OKLAHOMA CITY ? Initiative petitions to require that 65 percent of state education money go to classroom expenses were filed Monday afternoon with the office of Secretary of State Susan Savage.

Earlier, Bob Sullivan, honorary chairman for First Class Education, estimated more than 170,000 signatures had been garnered in the petition drive for what is commonly called the “65 percent solution” for school funding woes.

Sullivan, a Republican candidate for governor, said 108,000 valid voter signatures are needed to require a statewide election.

Savage’s office will count the signatures and send the petitions to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, where the issue could be subject to legal challenge. If the petitions are validated by the court, the governor would set the date for a statewide election.

Teachers groups have opposed the petition proposal, part of a national movement, saying it would hurt states like Oklahoma that are not highly populated and have high transportation costs. They also say it will cut down on needed personnel such as nurses and counselors.

“We like to call it the 65 percent delusion,” said Lela Odom, executive director of the Oklahoma Education Assn. “It doesn’t provide any more money for schools. It just requires schools to spend it a certain way. It takes away local control from local school board members.”

Sullivan contends the state can raise $270 million for the classroom through the 65 percent formula.

Less than 58 percent of dollars appropriated by the Legislature now go to the classroom, he said. He said Oklahoma ranks 46th in the nation in the amount of dollars that go to classroom activities.

Odom said a simpler solution to what Sullivan perceives as a problem would be to pay state teachers at the regional level or more than the regional level “and then we would be at the 65 percent.”

She said low teacher pay “is what is keeping down” the percentage of dollars that goes into the classroom.

Sullivan, a Tulsa oilman, grew up attending private schools. He said he believes private schools are better run financially than public schools, which he said have a bloated bureaucracy.

Sullivan has campaigned for the initiative across the state, he said.

He said most of the opposition to the plan has come from some school officials and teachers’ unions.

But he said some school superintendents believe the plan is “very reasonable.”

Under the plan outlined in the initiative petition, school districts would increase the amount of money that goes to the classroom 2 percent a year until they reach the 65 percent threshold.

He said the initiative petition proposal states that it has nothing to do with consolidation of schools, which critics say will be among the outcomes of the plan if it were to be approved.

The petition wouldn’t prevent consolidation by districts to save money, Sullivan said, noting that Oklahoma once had 900 school districts and now has 539.

Denna Armstrong of the First Class Education group said a national poll showed 80 percent of those surveyed liked the idea.

Odom said the plan “is one of those things that sounds good but isn’t. The definition that this petition has for ‘inside the classroom’ doesn’t include some really critical people and things.

“It doesn’t include counselors. It doesn’t include school nurses. It doesn’t include transportation to and from school. It will disproportionately be negative for rural schools.”