2021 EDUCATION ANDWORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES
STATE ISSUES
Early Childhood Education The Chamber steadfastly supports early childhood education and full funding of pre-K and kindergarten programs. Targeted spending on our youngest children is simply a smart investment. The Chamber supports legislative initiatives to maintain early childhood education programs and initiatives. Long-Term, Strategic Education Funding The Chamber supports development of a long- term, strategic plan that will enable improvement in classroom teaching and academic performance. This should include increasing the minimum number of instructional hours, currently 1,080 hours, required for a complete school year. Teacher Preparation, Recruitment and Retention Oklahoma has a teacher shortage. Oklahoma’s teacher preparation system needs to be improved
in order to train, attract and retain high-quality teachers. We support legislation to: • Reward teacher performance and experience • Incentivize teachers to work in high priority areas and receive training to help them prepare for challenges facing students such as being English Language Learners, living in high poverty and from urban areas • Grow alternative pathways, such as Teach for America and the Foundation for OKCPS Bilingual & Diversity Teacher Pipeline program, that enhance the diversity of the teaching profession • Provide additional pre- and post-school year training for alternatively certified teachers Funding Transparency to Highlight Classroom Spending Business leaders want education funding to focus on improving quality of instruction in the classroom. We support increasing funding transparency that makes it easier to understand per-pupil spending and ensure that as much funding as possible goes directly to classroom activity. Longitudinal Data System The business community encourages development and implementation of a new pre-K to 20 longitudinal data system that will measure performance and progress. A working system
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