Latest news with #HB1087
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New state budget boosts funding for public schools, teacher incentives
Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, and House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, shake hands during an announcement of a 2026 budget deal on Wednesday at the state Capitol. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY — A budget deal state leaders struck on Wednesday will boost funding for Oklahoma public schools and raise the ceiling on teacher pay in the 2026 fiscal year. After giving a similar increase last year, Gov. Kevin Stitt and legislative leaders agreed to pour another $25 million into public education funding, but this time with a caveat from House Bill 1087. Accompanying the extra $25 million will be a one-day increase to the minimum length of an Oklahoma school year. Students must have at least 166 days of instruction rather than 165. HB 1087 also extends the teacher salary schedule by 15 years, meaning public school teachers will receive annual step raises for up to 40 years instead of reaching their maximum salary at 25 years. A classroom teacher with a bachelor's degree must earn a salary of at least $64,021 after 40 years, under the bill. 'What we have been saying again and again repeatedly is what we need to invest in (and) focus on in public education is making sure we're recruiting and retaining quality educators and making sure we're having as much quality time in front of those educators as possible,' House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, said at a news conference Wednesday where the budget deal was revealed. Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, said $25 million is 'not adequate' to help public schools counteract rising costs from inflation, especially while the cap for tax credits supporting private school students is pre-scheduled to increase by $50 million. 'Twenty-five million dollars is not enough to do the transformative change we need to have in the classroom,' Kirt told reporters on Thursday. The Oklahoma State Department of Education budget, which covers most appropriations for K-12 schools, will increase by 3.15% to $3.98 billion. That's an even larger funding boost than the Education Department's head, state Superintendent Ryan Walters, requested. But in doing so, lawmakers and the governor discarded several of Walters' ideas. The agency's budget includes no funds for Bibles, despite Walters' request for $3 million to buy a copy for every public school classroom. His ask for $500,000 to give educators concealed-carry firearm training, $1 million for a new teacher induction program, and $1 million to recruit military veterans and former law enforcement officers to the teacher workforce also went unheeded. An Education Department spokesperson declined to comment Thursday. Another $1 million in 'efficiencies' from the agency, which has lost dozens of employees over the past two years, will transfer from the Education Department to public schools. The Legislature dedicated $5 million to a high-dosage tutoring program inspired by a similar initiative Walters established at the Education Department. Both the House and Senate have advanced legislation to pay reading and math tutors to meet with struggling students multiple times a week. Lawmakers agreed with Walters' request to boost the state's teacher maternity leave fund by $4 million. Walters advised that demand for the $2.5 million fund has been high and the number of participating districts is growing. Another major incentive for longtime teachers made the cut in the state's budget for higher education. The Legislature will dedicate an extra $740,310 to the Oklahoma's Promise college scholarship program to include children of classroom teachers with 10 or more years of experience. Members of the state's largest teacher union, the Oklahoma Education Association, are feeling 'optimistic' after seeing lawmakers prioritize teacher benefits this year, the organization's president, Cari Elledge, said. She said the 15-year increase to the salary schedule 'will hopefully give people a reason to stay' in the classroom. 'This might help keep some people in the profession longer, which could benefit students because these are people who don't have to be trained and know what they're doing,' Elledge said. The new state budget moves a $250,000 asthma inhaler fund away from the Education Department to the University Hospitals Authority and Trust, the entity that oversees hospitals on the University of Oklahoma medical campus. The state Legislature created the $250,000 fund in 2023 to distribute asthma inhalers to all public schools. Lawmakers became openly frustrated last summer after more than a year had passed without the agency disbursing any of the money. Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who was asked to investigate the matter, found the Education Department was 'neither speedy nor responsible' with the program and showed a 'lack of understanding of basic purchasing procedures.' The Education Department still has not spent the $250,000, said the Senate's budget leader, Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry. In the meantime, he said the University Hospitals Authority and Trust has been working with the Brendon McLarty Memorial Foundation to provide inhalers to schools. 'We now have experience with them and their ability and their desire to be part of this program,' Hall said of the hospitals authority. 'So we'll just take that money and put it over there and let them administer the program.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Yahoo
Parents of 4-year-old boy who accidentally shot, killed himself will not be charged: Davenport police
The Brief Charges won't be filed against the parents of a 4-year-old boy who accidentally shot and killed himself in Davenport. The Davenport police chief said the parents are devastated by the tragedy. The 4-year-old found the gun inside a car in the garage while the rest of his family was busy inside. DAVENPORT, Fla. - Davenport's Chief of Police said he will not be filing charges against the parents of a boy who found his father's gun in his car and who accidentally shot and killed himself. Chosen Morris, 4, lived with his parents, Robert and Quinta Morris, and two older siblings on Citrus Landing Boulevard where the shooting occurred Friday evening. Chief Steve Parker told FOX 13 he talked with Chosen's parents on Monday morning, who said they're just absolutely devastated by this tragedy, and they asked for privacy during this time. RELATED: 4-year-old boy dies after accidentally shooting himself in Davenport Friday: DPD Before the shooting, the family had been getting ready to go out for pizza, and they promised Chosen they would stop by a store to buy him a present, then they would play board games once they returned. While the rest of the family was busy inside the house, Chosen went to the garage. "We believe that Chosen was excited about going out that evening and got into the car to wait for the rest of the family and, in doing so, found the firearm underneath the seat and, while playing with it, it discharged and caused his fatal injuries," said Parker. Chosen was taken to a hospital in Orlando where he died of his injuries the following day. Follow FOX 13 on YouTube The Chief said Chosen's father simply forgot to remove the firearm and secure it in his bedroom after he got home from work on Thursday. "I think the most important thing to start with is knowing where your firearms are at all times," said Parker. "When you get out of the car, know, 'I've got it locked in my glovebox if I need it,' or 'I know it's in my gun safe in my bedroom.'" Secondly, make sure it's locked up, such as with a trigger lock which the department gives away for free, and the chief also suggests talking to your kids about the danger of guns, no matter how young they are, and taking them out for target practice, so they can learn how to safely handle firearms. "It impacts all of us when these things happen, especially when you are a parent or a grandparent, because that can be your child, that could be your grandchild," said Parker. HB 1087 was introduced last year that would have required owners to lock their firearms in a trunk or glove box when left inside an unoccupied car. If not, owners could face a second-degree misdemeanor. That law didn't go very far, but Chief Parker believes, if passed, it would help prevent unnecessary gun deaths. STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV Download FOX Local mobile app:Apple |Android Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines Download the SkyTower Radar app Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House lawmakers reject communism education bill, advance new scholarship requirements
Members of an Oklahoma House subcommittee voted down a bill that would require schools to teach about the human cost of communist regimes but advanced multiple bills affecting scholarship eligibility. (Photo by Janelle Stecklein/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY — As Oklahoma lawmakers consider how to best prepare students and regulate schools, a House panel approved new pre-college testing requirements and struck down a bill that would have required teaching of the 'atrocities of communism.' After a 6-4 vote, House Bill 1094 was the only bill to fail on Monday before a House subcommittee focused on education funding. Rep. Gabe Woolley, R-Broken Arrow, said he wrote the bill to ensure middle and high schools don't skip lessons about the human cost of communist regimes. Rep. Dick Lowe, R-Amber, pointed out these chapters of history are included in the Oklahoma Academic Standards for social studies, which dictate which topics schools must teach. The Legislature approves those standards, and he said lawmakers typically don't select individual topics to require through statute. 'I don't think there's a person on this committee that doesn't agree this is something that we need to cover,' Lowe said. '… I think it's very, very dangerous to start setting this precedent. We'll be doing nothing but that on every standard throughout the whole school system every year if we start doing that.' Lowe's HB 1087 earned unanimous support Monday. The bill would add 10 steps to the salary schedule for public school teachers. If it passes, teachers' mandatory annual pay raises would continue for up to 35 years while working in public schools instead of stopping at 25 years. It advances to the full House Appropriations and Budget Committee for further consideration. A proposal to set a universal minimum ACT score for the Oklahoma's Promise Scholarship also passed through the subcommittee. The state requires a minimum ACT score of 22 only for students who are homeschooled or who attend a school that isn't accredited by the Oklahoma State Board of Education. Students graduating from public K-12 schools or a state-accredited private school don't have to make a specific ACT score to qualify for the scholarship. Rep. Rick West, R-Heavener, called this 'discriminatory' for homeschool families and proposed HB 1184 to 'make it even for everybody.' The bill passed 7-2. After lengthy questioning from Republican and Democratic members, the panel also advanced HB 1096 after a 7-3 vote. The legislation came from the subcommittee's vice chair, Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, R-Elgin, and would allow students to qualify for state-funded scholarships with a Classic Learning Test score. The CLT is a lesser-known alternative to the ACT and SAT and is accepted in Oklahoma at only six small private universities. Hasenbeck said the state should accommodate students who prefer the CLT as their college entrance exam by allowing them to use their scores when applying for scholarships from Oklahoma's Promise and the State Regents for Higher Education Academic Scholars Program. Rep. John Waldron, D-Tulsa, said he took the exam and questioned whether it upholds the state's emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). 'I had a good Catholic education that helped me answer the questions about Thomas Aquinas and (Pope) John Paul II,' Waldron said during the subcommittee meeting. 'But I did find that it was light on math questions. And given that we have an agenda about STEM education in Oklahoma, are we giving students an opt-out from exam systems that would require a higher level of the skills we're trying to encourage for the future of our workforce?' Hasenbeck's bill also would create a new Academic Performance Index to grade public schools' rates of student attendance, dropouts, graduation, college remediation and Advanced Placement class participation, as well as their state test results. The index would create another level of evaluation on top of the existing A-F report cards that grade school performance. 'We need to look to groups who are excelling at teaching students reading and math,' Hasenbeck told the subcommittee. 'We need to look at their model, and we need to repeat that.' The panel unanimously passed a bill from its chairperson, Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, that would create a new full-tuition scholarship for top-performing Oklahoma students who stay in-state for college. Students would qualify if they score in the top 0.5% of the nation on a college entrance exam like the ACT or SAT. The bill doesn't specifically mention the CLT. The scholarship would offer the full amount of resident tuition if the qualifying student attends a public or private university in Oklahoma. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
