James Coburn
EDMOND — Ed Holzberger prides himself for being a teacher and geologist. He doesn’t consider himself a career politician while giving 100 percent as science teacher at the Classen School of Advanced Studies in Oklahoma City,
Holzberger, a Democrat from Nichols Hills, will face Republican Randy McDaniel, of Oklahoma City in the general election for House District 83 on Nov. 4. The 58-year-old is not running to represent the political donor class, but everyday working folk such as teachers, policemen, machinists, firemen and retail people, he said.
His candidacy mainly addresses ethics reform, energy and education.
“First of all, I’d fully fund the Ethics Commission,” Holzberger said.
Holzberger will not accept a campaign contribution more than $49.99. A teacher trying to contact their state representative should have the same quick access as a $5,000 donor, he said.
“It’s a serious game because we got in this ethical position because of things like Enron and bailouts on Wall Street where people are just not behaving ethically,” he said.
Children’s education requires investment, said Holzberger, complaining that the Oklahoma City Public Schools spend $6,700 per child while Casady School’s tuition is $16,000 a year as a private school.
Ed and his wife Pamela have a teenage son attending Casady. They also have two daughters and a son, all adults.
He said that smaller class sizes are needed in the state while 112 school districts are in violation of state House Bill 1017. What’s not needed in education are vouchers and chartered schools when public schools are set up to fail, he said. Ranking schools causes some of them to be at the bottom of the list.
“No Child Left Behind is set up so everybody has to be set at the top or you’re failing,” he said. “Well, you can’t have a top without a bottom. So No Child Left Behind needs to be scrapped.”
In addition, he said the failure of Nick’s Law to be heard by the state House after passing the Senate this year was wrong. The bill would have required insurance companies to cover children with autism. The U.S. spends more money on health but is less healthy than almost any industrialized country, he said.
“I’m not going to mince any words — universal health care,” Holzberger said. “Go look around the world and if what you’re doing is not working, do something else. They have better health care in Canada and better health care in most of the industrialized countries in the world.”
Also it amounts to government inefficiency for the state to give tax breaks for the Seattle Supersonics to move to Oklahoma City, he said.
“Clay Bennett and Aubrey McClendon — I doubt seriously that they were going to go anywhere else but Oklahoma City with that team,” he said. “They got $121 million on the backs of the working class in Oklahoma City on their arena. … They never said a word about running out to the state for another $100 million while they were hooping it up and talking about jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Improving state roads with the price tag of $400 million should not be done on credit, he said. The state budget is not balanced, he said. There’s millions of dollars owed to the Teacher’s Retirement Fund, he said.
“My idea of a balanced budget is you don’t have any debts,” he said.
He said one of the most inefficient things government does is to give money to people who don’t need it. Tax cuts can be made if it results in generating jobs, he said.
“If the wells are going to be drilled in western Oklahoma because the price of gas is high enough to do that anyway, then why would you give $100 million in tax breaks for deep drilling?” Holzberger said.
His science background would enable him to sort through energy questions more intelligently than some other folks who lack the knowledge, said Holzberger, who earned a bachelor’s degree in geology from Oklahoma State University and has taught environmental science. Oklahoma is positioned as one of the great wind power corridors in the world, he said.
TO LEARN MORE about Ed Holzberger’s campaign for House District 83, visit www.holzberger4house.com.
