OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Citizen Advocates for Recovery and Transformation (OCARTA) named Sen. Ron Sharp their Legislator of the Year and presented him with the Recoveree Choice Award Tuesday. 

Oklahoma City – Three legislators from Edmond are thanking their local education community.  State Senator Adam Pugh, State Representative Ryan Martinez and State Representative Mike Osburn have released the following statement after meeting with thousands of educators and constituents: 

“I was pleased to meet with at least five groups with 10 to 20 in each group today.  I was encouraged by the positive approach about additional school funding.  I explained that teacher pay had been priority number one in our recent sessions, with the average teacher raise given last week equaling $6,100, or a 15% increase. 

On Wednesday evening, the Senate approved revenue measures (House Bill 1010XX and HB 1011XX) to fund an average $6,100 teacher pay raise (HB 1023XX).

Late Wednesday evening, the State Senate passed a pay raise bill that would provide a 12.7% pay increase for all state teachers and state employees (SB133), but then failed by two votes to garner enough support on HB 1033xx, the legislation that would have funded those raises.

Senator Darcy Jech, R-Kingfisher, issued the following statement:

“I’m frustrated we didn’t have enough votes to fund the mechanisms that would have provided the 12.7% teacher pay raise.  I was hopeful we’d have enough bipartisan support to pass the measure.”

OKLAHOMA CITY –   State Senator Micheal Bergstrom filed two bills this week aimed at helping to recruit and retain teachers in Oklahoma schools. 

Senate Bill 1188 would allow a certified classroom teacher to earn a tuition waiver worth 12 credit hours of resident tuition each year the teacher is employed by an Oklahoma public school district to be used for the postsecondary education of the teacher’s child or children. 

Oklahoma City - Freshman Senators Greg McCortney and Adam Pugh, along with House author Representative Mark McBride have filed a bill that will reform the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust. 

Oklahoma's Charter Schools Act of 1999 was amended in 2015, allowing charter school districts to expand beyond the OKC and Tulsa school districts into rural areas. However, embedded within the 2015 amendment was a loophole which allows an appeal to the unelected State Board of Education (SBE) to approve a charter
school district after it had been twice rejected by the locally elected school board.

State Senator Adam Pugh was presented with the Rising Star award at the State Chamber of Oklahoma’s Public Affairs Forum on December 12 in Oklahoma City.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Sen. Ron Sharp is concerned about the level of education being taught in Oklahoma’s public charter schools since charter school teachers are not required to be certified under current federal law.  For this reason, he has filed Senate Bill 881 to require all public schools, both traditional and charter, to employ only certified teachers and that those individuals only be allowed to teach the subjects in which they are certified.  read more.