Oklahoma
State Senate
Communications Division
State Capitol
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105
For Immediate Release: February 16, 2009
Senator John Ford
Education Committee Approves School District Empowerment
Program
State Senator John
Ford has won committee passage of a bill designed to give
greater local control to Oklahoma public school districts. Senate
Bill 834, the School District Empowerment Program, would remove
many of the unfunded state mandates currently restricting the
ability of local school districts to best decide how to use resources
to benefit their students.
"We pump billions of dollars into education every year, but
schools are saddled with so many unfunded mandates they are extremely
limited as to how those funds are used," said Ford, who represents
Craig, Nowata and Washington Counties in the State Senate. "This
will free up our local school districts so that the teachers,
parents, school boards and administrators can develop innovative
approaches and programs to give our children a better education."
Ford, who is the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said
regulations dealing with health, safety, civil rights and testing
would still remain in place.
"What we are simply saying is that we entrust our local parents
and schools to determine what will work best for their district
and allow them the freedom and creativity to achieve the best
results for their students," Ford said.
SB 834 will now move to the full Senate for consideration.
For more information contact:
Sen. Ford's Office: 405-521-5634
