Proposed new administrative rules from Ryan Walters to be focus of House committee meeting

Members of the House Administrative Rules Committee will have two versions of a joint resolution to consider when they meet Tuesday to discuss how to handle controversial proposed rules changes from the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

One resolution, House Joint Resolution 1060, would accept all of the agency’s proposed rules changes. The other, House Joint Resolution 1061, would allow for amendments, should committee members choose not to accept some, or all, of the proposals.

Democrats, and some Republicans, on the committee have expressed concerns about the proposals being pushed by Republican state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters. There has been so much focus on the Education Department’s proposals that the committee chair, Rep. Gerrid Kendrix, R-Altus, separated that agency’s proposals from those made by every other state agency after first grouping them all together.

The committee is tasked with reviewing and approving or disapproving such rules changes from all state agencies. What’s usually an arcane and routine process has drawn scrutiny since Walters took office in January 2023 and immediately began aggressively pushing rules proposals through the Oklahoma State Board of Education, of which he serves as the chairman.

Opponents have claimed Walters and the board do not have the authority to create new rules, saying the state Legislature first must direct an agency to create rules on a given subject. Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond last year wrote an opinion — which has the force of law absent of a court decision — that reiterated that principle. Democrats, citing that opinion, claim the rules created under Walters are null and void because the Legislature didn’t tell the agency to make the rules in question.

More: Ryan Walters' proposed administrative rules for state schools will get extra scrutiny from lawmakers

Attorneys for Walters, the agency and the board have argued in a court case involving disputed agency rules, brought by Edmond Public Schools against the agency, that Drummond’s opinion “misconstrues relevant statutes and precedents.” Agency spokesman Dan Isett has said, “There is broad constitutional authority vested in OSDE that grants it the ability to act in the best interest of Oklahoma students.”

In February, the state Board of Education passed a slew of proposed rules regarding attaching high-stakes testing by student to school accreditation, prayer in schools, teacher behavior, training of local school board members, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) procedures in Oklahoma schools, among other topics. Those rules, and others adopted by the board since the most recent legislative session, now are up for review.

Committee chair says legislative rule-making process growing more complicated

Kendrix said last week his goal was to have a vote “up or down” on the education rule proposals this week.

“There may be a need from some members of the committee, that they want to file amendments on that,” Kendrix told fellow legislators during last week’s meeting. “Feel free to do so. We will be sure to allow enough time for that process to take place.”

Kendrix said the rule-making process by agencies becomes more complicated each year.

“The thing is, I’d just like to see us get to the point where our focus is about the children, it’s about growing education, making education better for our state. I think we all want to see that better. I don’t know of anybody that doesn’t. We all have differences of opinion as to how that should be achieved. But we do that in legislation that we run. We all have differences of opinion. That’s OK. That’s a part of the process. There’s a reason there’s 101 of us (representatives) and not just me.”

Rep. Melissa Provenzano, of Tulsa, one of only two Democrats on the House Administrative Rules Committee, told The Oklahoman that Democrats had wanted to have a separate resolution for the Education Department rule proposals all along. That wasn’t initially done, she said, so she submitted multiple amendments for the initial resolution before the decision was made to have separate resolutions.

“Apparently, this is a bipartisan effort,” she said. “Not everybody feels one way or the other about it. We want to protect public education here in the state of Oklahoma, and there’s some pretty damaging things that will happen if these rules are allowed to continue. We will see.”

The House committee will meet at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the state Capitol.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma House committee to consider Ryan Walters' rules proposals