Senate Education Committee Meetings Consider Several Bills

Education policy is a big talker at this year’s legislative session.  

Schools in Oklahoma have experienced challenge after challenge in recent years, due to COVID and staffing shortages.  

There’s lots of different types of solutions being proposed to support schools and teachers, with priorities varying between caucuses, individual lawmakers, and even the governor.  

In Tuesday’s Senate Education Committee meeting, Republican Chair of the committee Adam Pugh said he introduced legislation that he hopes addresses education workforce challenges. 

 “Certainly, we know we have a teacher shortage, and we’ve been talking about that for a number of years, so a lot of legislation I proposed this year and will be trying to shepherd through the legislative process will be trying to help,” Pugh said.  

Pugh introduced several bills that all moved on to the next step - among them: 

SB1618 would require districts to post open teaching jobs to a state website, to make it easier for teachers to find open positions.  

SB1631 would establish a professional mentorship pilot program. 

And SB1630 would direct districts to conduct exit interviews to better understand why Oklahoma teachers are leaving their jobs, or their profession. 

Pugh hopes by addressing both teacher pay and quality of life issues, it will shore up the profession.  

Pugh also proposed a bill that would fund 12-week maternity leave costing an estimate $27 million.  

There were questions from both sides of the aisle about the proposed 12-week maternity leave for full-time public-school district employees, Democrat Carrie Hicks said that timeframe might be too long and challenging for schools to accommodate, but she also said this was the beginning of an important discussion about protecting birth in Oklahoma.  

There were also a couple of bills discussed that open up new opportunities for students.  

SB 1147 filed by Senator Taylor would aviation courses to apply for academic credit, so basically, you could graduate high school with a pilot’s license. SB 1190 is a career and technology measure that would establish college level courses in hydrogen energy.  

All of these bills passed on the first hearing Tuesday and are eligible to be heard on the floor or head to the appropriation and budget committee.  

Supporting schools was a key topic in both Governor Kevin Stitt’s State of The State Speech yesterday, and in responses from party leaders.  

The governor supports universal vouchers this session in a bill by Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat – The Oklahoma Empowerment Act.  

The act would allow parents to use state aid money to pay for private school.  

“I was concerned about the Oklahoma empowerment act that we heard talked about today. at first read, it was cut and paste, from somewhere, and it provides little oversight of the management companies that are supposed to dig in and orchestrate the whole thing,” said Tulsa Representative Melissa Provenzano.  

On Monday, the governor talked about making a way for some teachers to make a $100 thousand salary.  

That legislation is being proposed by Representative Rhonda Baker in HB 4388.