On Wednesday, we discussed HB 834 or the Education Reform Bill. I want to discuss this piece of legislation because it is a very important bill that, if signed into law, will make a definite impact on our common education. This bill was promoted as being good for education in Oklahoma.

However, what this bill does is do away with all reforms and mandates that HB 1017 required. HB 1017 was enacted over twenty years ago and provided all of the guidelines and safeguards that public education required. There are so many required policy guidelines removed in this bill that it in effect will require each school district to implement their own policies. This bill will require each board of education of each school district in Oklahoma to decide what type of curriculum their schools will offer. There are no requirements for libraries, counselors, salary negotiations, length of school days, due process hearings, and the list goes on. The bill passed the Senate on a party line vote, 25-22, 25 Republicans, 22 Democrats. It now goes to the governor, and I hope that he vetoes this bad piece of legislation.

This week, I was happy to have Clint Maxcey of McAlester and Jennifer Bullard of Hartshorne (both students of McAlester Christian Academy) serving as Senate Pages. They did a great job and I know that they had a once in a lifetime experience that they won’t forget.

Tuesday, Margaret Goddard and a group of Haileyville High School students representing Professional Business students visited the Capitol.

Ron Cunningham of Hartshorne was confirmed by the Senate to be a member of the Oklahoma Mining Commission and Teresa Jackson of Hartshorne was confirmed to be a member of the Board of Regents at Eastern Oklahoma State College. I was happy to carry their nominations for Governor Henry for their appointment.

Wednesday was the final day of the State FFA Convention and the FFA Choir performed in the Senate Chamber. It is amazing what a great job these students do in such a short period of time. However, when you have the cream of the crop, it does not take long to get them together and put on a great performance. That night, the legislators were treated to a dinner and my host was Kiowa FFA Advisor Todd House, and FFA Student Derek Hatridge.

This week, the Democrat Caucus sent another letter to Sen. Glen Coffee requesting that he provide us information on his failure to pay his income taxes on time which caused the IRS to file a lien against his home. If he does not give us the requested information, all 22 Democrats are requesting that he vacate his position as Pro-Tempore of the Oklahoma Senate. In my opinion, we have waited too long for him to respond to our request. He must step down.

We have three weeks left in this session, and as of this writing, we have not seen anything that resembles a budget for FY 2010. We were supposed to have funded education by April 1, however, that day came and went and no sign of an education budget. I did hear from the Department of Corrections and they are preparing for a 7 percent decrease, which means a loss of over 400 employees. The Department of Corrections cannot stand to lose over 400 employees. DOC is already staffed at 80 percent, which means double shifts and an inadequate number of guards on duty which is not in the best interest of our state employees. With the projected, $600-900 million shortfall, this is not going to be a rosy picture when we do get the budget.

Some of the bills that passed the Senate and House have gone to Governor Henry and he has signed some into law and has vetoed some. The rest of the bills still alive are in conference committee. This means that they will be worked on by joint House and Senate conferees and then presented to each body. Some will make it out of conference and some will languish and die not to be seen again.

District 7 State Sen. Richard Lerblance: State Capitol 513-B, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd., Oklahoma City, OK, 73105-4808. Oklahoma City: (405) 521-5604. Hartshorne: (918) 297-2501 or (918) 297-2890.