Education bill a long way from home

By the slimmest of margins, Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat was able to pass his Oklahoma Empowerment Act out of the Senate Education Committee. The 8 to 7 vote required the pro tem and the Senate floor leader – who can vote in any committee - to vote in favor of the measure. This is fairly rare and indicates there is quite a bit of opposition to the bill in the Senate – at least in the Senate Education Committee.

The controversy is this would take public education dollars and put them in education savings accounts, allowing parents to access more than $3,000 per child to spend on private schools or homeschool options.

I’m a fan of school choice. Parents should get to choose the education option that best meets the needs of their children. The Legislature has done much in the past few years to make more options available to parents. Last year, we passed open transfer legislation allowing students in a failing public school to move to another public school of their choosing at any time during the school year with certain restrictions. We also reformed the school funding formula so funding more quickly follows the student. We expanded Equal Opportunity Scholarships, which allows tax benefits for private donors who wish to donate to public schools or toward private education options. Oklahoma has no restrictions on homeschooling.

But our schools, particularly our rural schools, need proper funding to meet the needs of the students they are required by the state Constitution to serve. Treat has said his legislation would not deplete public school funding, but that’s not realistic. In rural Oklahoma there are very few private schools and the concern is that per-pupil funding in rural areas will decrease as more urban students leave public schools for private ones. The bill passed the Senate Education Committee, but it still has to go through the Senate Appropriations Committee and then the full Senate. If it makes it across the rotunda, House Speaker Charles McCall has said he does not plan on giving it a hearing in the House. He said most of the chamber’s rural lawmakers believe this would not be helpful to their local communities.

While we’re on the topic of education, I want to give an overview of legislation I will present in the House Common Education Committee. House Bill 3500, as amended, would update punishments for anyone who assaults a teacher or school board member.

We’ve had issues locally and statewide with teachers being physically assaulted by students. Some of the assaults on teachers have been severe - requiring medical attention or even hospitalization. Teachers deserve a safe and secure workplace, and this bill aims to create a safer workplace. I am sure this bill will receive attention and be amended, but the message from the Legislature with this is that we value teachers, school board members, and support staff and want this measure to lead to greater safety for them at school.

This legislation would increase from a misdemeanor to a felony and from a one-year sentence to two years for anyone convicted of assault or battery upon any school employee or school board member. The bill would increase from two to five years a sentence for aggravated battery or assault against such a person.

Please feel free to contact me at marcus.mcentire@okhouse.gov or (405) 557-7327.