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OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma House of Representatives took another stab at education reform last Monday, endorsing a bill that requires the state’s larger school districts to live stream school board meetings. House Bill 4370 would apply to public schools with more than 5,000 students, its author, state Rep. Ross Ford said. Ford said school boards would also be required to meet in-person and to comply with the state’s Open Meetings and Open Records acts. He said the bill would affect about 13 schools. “I’
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma House of Representatives took another stab at education reform last Monday, endorsing a bill that requires the state’s larger school districts to live stream school board meetings.
House Bill 4370 would apply to public schools with more than 5,000 students, its author, state Rep. Ross Ford said. Ford said school boards would also be required to meet in-person and to comply with the state’s Open Meetings and Open Records acts. He said the bill would affect about 13 schools.
“I’m all for local control,” Ford, R-Broken Arrow, said. “Once we were under the Covid, they did all this. They provided live stream video to the patrons but once the emergency went away some school districts just decided they weren’t going to do it because it was just too much work or they would have to educate people. That’s the reason for this bill.”
Ford said the Tulsa Union and Jenks public school districts were examples of districts that don’t provide live streaming. He said he didn’t make the measure apply to smaller districts – those with less than 5,000 students – because he didn’t want to create “an undue burden on those districts.”
“That’s why we stuck with the bigger school districts,” he said. “They live stream sporting events, so why can’t we just live stream the activities that go on in the board meetings.”
State Rep. Regina Goodwin, D-Tulsa, countered the bill could be seen as a ‘gotcha moment’ for the larger districts. “We know Tulsa lives streams so it’s unfortunate that you would designate Tulsa as one of those not being transparent. However, if this is about transparency and not taking the time to see the smaller communities that have the capacity it seems to be little more than a gotcha moment for certain districts.”
Ford said the bill was about transparency so school patrons could see what was going on. He said the meetings could be broadcast on platforms such as Facebook for free. He said the bill was “a fair bill” to all the districts.
“I’m not trying to be disrespectful to any district, I’m just saying the parents have a right to know,” he said.
Kurt Gwartney, executive director of the Freedom of Information Oklahoma, said he liked the idea that more people could watch meetings but added that virtual meetings eliminate “those conversations that come before and after meetings.”
“It’s different than in-person meetings,” he said.
House Bill 4370 passed the House on an 83-4 vote.