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Oklahoma School Voucher Legislation Tabled, At Least For Now

classroom floor
Jacob McCleland
/
KGOU

A series of school voucher bills are dead for the session, according to House and Senate leadership.

Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa, says lawmakers won’t consider the Education Savings Account bills. They were pending in both the House and Senate Thursday, which was a key legislative deadline for bills to be heard on the floor of their chamber of origin.

Bingman told the state Capitol press corps Thursday lawmakers he didn’t think state Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, had the votes to pass Senate Bill 609 given the current $1.3 billion shortfall for the Fiscal Year 2017 budget. Bingman said he’ll continue to work on the issue of allowing public money to be spent on students who attend private schools, and try to reach some sort of compromise.

"I've agreed to help, and I know the Speaker has to, to help put a working group together to try to find some common ground on the issue,” Bingman said. “A lot of people who might be in favor philosophically, the [current budget] environment is not conducive to passing that bill.”

Bingman said he personally doesn’t support the ESAs, and that he likes competition and thinks its lawmakers’ job to fund public education.

In the House, Oklahoma City state Rep. Jason Nelson’s House Bill 2949 also failed to advance by the legislative deadline. He criticized what he called the “educational establishment” for a misinformation campaign.

“To improve our schools, we have to face the reality that our public schools cannot be everything to everyone,” Nelson said in a statement. “While others think maintaining the status quo is to be preferred, I strongly disagree and will continue to fight because each child deserves a shot at a good education regardless of geography and family income.”

“The focus of this effort has been, first and foremost, to find solutions for the children who desperately need better opportunities and to know someone cares,” House Speaker Jeff Hickman said in a statement. “The desire to improve student outcomes and empower parents without harming our public schools will be the goal we continue to work toward in the future.”

Renee Porter is the executive director of the grassroots organization ChoiceMatters for Kids, which supports the ESA legislation. She says she hears from parents every day who feel trapped by the current education system.

“Some of them have children with special needs that aren’t being met in local public schools. Others are literally afraid their kids are unsafe in their current surroundings,” Porter said in a statement. “I believe the Legislature owes those parents and those children a vote on ESAs this session.”

The Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration said the decision to table the measures shows the public isn’t interested in further cuts to public education.

“The proposed programs provided no accountability for taxpayer dollars and could have resulted in taxpayer funds being used for inappropriate purposes,” co-executive directors Ryan Owens and Steven Crawford said in a statement.

Fiscal impact studies by the Oklahoma State Department of Education indicate the measures would deprive public schools of anywhere from $15 to $69 million, The Tulsa World’s Andrea Eger reports:

On Tuesday, State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister went on the record on the hot-button issue for the first time, questioning the timing of lawmakers’ proposals to create private school voucher programs given the state of Oklahoma’s budget woes. In her appearance at the Republican Women’s Club of Tulsa County luncheon, Hofmeister referred to studies that showed the cost to her state agency alone would be $800,000 to $1.5 million, regardless of how many children participated. The Tulsa World filed requests for those studies using the Oklahoma Open Records Act.

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Brian Hardzinski is from Flower Mound, Texas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He began his career at KGOU as a student intern, joining KGOU full time in 2009 as Operations and Public Service Announcement Director. He began regularly hosting Morning Edition in 2014, and became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2015-16. Brian’s work at KGOU has been honored by Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and local and regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian enjoys competing in triathlons, distance running, playing tennis, and entertaining his rambunctious Boston Terrier, Bucky.
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