OKLAHOMA CITY — The chairman of the state Senate’s education announced an education package last week which earmarks millions for teacher raises, helps fund the education of future teachers, changes the school funding formula and provides millions for school safety training.
Sen. Adam Pugh, a Republican from Edmond, announced his plan at a Capitol press conference. Pugh said his education package was built on four pillars: recruiting more qualified teachers to classrooms; retaining teachers already in the classroom; rewarding high-performing teachers; and reforming the way public dollars are spent on public education.
“For far too long, Oklahoma has lagged behind the rest of the nation in education outcomes, which is doing a disservice to our children and state overall,” Pugh said in a media statement announcing the plan. “I was tasked by Pro Tempore Greg Treat this interim to come up with a plan that meets our children’s needs today, empowers parents, while ensuring we are rewarding teachers and getting better outcomes for the future of our state. This plan is aggressive, and if implemented will get us on the right path to a better, more prosperous future.”
Pugh said he met with state school superintendents, teachers, parents and dozens of education advocacy groups during the interim to gather ideas for the legislation.
“To be clear, this is my plan, supported by bills that I am planning to file,” he said. “They are a direct result of input I received over the summer after conversations with superintendents, educators, parents and education advocacy groups. As Oklahomans, and especially as lawmakers, we need to do whatever it takes to ensure our children are getting the best education possible.”
Pugh’s package also calls for major changes to the way the state regulates public charter schools, including combining the virtual charter school board and charter school board and adding stricter accounting requirements, financial controls and reporting criteria.
Pugh’s package, however, doesn’t including funding for a voucher program.
After the program was announced, Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat issued a media statement praising Pugh and calling the proposal “a great place to start.”
“Last year, I asked Sen. Pugh to come up with concepts to improve public education in the state holistically, while getting input from major stakeholders and coming up with a plan to get Oklahoma on the right path for our students,” Treat said. “I appreciate the thoughtful efforts Sen. Pugh put into his ideas. His agenda this session is ambitious, and I hope Sen. Pugh unveiling his ideas sparks a discussion with others on how to improve education in the state. While individual members will have their own suggestions on how to improve upon his ideas, it is a great place to start as we put our children, their parents and hardworking teachers first. I have full confidence in Sen. Pugh’s abilities to lead these conversations on this important topic.”
Pugh’s education plan covers several areas and includes several bills:
SB 529 - $15 million: Create Oklahoma Teacher Corps and provide scholarships to students who enter Oklahoma colleges of education, graduate and receive teaching certificates. Those who pass their program must commit four years of service in a Title I school or pay the scholarship amount back to the state.
SB 522 - $5 million: Mentorship Program. This bill will provide $500 stipends for mentors of new teachers. The goal is to pair every new teacher (both to the career or new to the district) with a mentor.
SB 361: Create a multistate teacher licensure compact. Be the first state to recognize teacher licensure reciprocity in a multistate compact. Recognize professional experience and licensure from other states and not lose teachers because of bureaucratic paperwork that discourages immediate entry into the workforce upon moving to Oklahoma.
SB 364 - $25 million: Paid maternity leave. Will give teachers who have been with a district for at least one year 12 weeks of maternity leave. With a career field that is 76% female, this will allow new mothers to take time away to be with their newborns and return to the classroom as able. Solves a key workforce issue, is pro-life and does not force a new parent to choose between career and family.
SB 523 – $50 million: School safety. Provide the Oklahoma School Security Institute with $50 million in grant funding to allocate by application process to meet unique and individual district needs for added security personnel, infrastructure, technology and training.
SB 525 - $1 million: Credentialing. Reimburse each school district to pay for recertifying each teachers’ credentials if they are asked to gain additional credentials.
SB 482 - $241 million: Teacher pay raise. Provides a teacher pay raise. Moves starting teacher pay to $40,000, with a $3,000 raise at entry through four years. Years five through nine will receive $4,000; 10-14 years of experience will receive $5,000; and a teacher with 15+ years of experience will receive $6,000.
SB 531: Removes attendance metric on the A-F report card and replaces it with a school climate survey, which includes parents, students, and teachers/staff.
SB 527: Puts more money toward kindergarten through third-grade reading proficiency, with the ultimate goal being 100% reading proficiency for kids entering the fourth grade. Increases K-3 weights, special education weights, transportation weight and gifted/talented, and socio-economic disadvantaged weights.
SB 523: Learn Everywhere Bill. Recognize that learning takes place in non-traditional settings and allow for credit to include internships, externships, part-time jobs or other non-classroom activities that directly contribute to learning and college or career advancement.
SB 359 - $60M: Funding formula: Move the funding formula ad valorem dollars to account for previous year actuals and not projected. All chargeables in the funding formula are based on actual numbers except for ad valorem dollars. That is based on a projection. This also accounts for potential ad valorem protests, which can withhold ad valorem dollars despite projected incoming money. Would predominantly protect rural schools.
SB 520 – Graduation credits: Build three graduation tracks to include college, career and core. Require four years of math and science for college track to increase STEM preparedness. Recognize that a career and core track can still pursue college and concurrent enrollment. Address Oklahoma’s lagging STEM standards and help build a modern high-tech workforce. Opportunity to leverage many partnerships across private and public sectors, to include local businesses, higher education, career tech and more.
Funding request: Move to common Student Information System and update SDE accounting system. $11 million to provide SDE and all school districts with technology upgrades to ensure seamless and standardized date entry systems. Will also allow SDE to track how schools spend weighted dollars. For example, K-3 funding should be spent directly on K-3 students. There are federal requirements on funding, but no such requirements on tracking accountability and transparency of state dollars in the funding formula
State lawmakers will have the chance to review Pugh’s education proposal when the Oklahoma Legislature reconvenes for the first session of the 59th Legislature in February.