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The Tulsa Beacon

 

Legislative Update

Unwise for kids: Biden’s push for 5- to 11-year-olds draws fire

Tulsa Beacon

Rep. Sean Roberts, R-Hominy, criticized the Biden administration’s continued push for children as young as 5 years old to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Biden administration officials laid out plans on October 20 to ensure that close to 25,000 pediatric or primary care offices, thousands of pharmacies and hundreds of schools and rural health clinics would…

Apologize for the FBI probe

Tulsa Beacon

Reps. Sherrie Conley, R-Newcastle, and Wendi Stearman, R-Collinsville, with 13 of their colleagues sent a letter to Shawn Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA), requesting that he take action to stop the National School Board Association (NSBA) from requesting federal assistance on behalf of Oklahoma and for an apology to…

Birth Certificate honesty

Tulsa Beacon

Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, R-Adair, filed SB 1100, which would require male and female to be the only options on birth certificates to identify a child’s sex at birth. “I was assured by the State Department of Health a couple months ago that they had no intention of adding another sex option to birth certificates, but…

Fixing teacher shortages

Tulsa Beacon

Finding innovative approaches to Oklahoma’s teacher shortage while improving teacher quality was the focus of an interim study held Monday before the House Common Education Committee. The study’s host, Rep. Rhonda Baker, R-Yukon. Baker, chairs the committee. “Oklahoma, like most of the nation, faces an acute teacher shortage,” Baker said. “I first wanted to examine…

Student learning loss study

Tulsa Beacon

Education officials offered differing explanations and solutions to recent student learning losses during a joint legislative interim study held amid state education funding increasing 35% in the past five years to a record $3.2 billion. Rep. Rhonda Baker, R-Yukon, the chair of the House Common Education Committee, and Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, chair of the…

Medical data censorship

Tulsa Beacon

On Oct. 13, Rep. Sean Roberts, R-Hominy, hosted a SARS-COV-2 presentation and roundtable with fellow legislators and other government officials. Topics included SARS-COV-2 death rates, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing, masks, herd immunity, natural immunity, Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting (VAERS) data, and alternative therapeutics. “During this presentation, we had great discussions revolving around research that…

Pay raises for support staff

Tulsa Beacon

Reps. Ronny Johns, R-Ada, and John Talley, R-Stillwater, held an interim study to look at ways to increase pay for support professionals in Oklahoma’s public schools. “It is so important that we bring to the forefront how important our support staff is to our schools,” said Johns, a member of the House Common Education Committee…

OSSBA is strangely silent

Tulsa Beacon

State school board associations from across the nation are publicly condemning the National School Boards Association’s call for parents who object to Critical Race Theory to be investigated under anti-terrorism laws. But, so far, the Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA) is not among those criticizing the National School Boards Association. In a Sept. 29…

Sen. Nathan Dahm to challenge Sen. James Lankford

Tulsa Beacon

State Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, announced that he will seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in the 2022 election cycle. Dahm is challenging U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma. Tulsa Pastor Jackson Lahmeyer has also announced that he will run against Lankford in the GOP primary. Dahm has criticized Lankford for not doing more…

Indian Nation Turnpike

Tulsa Beacon

Rep. Jim Grego, R-Wilburton, wants more on- and off-ramps to the Indian Nation Turnpike in southeast Oklahoma. “This is a topic my constituents have asked me about since I first got elected three years ago,” Grego said.  “My goal is to see how we can increase access for the folks living and working in southeast…