OKLAHOMA CITY - State lawmakers will return to the Capitol on Feb. 2 for the first day of the Second Session of the 60th Oklahoma Legislature.
They’ve got a lot to do. In addition to a flat state budget, issues about infrastructure needs and the fallout from the federal government, Oklahoma’s common education system - both funding and policy - will be front and center.
And this year, lawmakers will make a big push to the improving reading scores of the state’s youngest students and stabilize the mental health system.
Senate Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton said education reform, mental health oversight, and economic competitiveness will be top priorities for the session. Paxton told an Oklahoma City television station that lawmakers “must remain cautious” as federal policy debates continue to affect state finances.
“Our budget relies a lot on what happens at the federal level,” Paxton, a Republican from Tuttle, said, pointing to potential changes to Medicaid funding. He said education reform and reading scores will be a major issue in 2026.
“By third grade, kids need to be proficient in reading,” he said. “The kids that aren’t able to read very well... struggle for their entire rest of their career as a student.”
Paxton isn’t the only lawmaker concerned about the state’s educational systems.
House Appropriations Chair Trey Caldwell said Oklahoma needs to improve reading scores for its youngest students and ensure that higher education and CareerTech systems are well funded. He said House Speaker Kyle Hilbert would be running legislation to increase the state’s third grade literacy rate.
“We need to do that, to focus on that,” Caldwell said, adding when society is better educated, it produces better outcomes overall.
Turn to EDUCATION, p4 Caldwell, a Republican from Faxon, said he wanted to make sure more kids have the opportunity for higher education and that more kids could participate in the CareerTech system. He said one way to do that would be an expansion of the Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship program.
“I’d like to see an Oklahoma Promise for all kids/’ he said. “I think there is still work to be done.”
A good education, Caldwell said, breaks through socioeconomic and societal restraints placed on different kids. “If you have access to a high-quality education and you take advantage of it, you are going to be much more successful in life,” he said.
Echoing Caldwell, Rep. Daniel Pae, a Republican whose district includes the Lawton area, said in addition to education policy, legislation addressing childcare in Oklahoma will be a priority this session.
“I’ve heard from quite a few childcare facilities, certainly from parents I know, with my generation, it’s very challenging right now with the econ-Trey omy the way it is,” Pae said. “I know the topic of affordability has come up nationally and I think the issue of childcare has to be properly addressed.”
He said he also expected education to be one of the session’s main topics. He said the state’s K-12 education system has already seen major changes since the resignation of former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters.
___ P “I certainly think it’s night and day from what we had over a year ago,” Pae said. And so, I appreciate the tone and the priorities of Superintendent Fields. I believe he understands his mission to provide stability to the department, and I think he’s making tremendous progress on that objective already.
Pae said he was also concerned about the rules surrounding evictions in Oklahoma. He said Oklahoma has one ¡*au! of the shortest °sm°
eviction timelines in the country and one of the highest eviction rates.
“So, the idea is to not include holidays and weekends within the existing (eviction) timeline, and that’s the standard for other types of cases, other types of laws when it comes to evictions,” he said.
And while he acknowledged that Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed a measure that would have changed the eviction policy last year, Pae said action still needs to be taken.
“Based on the people I heard from and the judges yesterday, when it comes to exempting holidays and weekends, that could be a middle ground proposal, but we have to do
Something
on housing,” he Pae said.
Like others, Pae said he, too, is anticipating a conservative budget. This year, legislative leaders said they expect the budget to be flat more than $500 million from the 2025 session.
State Sen. Paul Rosino, a Republican from Oklahoma City who chairs the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee, said changes and reforms to how the Department of Human Services operates, supplemental funding for the Department of Mental Health and the state’s literacy rates will be major topics for the legislative session.
“I think you’ll see a lot of literacy, literacy, literacy, stuff being pushed on the education front,” he said. I think you’ll see some DHS reforms coming out, some things being looked at. On the health side, obviously, the Department of Mental Health and their budget and how we’re going to get them back on track. I think they’re going to need a supplemental right out of the gate, which we’ll end up having to give them.”
Rosino said he was also concerned about how state lawmakers would stabilize the mental health system. He said he expects numerous leadership changes in the agency over the next few years.
On top of that, he said, the budget itself will be an issue.
“We’ve got the rural health transformation that we ended up getting more money than was ex pected,” he said. “I think we were looking at $200 million, and we got 223. We got the fifth largest amount in the country, which is pretty incredible and could be transformative if we do it right for the people who live in rural Oklahoma.”
Still, crafting a budget - with millions less to spend than last year - will be difficult.
Budget wise, I am concerned,” Rosino said. “I think, I think we’re probably almost $700 million less to spend this year with asks just from the agencies at about $1.5 billion. That doesn’t work. You can’t put a square peg in a round hole.”
Still, Rosino - and other lawmakers - remain optimistic about the 2026 session. Even with the upcoming elections, he said he hopes for a productive session.
“Well, you know, you have to start out optimist when you when you begin session, right? Yeah, you stay optimistic until the wheels fall off. But hopefully the wheels aren’t going to fall off like it’s last year. I really want the last day or two last year that was not a fun time,” he said.
M. Scott Carter is an award-winning political and investigative reporter with more than 40years’ experience covering federal and state government and politics in Oklahoma. He can be reached at scott. carter@swoknews.com.
mailto:carter@swoknews.com