Press release
OKLAHOMA CITY (June 11, 2018) – The Oklahoma Supreme Court held oral argument on Professional Oklahoma Educators’ Protest to Referendum Petition No. 25 on June 11. POE filed a Protest to this referendum petition on behalf of its members to protect Oklahoma educators and the recent bill, House Bill 1010xx, which contained the funding measures to implement House Bill 1023xx, the teacher pay raise bill.
POE was the first to file a protest. The POE Protest requests that the Oklahoma Supreme Court declare Referendum Petition No. 25 unconstitutional, citing that the referendum petition is legally insufficient as a matter of Oklahoma law and otherwise invalid. The Oklahoma Supreme Court could then dismiss Referendum Petition No. 25 in its entirety, thereby preventing it from appearing on the November ballot. Such a ruling could also serve to protect public education funding measures in the future.
POE was concerned that if Referendum Petition No. 25 was challenged exclusively on procedural technicalities, as was the basis of the “Decline to Sign” group’s subsequent protest, mere corrections to the wording and other procedural deficiencies could be made, meaning signatures could still be collected to place the proposed repeal of House Bill 1010xx on the November ballot.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court will now deliberate this protest and its decision could be days or weeks in the making. POE is hopeful that the Court will issue a ruling for Oklahoma’s teachers in order to fully implement the funding mechanism for the new minimum teacher salary schedule and related pay raises.
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