Haliyma Clay (ORU)
The take back of the House: Why it takes more than an amendment to succeed in the House of Representatives.
Written on November 11, 2021.
The house heard bill OSU 507 from Rep. Fleschute, an amendatory bill amending student transfers from one school district to another which sparked debate. Rep. Howell from Oklahoma University, who voted against the bill, said,
“The main concern that we have with this bill if it fails what this means is that students with affluent families are going to be allowed to leave from their districts where they reside to suburban districts. Which are generally better or more well-funded the result of that is going to be that if all the affluent families move out to the suburbs that are going to leave inner-city school districts with only less affluent students. And therefore it is only going to perpetuate what we see in Oklahoma schools is that rich schools tend to get better because they have more money and then your inner-city schools which are disproportionately minorities or otherwise disadvantaged individuals their schools keep getting worse.”
Rep. Smith from the Oral Roberts University delegation who voted for yes on the bill said,
“They…believe that this bill actually will not have any impact because the original bill that this bill is amending isn’t actually active until 2022 therefore it wouldn’t be affecting anything or having any effect on anything in the future; it would be just reverting things and making it so that the future is not impacted by the future change that the bill that has already passed is proposing.”
When Rep. Adam Clifton from the delegation Oklahoma Baptist University was asked why he debated against the bill, he said,
“I was against it because I felt that it was cutting out their freedom of the students and parents to choose what’s right for their kids…they said in debate the bill did not have any effects. Just because it did not have any effects, I saw that as an issue as well. I mean, if we are going to pass a bill with no effects, why are we here? Why are we passing the bill? There seemed to be a lot of effects in there, and now I think this will allow students to go freely on what’s best for them.”
In a vote of 17 yes’s and 19 no’s, OSU bill 507 failed in The House of Representatives.