By Journalist Amaya Brooks (OBU)
Senator Cook (NWOSU) brought and presented a bill on Saturday that caused much debate and conversation within the Senate body. According to Senator Cook, “It’s just your run of the mill school voucher bill. It allows for parents to have power over the public funding that is allotted to their students. They are able to choose educational institutions that they feel would best serve their students’ needs.”
This bill was a whopping 12 pages long and contained many details and a comprehensive and lengthy short title. The controversy of how public funds should be allocated in the state of Oklahoma provided strong opinions on both sides in the Senate. Senator Floyd (OU) says, “What is in place already is already sufficient for the state. Taking public funds away from public schools will be detrimental and will further exacerbate public school issues. Open enrollment is a much better alternative and is already in place in Oklahoma, which takes public money and transfers it to public schools wherever that student transfers.” Not only does this present questions on the current status of school funding, but how this will affect private institutions. According to Senator Cook, this bill would allow for public funds to be put towards private or charter schools if the parents choose to do so. For Senator FLoyd, this presents a huge problem. “I believe that taking public money and putting it into private institutions, especially religious institutions, is a clear violation of church and state, which I believe would lead to a constitutional nightmare.”
However, the contents of the bill also gained support from several Senators such as Senator Baca (SE). “It was a good program overall because it puts education and the parents and children’s needs over the needs of the government. This places responsibility and more value on what the parents want and what the child needs rather than what the government and public schools need.” Senator Cook says, “In so many different areas it allows for parents to meet the needs of their students… The goal of the bill is to just increase the education level of Oklahomans in general.”
After debate was called, in which Senators Gardner (OBU), Collier (OBU), Robison (SE), and Floyd (OU) debated in the opponency and Senators Baca (SE), Cook (NWOSU), Ervin (NWOSU), and Ramsey (ORU) debated in the proponency, this bill presented the first tie in the Senate this session, a tie that was broken by Pres Pro Shaw in the affirmative. In the House, however, this bill did not pass, with a resounding 3 in the affirmative and 33 in the negative. Better luck next time, Senator Cook.