Legislative Update Feb. 20

Legislative Briefing for Monday, February 16- Friday, February 2/20/15 •

Mandates ___________________ o SB 674 by Sen. Jim Halligan, R-Stillwater  Same as HB1685; extends the Tobacco Free Schools Act to ban all tobacco products on K-12 property 24/7. There is no penalty on the school district if someone violates this, just prescribed punishment for the violator.  Passed Senate Education Committee on 2/16/15. o HB 1685 by Rep. Lee Denney, R-Cushing; Same as SB 764;  Passed House Common Education Committee on 2/16/15. o HB 1290 by Rep. Dennis Casey, R-Morrison  Unfunded/ underfunded mandate relief bill; states that mandates which are unfunded (0 funding) or underfunded (less than 75%), the local board can decide not to enforce the mandate; directs the SDE to make a list of all mandates and determine to what extent they are funded.

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Charters / ESA / Vouchers / Private Management ___________________ o HB 1691 by Rep. Lee Denney, R-Cushing  Allows local school board to contract with both private and public non-sectarian entities for educational and administrative services; those sites would be exempt from all statutes and rules (i.e. collective bargaining) that relate to schools to the same extend charter schools are exempt. o SB 68 by Sen. David Holt, R-OKC  Allows OKC and Tulsa city councils to be charter school sponsors in any district with an ADM of 5,000 or more so long as that district is within city boundaries.  Passed Senate Education Committee on 2/9/15. o SB 302 by Sen. Kyle Loveless, R-OKC

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HB 1034 by Rep. Dan Kirby, R-Tulsa  Same as SB 302; Passed House of Representatives 92-0 SB 505 by Sen. Gary Stanislawski, R-Jenks

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Amends the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act to permit a federallyrecognized Indian tribe to sponsor a charter school, provided the charter school is located within the former reservation or treaty areas of the tribe or on property held in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Creates the “Statewide Virtual Charter School Board Revolving Fund,” which will not be subject to fiscal year limitations. Funds garnered will be received by the Board from State Aid, and may be budgeted and expended by the Board for the purpose of supporting its mission.

Passed the Senate Education committee on February 9 and the Senate Appropriations Committee on 2/18/15.

HB 1696 by Rep. Lee Denney, R-Cushing  Modifies OK Charter Schools Act to allow charter schools anywhere in the state.

It adds the State Board of Education to the list of sponsors. Adds more accountability provisions than current law requires and new and additional charter application processes, powers and duties of the sponsors. The bill would require the SBE to establish a list of all public schools ranked numerically based on their A-F grades and the list must identify charter schools ranked in the bottom 5%. If the charter, at the time of renewal, is in the bottom 5% and has been for the preceding 2 years, the charter shall not be renewed. Finally, the bill also states that if the Legislature changes the grading system, only the charter schools who were not ranked in the bottom 5% under the old system, but are in the new, shall have the higher of the two rankings used for the year of the change.

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SB 782 by Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond  Nearly identical to HB1696  Scheduled to be heard in Senate Education Committee Monday, 2/23/15.

HB 2003 by Rep. Jason Nelson, R-OKC  Creates an Education Savings Account (ESA) which is an incentive program for parents to pull their children out of public schools; the money that would be given to the public school for that student through the funding formula would be placed into an ESA that parents use for private tuition and consumable education products; income eligibility criteria to qualify for ESA; administered by OKSDE.  Failed 2/16/15 in House Common Education Committee 9-9 .

• This bill may come up again for a committee vote!

SB 609 by Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond  ESA bill; can’t be enrolled in any public school in order to qualify; no income cap eligibility criteria; administered by State Treasurer’s Office; 80% of money generated would follow the child; the remaining 20% would stay with sending school district to provide a teacher pay raise  Passed Senate Education Committee 6-3 on 2/16/15. Referred to Senate Finance Committee for hearing on 2/24/15 at 10:30am.

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Curriculum ___________________ o SB 162 by Sen. Jim Halligan, R-Stillwater  Would require the SBE to work with experts on testing exemptions for students with severe cognitive disabilities.  Passed Senate Education committee on 2/16 and will go to the Appropriations Committee. o SB 630 by Sen. John Ford, R-Bartlesville  Reading Sufficiency Act (RSA) bill that extends the Reading Proficiency Team to begin in 1st grade with a sunset of 2020. It moves the cut score from “limited knowledge” to “proficient” for a child to be promoted.  Passed Senate Education Committee on 2/16/15. o SB 708 by Sen. John Ford, R-Bartlesville  Removes all non-federally mandated state tests.  Passed Senate Education Committee on 2/16/15. o HB 1065 by Rep. Jadine Nollan, R-Sand Springs  RSA bill which requires the 3rd grade reading test be a reading comprehension test and not a language arts test.  Passed House Common Education Committee on 2/16/15. o HB 1272 by Rep. Dennis Casey, R-Morrison  This bill would require a high school graduation assessment to be the same that higher education uses for purposes of admission and course placement. o HB 1380 by Rep. Dan Fisher, R-El Reno  This bill would prohibit any school from receiving funds for teaching current Advanced Placement/ History course. It requires the State Board to adopt an alternate test and curriculum focused on “American Exceptionalism.”  Passed House Common Education Committee on 2/16/15.

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Funding ___________________ o HB 1553 by Rep. Earl Sears, R-Bartlesville  This bill would eliminate the ad valorem tax on the rental of heavy machine (construction) equipment and replace it with a sales tax. The concern is the potential for further erosion of the ad valorem tax base used to support public schools.  Passed the House Appropriations and Budget Committee on 2/18/15.

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HB 1682 by Rep. Lee Denney, R-Cushing  Creates the “Securing Educational Excellence Fund,” which would guarantee annual funding increases to schools through the state aid formula. This would not “kick in” until the Department of Transportation ROADS Fund is fully funded at the current commitment of $575 million.  Passed House Appropriations and Budge Subcommittee on Common Education on 2/16/15.

HB 1822 by Rep. Scott Martin, R-Norman  Teacher pay raise bill that includes State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister’s #okhigh5 long term funding plan to bring teacher pay and school days to the regional and national averages. It would add $5,300 over the course of 5 years, with $4,000 directly to teachers, and the remaining $1,300 would be used to pay for the 5 additional days of instruction.  Passed the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on 2/16/15.

HB 1498 by Rep. Dennis Casey, R-Morrison  Defines “per pupil expenditure” to mean HB 1498 defines the phrase “per

pupil expenditure” to mean “the aggregate current expenditures of school districts from all funding sources including federal funds plus direct support aggregate current expenditures of the state for the day-today operations of schools and school districts from all funding sources including federal funds divided by the aggregate number of students in average daily membership to whom school districts in the state provide a public education for the same fiscal year for which the expenditures are determined.”

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Teacher/ Employee Issues ___________________ o SB 5 by Sen. Ron Sharp, R-Shawnee  Limits liability for school employees and volunteers who use reasonable and necessary force to discipline a student.  Passed Senate Education Committee on 2/16/15. o SB 20 by Sen. Ron Sharp, R-Shawnee  This bill would allow an out-of-state teacher with 5 years teaching experience to teach and be certified in the same subject/ grade level in Oklahoma that is most closely aligned with that teacher’s experience without having to take additional competency exams.  Passed Senate Education Committee on 2/16/15. o SB 709 by Sen. John Ford, R-Bartlesville  This bill would incentivize high performing higher education students to enter the education areas of STEM and special education. Would allow for stipends and tuition reimbursement based upon criteria such as GPA, commitment to teach in Oklahoma for a certain number of years, and to complete the degree in 2 years.  Passed Senate Education Committee on 2/16/15.  OK Teacher Rec Act; Passed Senate Ed 2/16; now to approps; incentivize high o SB 711 by Sen. John Sparks, D-Norman  Requires the school board to provide information to the about any educator who has had employment action taken based on conduct that would be inappropriate with children. There is no liability for reporting the conduct or for not reporting it.  Passed Senate Education Committee on 2/16/15. o HB 1027 by Rep. Ed Cannaday, D-Porum  Delays the Quantitative component of TLE and empowers the TLE commission to evaluate and conduct research on building VAM/ SLO/ SOO models. It

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prohibits the SBE to adopt any rules or policies in regards to the quantitative component until the TLE commission completes its findings.  Passed House Common Education on 2/16/15 HB 2014 by Rep. Jeff Coody, R-Lawton  Creates the “Special Reserve School Resource Officer Act” which allows local boards to identify school personnel who can be trained by CLEET to have that School Resource Officer (SRO) designation. This is not mandatory, and the local board has discretion over whether to adopt such a policy. If a policy is adopted, the school district must pay for the training.  Passed House Common Education Committee on 2/16/15.

HB 1521 by Rep. Katie Henke, R-Tulsa  Allows for one-time incentive pay and one-time retention pay outside of collective bargaining/ negotiated agreements for teachers to come to a school district and return a second year.  Passed House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Common Education on 2/10/15.

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Elections ___________________ o HB 1275 by Rep. Josh Cockroft, R-Shawnee;  Amends dates for school board elections. Filing remains in December, and if 3 or more candidates file for a seat, then there is a primary in February with a runoff in April. Otherwise, if there are only 2 candidates that file for a seat, the election is held in April.  Passed the House of Representatives on 2/16/15. o HB 1440 by Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid  Creates 16 year term limits for school board members (but excludes dependent districts). Currently seated members who exceed 16 cumulative years on a board can finish their term, but would be forever ineligible to run for a board seat in the same school district.  Passed House Elections and Ethics Committee on 2/11/15. o HB 1442 by Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid  This bill would allow for an “at large” appointment to fill a vacant board seat for the remainder of the term. Once that seat is up for election, the seat would be vacated and only a candidate from that ward would be eligible to run for that seat.  Passed House Elections and Ethics Committee on 2/11/15. o HB 2209 by Rep. William Fourkiller, D-Stillwell  Would allow a resident of a dependent district to vote in an independent school district if they have a child enrolled in the independent school district.  Passed House Elections and Ethics Committee on 2/18/15.

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___________________ HB 1333 by Rep. Lockhart, D-Heavener  This measure failed to pass the House Common Education Committee on 2/16; it would have required a schools international ranking to be listed on their A-F report card.

HB 1823 by Rep. Scott Martin, R-Norman  This bill delays the A-F grading system one year and would allow the SDE to study the accountability system; a school would receive the grade from the previous year. Authors are working on a “hold harmless” fix, especially since there will be some districts that would have made a better grade this year.  Passed House Common Education Committee on 2/16/15.