Senate Review by Senator J.J. Dossett

Two years ago, Oklahoma passed legislation calling for the adoption of new education standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics. Our public schools, CareerTech and Higher Education all worked together to develop these standards for Oklahoma Public Schools that were stronger than the previous standards enacted under PASS, and that surpassed those contained in Common Core.

A tremendous amount of work went into developing these standards, aimed at ensuring our students get an education that ensures they are career and college ready by the time they graduate from high school. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister said the new standards are,” rigorous, user-friendly and, most importantly, created by Oklahomans for Oklahomans to address the particular needs of our state.”

The legislature had 30 legislative days after the session began to approve or disapprove the standards—no final action meant the standards would simply go into effect. Each chamber this past week took up separate resolutions approving the standards, and each added some recommendations on how members felt the final product could be improved. However neither chamber took up the other chamber’s legislation by the end of this legislative week, when the Senate contended the deadline was. The House interpreted the 2014 legislation differently and said the deadline was Monday. I predict, however, when all is said and done, the new standards will proceed.

I really don’t think legislators should have been involved with approving or disapproving these standards anyway. Months of hard work by education experts in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education went into the production of these new standards. We need to trust in the work and expertise of these dedicated education professionals and the politicians need to quit trying to micromanage our schools.

In other news, I am happy to tell you that the governor signed the supplemental funding bill for common education this week, which means they will receive $51 million dollars to soften the blow of the cuts received as a result of revenue failures in the current budget cycle. The cuts were, however, more than twice that amount, and further reductions are likely in the next budget year, not only for education but for all agencies.

We don’t know yet how large those cuts may be. My priority is to make sure we do everything we can to shield education to the greatest extent possible.

I welcome your comments on state government and the issues before us. Please feel free to contact me by writing to Senator J.J. Dossett at the State Capitol, Room 521-A, Oklahoma City, OK, 73105; call me at (405) 521-5566.

Oklahoma State Senate
Communications Division
State Capitol
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105

-- We are raising funds for new uniforms. Our current uniforms are 10 yrs old, some are held together with safety pins, and we do not have enough for incoming freshmen in the fall of 2016 either. Estimated cost is $30,000.

Last marching season, our program started with all new directors who were hired only a month before summer marching practices began. Even with such a short time to get a program together and form a cohesive group of kids, our kids were 8th at OBA, 3rd at Bixby Invitational, and scored Superior at OSSAA. We have a winter guard in both HS and JR High this year and they're doing well in competitions also. These kids and directors work really hard and we would love to be able to provide this much needed equipment for them to continue!

Tracey Jarrard (3/24/2016)

2015-2016 Band Booster Secretary