Legislation to significantly reduce the use of “virtual learning” days at Oklahoma’s brick-and-mortar public schools and address perceived widespread abuse of distance learning has cleared its first hurdle in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

Senate Bill 758, by Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, state Sen. Kristen Thompson, and state Rep. Anthony Moore, would limit brick-and-mortar public schools to just two days (or 12 hours) of virtual learning as part of the 180 days of instructions/1,080 hours of instruction required each school year, outside of specific emergency circumstances, provided the two virtual days are approved by the state superintendent of public instruction or tied to an emergency order issued by the governor.

“The main goal behind this is to get kids in classrooms, to only do virtual days when it’s actually needed, and to, when we have virtual days, actually do virtual learning,” said Moore, R-Clinton.

Under state law, school districts are allowed to meet as few as 165 days each year so long as they provide at least 1,080 hours of instruction. But schools must meet certain requirements to make that shift to a four-day school week. When SB 758 was debated in the Oklahoma Senate, lawmakers said many schools have used “virtual days” to effectively shift to a four-day week while still claiming to operate five days a week.

Moore raised the same issue in a House committee.

“We’ve got a lot of schools that are trying to use virtual days as a way to get to four-day learning,” Moore said. “I’ll be honest, I’ve had a lot of conversations with superintendents around the state that are very upset about that, because the reality is a lot of these kids are going home with no access to any teacher, no access to learning. There are school districts that had 43 days or more virtual days last year. That is not a way to increase the education of our students. That is not a way to increase the outcomes in our state.”

Moore said the schools he reviewed were all “at the bare minimum” of 165 instructional days while claiming to have conducted “40-plus virtual days” as part of that 165-day total.

In some cases, Moore said students are sent home with “a packet of information” to do on distance-learning days with no way to get help from a teacher. In other cases, he said distance-learning days involve “kids home on virtual days, multiple days in a row, that had nothing to do. And it counts towards our instructional time.”

“If we’re serious about actually educating our kids, they need to be in chairs with qualified professionals to help them,” Moore said.

State Rep.  Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, said he had also been contacted by a superintendent who was concerned about the abuse of virtual days by other schools where officials use “virtual” days to effectively adopt four-day school weeks.

SB 758 has drawn opposition from groups representing the schools and/or officials accused of abusing the system, as well as the Oklahoma Parent Legislative Advocacy Coalition (PLAC), which declared that “virtual learning is part of a modern education.”

During the House committee hearing, state Rep. John Waldron, D-Tulsa, suggested the bill would be “imposing a new hardship on four-day schools at the cost of their local control.” Waldron said no limits on virtual days should be imposed so long as schools report facing teacher shortages.

State Rep. Michelle McCane, D-Tulsa, agreed that “we probably need to put some guardrails in place for the use of virtual days,” but argued that SB 758 was too restrictive and said lawmakers were “overstepping on local control.”

SB 758 previously passed the Senate on a 33-14 vote. The bill passed out of the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Education on a 7-4 vote. It now proceeds to the full House Appropriations and Budget Committee.

Members of the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee also approved Senate Bill 409, by state Sen. Adam Pugh and Caldwell. That bill would require schools to add an extra day to the school year for each $25 million increase in funding provided to the state school system.

SB 409 passed the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on a 7-3 vote. The bill now proceeds to the full House Appropriations and Budget Committee.