The House and Senate recently passed the general appropriations bill to fund state government for Fiscal Year 2022, which starts in July.

This budget is great for education, and particularly for rural schools.

It adds $210.3 million more for common education than what was appropriated last year, bringing the overall education budget to a historic high of $3.2 billion. With this, Republicans have increased education funding by $776 million over five years. Schools also are receiving billions of dollars in federal pandemic relief funds.

For FY22, school districts will receive a $27 million increase for textbooks and increased money through the school activity fund.

Additionally, the Legislature has passed a measure that will keep local ad valorem dollars with traditional public schools instead of allowing them to be sent to charter schools. The Redbud School Funding Act would use medical marijuana taxes and the Common School Building Equalization Fund to meet the building needs of brick-and-mortar public charter schools. The Act also, however, helps our rural schools by directing the State Department of Education to use these same funding sources to issue annual per-student funding grants to public schools in low property value areas. There are 334 such districts throughout the state that could benefit from these grants.

This budget also provides $42 million in the form of tax rebates for rural broadband expansion. We learned during the pandemic the importance of being connected to high-speed internet. This will benefit students working to stay current on their schoolwork, people using telehealth appointments with doctors and other health care providers, and more. Connectivity also helps attract more business to rural areas, increasing jobs and boosting our economy.

Also this session, we passed and signed into law several measures protecting our Second Amendment rights. These include Senate Bill 631, which declares Oklahoma a Second Amendment Sanctuary opposed to any government attempt to confiscate or buy back firearms; House Bill 2645, which cleans up and clarifies language from Oklahoma’s 2019 “Constitutional Carry” law.

Last week, we sent the governor a bill that will protect our state from federal overreach.

House Bill 1236 makes it a duty of the Attorney General to monitor and evaluate any action by the federal government including, but not limited to, presidential executive orders, rules or regulations promulgated by a federal government agency or acts of Congress to determine if such actions are in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. It requires the AG to determine whether the state should seek an exemption from the application of the action or seek to have the action declared unconstitutional if the action is determined to be an infringement on state authority under the Tenth Amendment.

I believe the legislature has met its responsibility of providing a strong, fiscally conservative budget. It is time to wrap up for this session and adjourn. The House and Senate will return to the Capitol this fall to finalize congressional redistricting. For my first year, I feel very blessed. I look forward to seeing everyone out in the district this summer and will continue working on issues facing rural Oklahomans in House District 59.

Please follow my daily updates on Facebook or reach out to me anytime at mike. dobrinski@okhouse.gov or (405) 557-7407. It is my honor to represent you at our State House.