Senate Democratic Leader Kirt highlights both good solutions and missed opportunities of the 2025 legislative session

OKLAHOMA CITY – With work on the 2025 legislative session concluded, Senate Democratic Leader Julia Kirt said there were important wins that will help Oklahomans but also pointed to missed opportunities to address the biggest challenges people face daily. 

“This entire session, Senate Democrats have worked across the aisle to solve problems for our fellow Oklahomans, helping kids get a great education, prioritizing health care so people can live longer, healthier lives, creating prosperity for more families, and demanding fair and open government,” said Kirt, D-Oklahoma City. “And our work paid off with real gains for all Oklahomans.” 

Kirt said in terms of fair and open government, some of the biggest wins this session were that the Legislature finally began to rein in Superintendent Ryan Walters’ harmful decisions for students, including rejecting the State Department of Education administrative rule to gather immigration status of public school students and parents and the confirmation of four new State Board of Education members who will stand up to Superintendent Walters. 

Kirt pointed to a pair of policies by Senate Democrats that will boost outcomes for students in public education in Oklahoma: 

• Extended maternity leave for teachers, by Sen. Mark Mann, D-Oklahoma City. 

• Improved support for students with dyslexia, by Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City.  

The caucus championed actions that will improve access to health care including: 

• Approval of the mental health competency restoration settlement. 

• Improved access to medication, by Sen. Jo Anna Dossett, D-Tulsa. 

But Kirt said there were other missed opportunities to solve real problems facing Oklahomans, while other actions will create new challenges for the state. In the area of education, Kirt pointed to the Legislature’s failure to reject Walters’ social studies standards injecting political propaganda into school curriculum. Education was also undermined by: 

• Failure to help more students succeed and build prosperous lives through meaningful investments of new dollars into public schools, higher education, and CareerTech. 

• Unwillingness to address the teacher shortage that is keeping kids from having quality teachers in their classroom, despite legislation filed by Senate Democrats that would have lessened the crisis.  

• No raise in teacher pay, which would have helped experienced educators stay in the classroom to help students succeed, despite bipartisan legislation when the session began. 

Senate Democrats also championed solutions to help all Oklahomans build more prosperous lives and promote fair and transparent government, but Republicans continued to put politics over people. 

• Oklahomans cannot keep up with the rising costs of housing, food and gas and need better wages. Bills by Senate Democrats to increase the minimum wage were not scheduled – instead Republicans approved legislation undermining tipped workers.  

• People across the state are having a hard time affording rent or finding a home to purchase. No solutions for improving housing affordability advanced, despite many bipartisan solutions presented by the Senate Democrats.  

• People should have the freedom to bring issues to the ballot that matter to them. Out-of-touch politicians attacked people’s ability to make important changes in state law through initiative petitions. 

• Oklahoma’s tax code rewards the rich and burdens working families. Republicans passed tax cuts that leave out working Oklahomans and mostly help the very rich. Senate Democrats were ready to roll up our sleeves on real tax reform solutions for working families, but that didn’t happen.  

• Oklahomans deserve to know how their taxes are being spent and weigh in on what’s most important. The state budget negotiations lost transparency, going back to the behind closed doors deal making. Senate Democrats are committed to a fair budget and will keep standing up for transparency. 

“These missed opportunities let Oklahomans down – we need to work together to solve real problems in people’s daily lives,” Kirt said. “No matter what, we will continue to listen to Oklahomans and to work on good legislation that puts people over politics. We will always use our voices and our votes to fight for our fellow Oklahomans.” 

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For more information, contact:  Sen. Julia Kirt at 405-521-5636 or Julia.Kirt@oksenate.gov