Legislature passes education plan

After negotiating throughout session, the House, Senate and Governor developed an education plan we can all get behind.

To help put into perspective how significant this year’s education investment is, once the education bills are signed into law, we will have invested $1.45 billion in new funding to common education since 2019, which is approximately a 59% increase. In comparison, common education received an increase of $1.37 billion from 1992-2018.

When this education package is signed into law, the Republican-controlled Legislature and Governor Stitt will have poured more new money into education in the last 5 years than during the previous 27 years combined!

While we all had different ideas in the beginning, we collaborated to craft a proposal that ensures all of Oklahoma’s children are served at the highest level possible. I believe the plan we ultimately agreed on is the best option for every stadent, every parent, every teacher and every school district in our state.

First, we dedicated $625 million in new money to education.

The school funding formula will receive $500 million, which will be used to cover salary increases for teachers, as well as paid maternity leave. The remaining money can be used for support staff, operational expenses and discretionary funds.

The teacher pay raises are longevitybased, ranging from a $3,000 increase for teachers with 0-4 years’ experience; $4,000 for 5 to 9 years; $5,000 for 1014 years; and $6,000 for teachers employed 15 years or more.

Six weeks’ paid maternity leave will also soon be available to teachers who have taught at least one year. This is a major bargaining chip in Oklahoma’s favor as we recruit and retain the best and brightest educators to our state.

We also added $125 million to the Redbud Fund, which provides additional funding to school districts with a lower ad valorem tax than the state average.

Under this education package, students living in House District 2 would receive nearly $9.89 million total in additional funding. Here’s the breakdown: Belfonte: $220,621.60 Braggs: $152,767.10 Brushy: $554,544.10 Central: $627,318.98 Gans: $476,471.27 Gore: $557,585.21 Keys: $732,145.54 Liberty: $493,706.14 Marble City: $93,520.28 Moffett: $532,786.73 Muldrow: $1,466,836.17 Roland: $1,088,891.40 Sallisaw: $1,967,248.33 Vian: $926,997.58 In addition to these figures, each school district will receive an extra $96,000 annually over the next three years for a new school safety pilot program. This program, which will fund school security officers and security upgrades to protect our students, teachers and administrators, equals a one-time investment of $150 million distributed over the next three years.

Other one-time funding approved by the Legislature was $10 million toward a literacy program established by the State Dept, of Education to create a literacy instructional team to assist school districts. The team will have five regional locations across the state and will help teachers recognize educational needs of students, with an additional emphasis on students who have dyslexia.

All of these bills have now passed both legislative chambers and have been sent to the Governor shortly. This education plan is a great win for Oklahoma and for our rural school districts!

Rep. Jim Olsen represents District 2 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, which includes portions of Sequoyah County.