By Devyn Lyon, Fox23 News
OKLAHOMA — Education is once again taking center stage at the Oklahoma State Capitol as lawmakers roll out new legislation aimed at improving early childhood literacy.
State Senator Adam Pugh (R-Edmond), the Chair of the Senate Education Committee, said literacy will be the top educational priority this legislative session.
“Literacy, I do believe it will be the number one thing we discuss and the number one policy we tackle this year,” said Pugh.
Pugh has filed legislation that would expand the Oklahoma Strong Readers Act, a program that’s designed to direct funding and resources to school districts with the greatest student needs.
The proposal focuses heavily on early learners, particularly students in kindergarten through third grade.
“Really, this is a K through five issue and beyond, but we are laser focused on K through three.”
The plan closely mirrors a proposal promoted by the State Chamber last year called “Oklahoma Competes.”
Under the Strong Readers Act, lawmakers would increase the funding that flows directly to districts for literacy support.
“The Strong Readers Act is a formulary where we put dollars in and it flows out to districts who have those student needs and so I’m asking to put additional money into the Strong Readers Act.”
On the House side, Speaker Kyle Hilbert (R-Bristow) is carrying the legislation. He said Oklahoma can no longer accepts its low national education rankings.
Hilbert said, “I feel like for far too long we, as Oklahomans, have just accepted Oklahoma’s rankings near the bottom of the pack for the country.”
The proposal includes literacy coaches, additional funding, tutoring programs and a return to reading grade retention tests.
It would also reinstate transitional first grade, known as T1, which was previously removed from state law.
“Our transitional first grade was incredibly popular and successful, but based on funding and lack of resources, schools started to get rid of it,” said Pugh. “It was taken out of state law. Well, we’re going to put it back.”
While education leaders said literacy reform is critical, teacher groups warn that promises without funding could do more harm than good.
Shawna Mott-Wright, the President of the Tulsa Classroom Teachers Association, said schools are already struggling with staffing shortages.
“We don’t have enough people,” she stated.
She said turning around a system as large as Oklahoma’s education system takes time and sustained investment.
“It takes money and it takes time. You can turn around a tiny canoe or dinghy a lot faster than you can turn around a giant ship, so do not come to me like ‘we’re going to turn this around so fast’ when we are massive.”
Mott-Wright said concerns grow if state education agencies receive another flat budget, similar to last year.
“Yes, literacy is important. Everything’s important if we want well-rounded people. We need to do that for our kids and funding is important for that. We need resources, not just mandates without resources.”
She also said repeated unmet promises have contributed to teachers leaving the profession.
“This year we’ve lost several teachers because they’ve been promised so many resources and it was not delivered. We are caring for people. We are pouring out of ourselves. You can’t pour from an empty vessel.”
Lawmakers said the literacy proposal will continue to be debated as the legislative session moves forward.
