Empire Slice House announced their ‘Empire for Education,’ with allows any Oklahoma teacher to bring their school ID to the restaurant and get a free slice of pizza, salad and soda.
The promotion is in response to the recent increase in attention to Oklahoma teacher salaries.
“We stand with our educators and firmly believe that children are the future and deserve to get more than a 48th ranked education,” Empire officials wrote in a March 27 Facebook post announcing the promotion. “We hope that others will join us in rewarding and supporting our teachers as we continue to push towards these goals!”
The promotion was announced the day after the Oklahoma House of Representatives passed House Bill 1010, which will raise Oklahoma’s gross production tax as well as taxes on gasoline, hotels and tobacco by a few cents each. This is projected to bring in $447 million which will allow for raises for teachers across the state. First year teachers will receive a $5,000 raise that will gradually rise based on experience.
Empire also said in their Facebook post that, while this is less than the $10,000 raise educators asked for, the progress is good.
“I think it’s really awesome, especially because they’ve kind of led the movement of other businesses offering free food and discounts,” said Anna Wade, education junior.
Other local businesses have offered similar promotions in support of Oklahoma teachers. On April 2, the first day of the teacher walkout to protest poor education funding, Big Truck Tacos offered a 20 percent discount to any teacher who showed their school I.D. Cuppies and Joe currently offers the same discount with no set end date.
There is not currently an end date set for ‘Empire for Education.’
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