[Oklahoma City, OK, February 17, 2016] We aren’t really sure how the executive branch of the state of Oklahoma misplaces over $40 million in education funds, but we are sure that it happened. After yesterday’s news of the recent “discovery” that there was a balance of $43.8 million in the 1017 Fund, we can only wonder why the money wasn’t found prior to the devastating news in December that there would be major cuts to account for an expected shortfall.

“We aren’t talking about pocket change or a few dollars we find when vacuuming under the couch cushions. We are talking about a huge chunk of money that no one seemed to realize was sitting in the bank. The Republicans continue to want to run public schools like a business – which they are not and should not be since we shouldn’t be trying to profit off of our children – but maybe they should be more concerned with running the state government more like a business,” said Sarah Baker, Communications Director for the Oklahoma Democratic Party.

“Governor Fallin, Ken Miller, and Preston Doerflinger continue to show the people of Oklahoma just exactly how incompetent they are and unable to do their job. Revenue shortfalls, budget failures, tax cuts, and now lost money are just further examples that the executive branch has no idea what they are doing. School districts cannot continue to operate under this kind of leadership; leadership that makes it nearly impossible for school boards and administration to properly plan for not just the remainder of this year, but the next fiscal year as well. The constant back-and-forth is giving the state of Oklahoma whiplash.”

It is incredibly clear with this revelation that every office under the executive branch needs a full and complete audit to determine just exactly what is going on with our money. The audit should be performed immediately and the results made available to the people of Oklahoma as soon as it is completed. The people of Oklahoma have the right to know what is going on, even if the Republicans in the executive and legislative branches have no clue.

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