Oklahoma teacher pay plan absent at Capitol deadline

The Oklahoma Legislature could head home for the weekend without advancing a bill to increase teacher salaries.

Despite an important Thursday deadline, the Oklahoma Senate did not schedule a hearing on House Bill 1114, which would incrementally raise the minimum teacher salary schedule by $6,000 over three years.

The Senate’s teacher pay plan that would increase salaries by 4 percent languished in a House committee without a hearing.

There’s still time, though. House and Senate leadership can introduce legislation at any time, meaning that lawmakers can adopt a teacher pay plan if an agreement is reached.

Legislation also can be proposed through the Joint Committee on Appropriations and Budget process this late in session. Bills in that committee don’t follow the typical legislative process.

“There could still be a JCAB bill introduced at any point in the next several weeks,” said state Rep. Josh Cockroft, R-Wanette, who was one of several House members urging Senate action this week.

Any teacher pay plan needs at least two parts: One bill to place the raise into state law and another to allocate money for it. House Republicans on Thursday vowed to appropriate $52.6 million to cover the first $1,000 raise of their proposal.

The money, Cockroft said, would come from the elimination of tax exemptions, credits and deductions.

“We’re committed to building it into the budget,” he said. “We’re committed, and we’ve been committed since Day One to provide a teacher pay raise. There’s a lot of people saying we’re not going to, but we’re committed to. Whether the Senate is or not, that’s another question.”

Senate Floor Leader Greg Treat echoed the belief that a bill can still be heard this session.

“We’re still working and talking about a framework for teacher pay,” Treat said.

The framework, in his view, would be state law that gives teachers a pay raise at some point.

“Whether or not it has funding this next fiscal year is up for debate, but (the Senate wants) a framework so we know we’re casting a vision of how we can get teacher pay to the point it needs to be,” Treat said.

In a news release late Thursday, House Speaker Charles McCall said the House did its part to pass a teacher pay raise.