From DEI ban to recess, Oklahoma Legislature advances array of education bills

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma lawmakers advanced bills expanding college scholarships, recess time and school tutoring while approving limits to virtual school days and diversity programs before a key legislative deadline this week.

Bills had to pass their chamber of origin by March 27, needing approval of the full House or Senate to continue being considered this year.

A variety of legislation impacting schools and students survived the deadline, including measures that are top-of-mind for House and Senate leaders.

House votes

One of those priority bills is House Bill 1727 to extend the Oklahoma’s Promise college scholarship to children of classroom teachers who have worked in public schools for 10 years or more. The House sent the legislation from Rep. Anthony Moore, R-Clinton, to the Senate with a 71-20 vote.

HB 1491, another bill House leadership touted, also heads to the upper chamber after passing 80-16 on March 26.

The measure from Rep. Ronny Johns, R-Ada, would allow two members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education, and of any district school board with five or more members, to place an item on a meeting agenda by submitting a written request. On school boards with four or fewer positions, a single member could add an agenda item.

The bill emerged after recent appointees to the state Board of Education complained that only the board’s chairperson, the state superintendent, has authority over what items are discussed during meetings.

Johns said he learned it’s been an issue “all the way back to Sandy Garrett,” referring to the former state superintendent who served from 1991 to 2011.

HB 1493, called the Growing Minds, Active Kids Act, is one of the few education bills from a Democrat to pass the full House. Lawmakers approved the legislation from Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, D-Norman, by a vote of 73-12.

Students in pre-K through fifth grade would be required to have 30 minutes of daily recess in addition to the 60 minutes of physical education a week that state law already requires in elementary schools. Current Oklahoma law strongly recommends 20 minutes of daily recess for elementary grade levels but doesn’t require it.

Rosecrants’ bill would strongly recommend 30 minutes of daily recess for grades 6-8.

District school boards could split the elementary and middle-school recess time into segments.

“There is a prevailing feeling … that you’re really not learning unless you’re in the classroom, and I couldn’t push back more against that,” Rosecrants, a former teacher, said while discussing the bill on the House floor. “Real learning comes from doing. Real learning comes from being outside. That’s how I taught whenever I was in the schools, as well.”

Senate approves

Senate lawmakers on March 27 agreed to codify Gov. Kevin Stitt’s executive order prohibiting state funds from supporting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at higher education institutions.

Questions and debate over the legislation, Senate Bill 796, consumed two hours. The bill’s author, Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, said equity programs have “the opposite effect of equality” because they raise “one group of people over another based on a perception of what we think historically has happened.”

“Nobody’s denying history,” Pugh said during the Senate debate. “This isn’t about history. This is about our future. And if we ever want to heal, the last thing we need to do is mandate that when someone shows up on campus, we tell them that it’s your fault. History is your fault, and we’re going to fix it for you by making outcomes more equitable.”

Stitt signed his executive order in December 2023 to outlaw college DEI programs, which cost 0.29% of all higher education spending in the state. Student-led programs were unaffected.

Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, said the executive order shut down the women-in-politics program that inspired her to run for office. The University of Oklahoma closed the National education for Women’s Leadership program last year, citing a need to comply with Stitt’s order.

One of the Senate’s two Black members, Sen. Regina Goodwin, D-Tulsa, debated at length against the bill. She contended it ignores Oklahoma’s history of racial segregation that today makes DEI programs necessary.

“The discrimination continues to happen when you do not want to be diverse,” Goodwin said. “When you don’t want to be equitable, then you champion inequity. And when you don’t want to be inclusive, you want to be exclusive. It’s real simple.”

The measure passed along party lines 39-8.

Senators then took up SB 758, which would limit the use of virtual school days in Oklahoma.

The authors, Sen. Kristen Thompson, R-Edmond, and the Senate’s top lawmaker President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, amended their original legislation to change the criteria permitting online learning days for brick-and-mortar schools.

Schools could have up to two online learning days per academic year if the state superintendent approves a virtual instruction plan that the district and its school board submit.

A district’s virtual instruction plan must include how it would serve students with disabilities, provide school meals and transport students to CareerTech classes.

Schools also could rely on virtual days if the governor has issued a state of emergency and the district’s school board approves use of online instruction.

The bill passed 33-14.

“Senate Bill 758 provides the necessary guardrails to keep our schools focused on direct engagement between students and teachers while maintaining a degree of flexibility for truly exceptional circumstances,” Paxton said in a statement.

A bill funding high-dosage tutoring of math and reading passed unanimously through the Senate on March 26.

SB 245 from Sen. Dusty Deevers, R-Elgin, was inspired by a similar program state Superintendent Ryan Walters established through the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

Walters has said the vast majority of students who participated saw academic improvement.

The bill would offer tutors, who are either school employees or contractors, $1,600 total for each cohort of up to four students they meet with for at least three 30-minute tutoring sessions a week. The tutoring sessions would take place after school hours for at least 10 weeks in the fall semester and no less than 12 weeks in the spring.

The tutors could earn another $1,000 for each academic grade level increase that each student improves in reading or math in one school year.

Students would have to be at least a half grade level behind in reading or math to participate.

The Senate Appropriations Committee expects the program will cost $5 million, Deevers said.

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