A House bill inspired by frustrations with state Superintendent Ryan Walters’ leadership of the Oklahoma State Board of Education now is at risk of failing as it approaches a crucial deadline without yet passing through its assigned Senate committee.
The Senate Education Committee met Tuesday for the final time before a Thursday deadline to advance House bills to the full Senate. The committee did so without considering House Bill 1491, which would allow members of school boards, including the state Board of Education, to place topics on their meeting agendas by submitting a written request.
The committee’s leader, Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, was critical of the bill, saying it would treat the state Board of Education differently from all other statewide boards and commissions. Pugh, as chairperson, decides which bills the committee will consider for a vote.
“I want to treat that state board like we would any other government agency,” Pugh said after Tuesday’s meeting. “And so, we have to ensure a fairly applied law, and I’m not sure that that’s what that bill achieved.”
House lawmakers drafted the bill after some of the governor’s recent appointees to the state Board of Education said they were frustrated that only Walters controlled what agenda items the board could discuss during its meetings.
The state superintendent, who is elected, leads the board and the Oklahoma State Department of Education, both of which oversee the state’s public schools system.
Gov. Kevin Stitt and top Republican leaders in the House and Senate endorsed the measure, and it passed a vote by the full House with overwhelming bipartisan support. At the time the bill was filed, Stitt said one member shouldn’t have unilateral control over the whole board.
The Governor’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.
House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, and Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, declined to comment on the stalled bill.
HB 1491 from Rep. Ronny Johns, R-Ada, would have allowed two members on the state board or any local school board with five or more positions to place an item on an upcoming meeting agenda with a written request. It would have taken only one member to request an agenda item on school boards with four or fewer members.
Current state law doesn’t outline any method for state Board of Education officials to have input on their meeting agendas. School boards that have an at-large board chair position, found in districts with at least 30,000 students, can add agenda items with a request from a majority of board members.
State Board of Education member Chris Vandenhende proposed during a February meeting that the panel schedule a future vote to “suspend all activity related to immigration.” His request referred to a rule the board had approved the month before that would require schools to collect and report students’ immigration status.
But, Walters has the final say on what topics the board will discuss. An agenda for its March meeting didn’t include Vandenhende’s request or any reference to immigration.
The board ultimately canceled its March meeting because the agenda was posted online 19 minutes after a legally required deadline.
Pugh said he is supportive of board members expressing dissent but questioned whether lawmakers had considered the possibility of “unintended consequences” and disruption from HB 1491.
“You could just be creating gridlock and chaos on that board, and that’s not healthy for the state either because they have a really important role to play,” Pugh said.
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