching materials, non-air conditioned classrooms in 90 to 100 degree heat, inadequately maintained buildings, denied cost of living increases, pay freezes, without leaving the district or the classroom for better pay and working conditions.

This generation of Tulsa teachers are the ones who forged the greatest changes ever experienced in the history of public education. We stood up for the educational needs of our students. We picketed and marched on the capital to fund better learning opportunities, classroom facilities, books and other educational materials. We laid the ground work for computer technology to be implemented and utilized to bring Tulsa Public Schools into the twentieth century. These are only a few of the "above and beyond" efforts we’ve made for this school system throughout our careers.

We took on the fight and demonstrated at the state capitol for HB 1017 to lowered class sizes, increase school funding, increase starting pay scale for beginning teachers, so they could afford to teach without moonlighting as we had for so many years... despite the fact career teachers wouldn't benefit from any increase in beginning pay scale.

It is obvious that Tulsa’s greatest generation of classroom teachers deserve the recognition and respect of being offered the same retirement incentive as the staff and administrators.

Charles Craig Shuck, ME

37 years of dedicated service

Whitney Middle School

Special Education