Rewarding Student Outcomes Act
The state’s A-F school district report card system has taken heat in the past for judging districts by controversial metrics, like chronic absenteeism. The State Senate is looking to reform that program, as well as reward districts for improvement.
Senate Bill 531, the ‘Rewarding Student Outcomes Act,” was authored by Republican Senator Adam Pugh. It does two main things: it changes the A through F district report card system by removing chronic absenteeism from the grading formula and replacing it with climate surveys for students, staff and guardians.
It also would reward schools that achieve at least a one percent increase from the previous year in the number of graduates who are college, career or military ready. The bill defines readiness in a few ways: like attaining certain scores on the ACT, SAT or Advanced Placement tests, as well as earning industry credentials or concurrent college credit, or being accepted for enlistment in the Armed Services.
Districts would get a bonus of $1,500 per student for economically disadvantaged graduates and $500 per student for graduates not economically disadvantaged. The bill passed committee Wednesday and can now be heard on the Senate Floor.
Bill To Strengthen Protections For Consumers Passes Senate
A bill that aims to strengthen protections for consumers is moving forward. Oklahoma Democratic Senator Kay Floyd’s Senate Bill 871, also known as the Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act, would prevent scammers from posing as state agencies to deceive citizens.
"It’s one of the leading forms of scamming in the entire country. So, people will send something out that looks like an official document and we can file this or do that, but it would be a $50 charge or a $100 charge when, in fact, you could go down to, for example, the Secretary of State do the exact same thing, do the exact same filing for free or $25," said Floyd.
According to Floyd, the new legislation will provide more tools for fighting imposter scams, which have become increasingly common and caused consumers to lose over $2.3 billion in 2021. The bill passed unanimously and now goes to the House for consideration.
State Purges More Than 86,000 Voters
In the state’s latest voter purge more than 86,000 voters were removed from the rolls, due to inactivity or duplicate registrations.
The state election board conducts what they call “voter list maintenance” on odd-numbered years. This year, that maintenance was conducted on Jan. 13 and removed nearly 2,900 duplicate voter registrations and more than 83,000 inactive voters.
Oklahoma removed more than 88,000 names from its voter rolls in 2019 - and more than 115,000 in 2021.
Voters are removed after not voting in two consecutive general elections or failing to respond to an address confirmation from the State Election Board.
Voters who are prepping to cast their ballots next week for State Question 820 should check to see if they are still eligible to vote. You can contact your county election board to confirm your registration status.
Cherokee Meat Company To Accept SNAP Benefits
The Cherokee Nation will now accept SNAP at their meat processing facility.
In 2022, more than 400,000 Oklahoma families received SNAP benefits. The program expanded to help families during the pandemic. That expansion ended on March 1.
But, Cherokee Nation will now accept SNAP benefits at their recently opened meat processing facility with discounts available for veterans, and Cherokee Citizens-so they can purchase locally sourced meat sold by the tribal nation.
Cherokee officials say that becoming a SNAP retailer is an important way they can ease food insecurity among tribal citizens.
For more information about Cherokee Nation's meat facility go to their website.
Domestic Abuse relief bill advances
A bill that aims provide post-conviction relief for survivors of domestic violence passed through committee earlier this week.
Republican Representative Toni Hasenbeck’s House Bill 1639 was passed unanimously by the House Judiciary-Criminal Committee on Wednesday.
The bill would create the Oklahoma Domestic Abuse Survivorship Act, which would allow victims of domestic abuse who were incarcerated after committing crimes against their abuser to enter evidence of their abuse at a sentencing mitigation hearing.
The bill also proposes a sentencing range if the court finds them to be a victim of domestic abuse within one year of their crime, including a cap of 10 years regardless of sentence. The bill now moves to the House floor.
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