With a 6-4 vote, the bill narrowly passed the House Appropriations and Budget Education Subcommittee.

The measure would require districts spending less than 60% on instruction to increase that number by 2% each year until they reach 60%. If those schools fail to do that, they would receive a notice to be posted on the district website. If a district fails to comply for four consecutive years after that, it would have to increase teacher pay by 2% for each year it did not comply.

“Instructional expenditures” is defined as instruction and related expenses, and it does not include positions like counselors, nurses, cafeteria workers, bus drivers or administrators.

Rep. John Waldron (D-Tulsa) said he has heard from districts that say the new formula would impact construction projects and staffing decisions made at the local level.

“I’m hearing from other school districts about the concern that this will mean hiring fewer counselors, nurses. And there’s a lot of things that are part of the support tail of a school. We’ve had schools close down because of when there aren’t enough bus drivers,” Waldron said. “How do you feel about those arguments that this is going to have a deleterious impact on schools that might have special conditions when we’re imposing a one-size-fits-all solution?”

Caldwell acknowledged the other staff members were “important,” but said this would bring Oklahoma closer to the national average for instructional expenditures. He said average classroom spending in the state is about 58%.

“Unfortunately, we have 150 [school districts] in our state that are spending less than 50%,” Caldwell said. “Quite frankly, I cannot think of a legitimate reason why a district would need to spend less than half of their money on classroom expenditure, where the majority of our instruction takes place.”

State Superintendent Ryan Walters praised the bill on social media, saying it tackles “bloated administrative costs.”

The bill now moves to the House Appropriations and Budget Committee.