Ed's Notes

            As Paul Harvey used to say: “here is the rest of the story.”  In other words this entry will focus on the final four bills that I have filed for the next session.  The first bill is perhaps the most important bill that I have ever filed.  The first bill I would like to discuss relates to the potential threats of our being made parties to a law suit initiated by the state over water rights. According to a Jan. 16 article in the Ada News, the Oklahoma Water Resource Board (OWRB) authorized their attorneys to file suit under Title 82 of Oklahoma statutes to determine water rights in an area of Southeast Oklahoma; the OWRB plans to file such a suit on Feb. 1. If your state water board is successful in this particular lawsuit, which is directed in response to the tribal water rights of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, any property owner or entity in a stream system who holds water rights could be held responsible for the burden and expense of long-term and complex litigation. This is known as stream adjudication. Existing Oklahoma water law language regarding stream adjudication poses a significant threat to property owners throughout eastern Oklahoma. As a result of this poorly written section of the water code, I have filed a bill to amend stream adjudication law in Oklahoma.  In part, this new bill will require that “a majority of persons claiming a right to use water in a stream system” agree to a proposed suit by the OWRB, will require a "public hearing and allow a reasonable period of public comment on any planned adjudication" and would limit the scope of such an adjudication.

The remaining three bills are education related bills.  First of these is a bill that will change the high school graduation requirements and provide a two tiered diploma system.  First is the Standard Diploma which will be attained by a student who successfully completes the state and local district curriculum requirements for graduation.  This will remove the current state mandate that they score proficient on four (4) of seven End of Instruction exams.  If this is mandate is not changed it is estimated that this  requirement will prevent approximately 5,000 high school seniors from graduating this year.  The second tier of this bill will be an Honors Diploma which can be earned if a senior has successfully completed the college preparatory curriculum and scores proficient on four (4) of seven End of Instruction exams.  While there are those who want to completely do away with these exams as any condition for graduation, I hope this will be a compromise between those demanding them and those calling for their removal.  The key is that this issue is studied by the legislature.

            Another education bill will call for our high schools to give students credits to students who attend Career Tech schools and earn college credits for their courses successfully completed at these schools.  If this bill becomes law, this will allow these college credits earned by high schools students in connection with their course work at the Career Tech to count as elective course credits in their high school college preparatory curriculum.   Last year there were over 4,000 college credit hours earned by high school student at Career Tech Centers across this state.  If a student earns a college credit, surely we should count this on their college preparatory curriculum requirements for graduation. 

            The final education bill that I am filing concerns the new trend for students to attend and receive credits for online or virtual courses.  While there may be a justification for a limited role of this form of education.  I have found that a large portion of the state money that goes to fund these courses go to out of state vendors or providers.  As a result my bill will be that the online provider receiving funds for students enrolled in their courses or programs must have its principal place of business located in Oklahoma or has at least fifty percent (50%) of its employees or assets be located in Oklahoma.   Since this revenue is a loss to our public schools, we need to at least insure that it is kept in the state and subject to state taxes since there are overwhelmingly private businesses. 

            The final bill that I will file concerns  

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