Teacher Candidates Propose Education Legislation

More than 2,500 new bills will be introduced during the upcoming legislative session and many have to do with Education.

Freshmen lawmakers who are also former teachers are behind a lot of them.

After last year's walkout, many teachers and education supporters ran for office.

Now with several of them elected, they hope to continue to keep the focus on education this session.

“I taught it for so long that I started to have questions about it - because my students would say if it’s supposed to work this way how come it doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to,” said Representative John Waldron.

Representative John Waldron taught U-S Government at Booker T High School for several years. He's taught about democracy before, but now he's getting a firsthand look.

“If I had to teach government again, I would try to teach students the complexity of the issues and the interest that’s involved in the legislative process while still focusing on the simple task of serving the public interest,” said Waldron.

Since being sworn in, Waldron has filed several bills revolving around education.

One bill would provide a mentoring program for new teachers (HB1412 = https://legiscan.com/OK/text/HB1412/2019) and another would reassess how school districts are graded. (HB1415 =https://legiscan.com/OK/text/HB1415/2019 )

“They've done a lot of things to improve school assessment, but I think it’s really simplistic to give a school a single letter grade,” said Waldron.

Waldron has also proposed a bill that would change the way private prison dollars are being spent. (HB1416 = https://legiscan.com/OK/text/HB1416/2019 )

He believes this bill, even if it’s not directly involved with education, could influence future generations.

“Imagine if we put fewer people in prison, the money could be invested in education and that too would put fewer people in prison,” said Waldron.

More than 500 of the bills filed have something to do with education in Oklahoma.

Whether it’s about limiting class sizes, attracting more teachers or adapting the alternative education system, a wide variety of topics are covered.

“We're going to propose legislation this year that’s going to address the problem and get our schools back on track ,” said Waldron.

Representative Waldron also proposed a bill that would fine legislators for proposing non constitutional legislation. (HB 1413 = https://legiscan.com/OK/text/HB1413/2019)

For a list of bills filed in Oklahoma: https://legiscan.com/OK