A legislative session dominated by education issues reached its end on May 14, with legislative leaders saying much was accomplished this year.

“The House entered this session committed to protecting taxpayers, defending conservative values, and delivering results for the people of Oklahoma,” said House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow. “While not every priority reached the finish line, we made meaningful progress on education reform, public safety, economic development, government accountability, and protecting individual freedoms. I am proud of the work of our members this session and remain committed to continuing the fight for policies that keep Oklahoma strong and prosperous for generations to come.”

“From strengthening our schools and delivering a historic teacher pay raise to making insulin more affordable, investing in water infrastructure and protecting Oklahomans, this was a highly productive legislative session, where we delivered on things that matter most to Oklahomans,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle. “We passed a responsible state budget that makes significant investments in core areas of state government, while maintaining our commitment to conservative fiscal stewardship. We also advanced important reforms to improve literacy and math achievement, support parental choice and uphold election integrity. I am proud of the work the Senate accomplished this year, and I appreciate the dedication of our members and staff in helping us deliver meaningful results for the people of Oklahoma.”

During the 2026 session, lawmakers focused a substantial amount of effort and time on improving Oklahoma’s poor academic outcomes, particularly in reading.

Senate Bill 1778, by state Sen. Adam Pugh and Hilbert, effectively requires that students read at least on a second-grade level before beginning the fourth grade, or face retention in the third grade. The new law, which was accompanied by millions of dollars in new school funding, provides for intensive early intervention for struggling students in the first through third grades, and is modeled on a successful law in Mississippi that improved that state’s third-grade reading results from some of the nation’s worst to placing among the top 10 states.

Based on Spring 2025 state testing tests, just 27 percent of Oklahoma third graders are reading at or above grade level, and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests show that only 23 percent of Oklahoma fourth-grade students scored at or above proficient in 2024, meaning students were meeting grade-level expectations. Only two states did worse on NAEP’s fourth-grade reading test.

Oklahoma students will also spend more time in the classroom, coming closer to matching national norms, under legislation approved this session.

House Bill 3151, by state Rep. Rob Hall and Paxton, raises the minimum number of school days per year from 166 to 173 in Oklahoma starting in the 2027-2028 school year, so long as lawmakers also provide another $175 million in funding over the next two years.

Given that this year’s budget agreement includes over $230 million in new money for K-12 schools, including a $2,000 pay raise for teachers, the trigger in HB 3151 has already been reached.

Of the more than 500 school districts in Oklahoma, 176 reportedly do not currently meet the 173-day mandate.

Nationally, most states require at least 180 days of school per year.

A recent poll funded by the Oklahoma Center for Education Policy at the University of Oklahoma found strong support for mandatory third-grade retention for struggling readers, with 70 percent in favor and only 23 percent opposed.

The poll also showed that an in-person, 180-day school year is supported by 63 percent of Oklahomans and opposed by only 25 percent.

Lawmakers also voted to increase school-choice opportunities, so more families can access a private-school education.

The Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program provides refundable tax credits of $5,000 to $7,500 per child to cover the cost of private school tuition. The largest tax credits go to those with the lowest incomes, and families with income of less than $150,000 per year are prioritized.

This school year, the families of 39,587 children used the Parental Choice Tax Credit program to send their children to a private school using $247.8 million in credits, according to a report from the Oklahoma Tax Commission. A majority of students using the program are from low-income or middle-class families and, based on trends, demand is expected to exceed the existing $250 million cap during the 2026-2027 school year.

House Bill 3705, by Hilbert and Paxton, increases the amount of school-choice tax credits to $275 million next year to ensure no families are left behind.

When he signed the bill into law, Gov. Kevin Stitt declared, “I want education freedom for every family in Oklahoma. This law levels the playing field and ensures every parent has the freedom to choose the best education for their child. I always say kids belong to parents, not the government. This bill opens up more opportunities for more families.”

Thanks to Oklahoma’s school-choice programs, enrollment in the state’s private schools is surging, and some schools are nearing capacity. To help expand the number of private-school seats available to Oklahoma families, while also addressing infrastructure needs in public schools, lawmakers approved House Bill 1590, by state Rep. Mark Lepak and state Sen. Julie Daniels. The legislation created the Oklahoma Education Infrastructure Linked Deposit Program to help charter schools and nonprofit private schools access affordable financing for construction and facility improvements.

HB 1590 is based on existing linked deposit programs administered through the state treasurer’s office that support family farmers, small businesses, and housing developers by providing low-interest certificates of deposit to participating financial institutions. Under the new law, institutions must collateralize the certificates of deposit received from the treasurer’s office, so there is no risk of loss of public funds, even if the borrower defaults.

Lawmakers also ensured that Oklahoma will participate in a federal program that supports school choice.

Among other things, the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act provided for an individual, dollar-for-dollar tax credit of up to $1,700 per individual taxpayer for contributions to state-approved, federally recognized nonprofits that distribute private-school scholarships to eligible children, defined as students from households earning no more than 300 percent of their county’s median income. Officials estimate that 90 percent of children in most states will qualify.

States have to proactively opt into the federal tax credit program, which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

In January, the governor announced Oklahoma would participate. House Bill 3704, by state Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader and Daniels, locks in Oklahoma’s participation.

Policymakers also addressed impediments to children transferring to new public-school districts under Oklahoma’s open-transfer law.

House Bill 2153, by Hall and state Sen. Avery Frix, ensures that students who transfer into a new district will no longer be automatically barred from participating in athletics for a year. The bill also makes more hearings conducted by the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) subject to the state’s open-meeting laws.

In one of the final actions taken during the session, lawmakers ensured that Oklahomans will receive the benefit if the federal fuel tax is temporarily suspended, as President Trump recently proposed.

Existing state law requires that state fuel taxes increase to offset any reduction in the federal gasoline or diesel tax.

House Bill 1370 was amended to repeal that provision of state law, meaning Oklahomans will see fuel taxes go down if federal taxes are suspended.

Lawmakers also advanced House Joint Resolution 1023, which increased medical reimbursement in the state’s workers’ compensation system to protect and preserve Oklahoma’s landmark workers’ compensation reforms, which have saved millions while granting injured workers swifter access to care.

Measures that Fell Short of the Goal Line

While most of the major issues introduced this year became law, some high-profile measures stalled out.

House Bills 4422 and 4423, both by Hilbert, would have required the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) to ensure illegal immigrants are not receiving taxpayer-funded benefits. The two bills required the agencies to utilize the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to verify the legal status of applicants for programs including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Medicaid.

Both bills easily passed out of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, but did not advance through the Senate. The governor ultimately signed an executive order to impose those requirements on the two agencies.

A “TSET reset” bill also passed the House but failed to advance from the Senate.

In 2000, Oklahomans approved a constitutional amendment requiring that the state’s annual lawsuit-settlement payments from tobacco companies be deposited into the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) from which investment earnings would be spent on smoking cessation and other health-related measures.

However, experts have long questioned the effectiveness of projects provided funding by TSET, which have demonstrated little impact on Oklahomans’ health outcomes.

As a result, House Joint Resolution 1077, by state Rep. Trey Caldwell, would have asked voters to approve a state question that would direct that a portion of TSET’s earnings be used to fund college scholarships for Oklahomans from low-income and middle-class families. The proposal would have funded an estimated 40,000 more scholarships annually.

An effort to roll back a provision of Medicaid expansion, which allowed able-bodied adults of working age to receive welfare benefits, also failed to advance through both chambers of the Legislature.

Legislation was filed to allow voters to remove prohibitions on work requirements for able-bodied adults receiving Medicaid welfare benefits and to also remove Medicaid expansion from the Oklahoma Constitution, placing it instead into state statutes, as is the case in most of the nation.

Several other measures also stalled at some point in the legislative process, including a bill that would have required schools to report the share of spending going to instruction when submitting bond proposals to voters, a measure giving voters the chance to make the position of state superintendent a gubernatorial appointee, and bills to prohibit sexually explicit books in school libraries, end tenure for state college professors, and move school-board elections to November to boost voter participation.

Since 2018, total revenue to Oklahoma public schools has increased by more than $3 billion, and per-pupil revenue has increased by 53 percent, rising to an average of $14,842 per student. This year’s budget provides another round of record funding for Oklahoma public schools, along with major reforms focused on reading—but Democratic leaders dismissed those accomplishments, saying there is little reason to think outcomes will improve and arguing public-school funding should have been increased even more, with state Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, even throwing out a $1 billion figure.

“As a parent who’s about to have a kid graduate from our public schools, I’m afraid it’s going to be more of the same from what we’ve implemented this session,” said state Sen. Julia Kirt, who leads that chamber’s Democratic caucus.