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If nothing else, State Question 779 has a lot of people, including some who haven’t always been that gung ho in the past, going on record in support of teacher pay raises.

SQ 779’s proposed 1 percent education sales tax has shifted the debate, or at least the rhetoric, from whether teachers should be paid more to how to do it. So it was Tuesday night at an Oklahoma Watch forum on the ballot measure at Tulsa’s Centennial Park.

“It’s not about whether it’s time for teachers in Oklahoma to get a pay raise,” said Dave Bond, chief executive officer of OCPA Impact. “It’s well past time for public school teachers in Oklahoma to get a pay raise.”

But while Amber England of Stand for Children Oklahoma argued that SQ 779 is the only real chance in sight to make that happen, Bond maintained that the 1 percent tax is excessive and unnecessary.

OCPA Impact is the political arm of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, an Oklahoma City-based free market, small government advocate. OCPA Impact unsuccessfully challenged SQ 779 in court and at times has been perceived — largely because of its support of charter schools and school vouchers — as unfriendly to public education.