After last week’s deadline to pass bills out of committees, we spent many long days on the House floor hearing and voting on those bills.
This week, the House heard House Bill 3351, which allows parents to donate money to their child’s teacher. The bill doesn’t indicate how the teacher should use that money. They can keep it for themselves or use it for their classroom, whichever they prefer. The parent donating the money can use it as a tax write-off.
One problem I foresee with this bill is that it doesn’t help small rural schools where parents may be less able to afford donations for teachers. I discussed this concern with House leadership, and we talked about possibly adjusting the per student funding rate for low-income schools to account for the differences. With that discussion, I did vote for this bill to provide more money for education by allowing parents to direct money for specific needs.
We also approved House Bill 4349 to modify the size of school boards in smaller school districts. Currently, school board members are prohibited from being related to a district employee if the school district has an average daily membership of less than 400 students. This bill increases that number to 600 students, allowing for more flexibility in our rural school districts.
We’ll soon consider House Bill 4370, which requires that school board meetings be on live video and audio stream. This will get more parents and people from the community involved with the school board meetings and what’s going on in their local schools.
This week, I discussed House Bill 1888 with several members. The bill prohibits any public body from conducting mandatory gender or sexual diversity training or counseling. The bill continues to allow sexual harassment prevention training, as well as voluntary counseling.
My problem with the bill is that it’s too general and doesn’t provide specifics. Nothing was mentioned in the language about what would be provided to the individual during an emergency, since an office or agency couldn’t provide mandatory counseling or training.
I believe the bill needs to be amended to include a section about when a child is in critical danger. It should detail what procedures would take place during that emergency and referral procedures following it. Sometimes it helps to bring in a subject matter expert who can advise on specific language, and that may be helpful on this bill.
The bill may be heard and ultimately passed with its title off to account for these potential changes. To take the title off the bill, or “strike title,” allows the bill to continue in the legislative process while recognizing it needs further changes before its final approval.
We’ll continue to hear House bills on the floor before the deadline on the 24th, then we’ll prepare to start hearing Senate bills in committees.
Please continue reaching out to share your thoughts on upcoming legislation. You may contact me at 405-557-7375 or randy.randleman@okhouse.gov.
Rep. Randy Randleman, a Republican, serves District 15 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, which covers Haskell County and portions of Muskogee, Sequoyah, LeFlore, Pittsburg and McIntosh counties.
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