OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Anthony Moore, R-Clinton, on Monday secured unanimous subcommittee passage of a bill that would extend the Oklahoma Promise Scholarship to all children of a certified, full-time teacher who has taught for at least 10 years in an Oklahoma public school classroom and is currently teaching.

"House Bill 3454 would make a tremendous impact in recruiting and retaining teachers and college students," he said. "We know those students attending school here are 87% more likely to stay to live, work and raise a family here. This helps us develop our workforce and fortify our state."

The Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program (OHLAP), better known as Oklahoma's Promise, allows students who meet certain income, academic and conduct requirements to earn a college or technology tuition scholarship. It was created in 1992 by the Legislature to help more Oklahoma families send their children to college. The program is administered by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

Currently, the program stipulates that while a student is in eighth- through 11th-grade, their parents' adjusted gross income must not exceed $60,000 if there are one or two dependent children, $70,000 for three or four dependent children and $80,000 with five or more dependent children. Special income provisions apply to students adopted from certain court-ordered custody and children in the custody of court-appointed legal guardians or to those children who receive social security benefits based on the disability or death of their parents.

Moore's proposed legislation would expand this to include any student of a certified teacher, regardless of the parent's income, as long as the parent has taught full-time for at least 10 years in an Oklahoma public school classroom.

Moore said he also hopes the measure might help address the number of alternative emergency certified teachers in Oklahoma classrooms.

"We've heard for many years now that Oklahoma, along with many others states across the nation, has a critical teacher shortage," Moore said. "It's hard, particularly in rural areas, to recruit and retain certified teachers who have been specifically trained to address the learning needs of the young people that fill our public-school classrooms."

Moore said too often schools have to rely on long-term substitutes or make do with moving teachers around to fill gaps, not necessarily in subjects or grades for which they were trained or for which they have a true passion.

"Our school districts and teachers do a remarkable job despite the obstacles, but they can use all the help we can give them," Moore sad. "This could be a groundbreaking path toward recruitment and retention."

Moore said he was motivated in part to run this bill by the Inspired to Teach scholarships that were signed into law in 2022. Those pay a bonus to prospective teachers once they have completed educational requirements and as they perform their service in state public schools. 

Moore said it's his understanding students could potentially qualify for both scholarships if they are children of a teacher and decide to become teachers themselves.

"If they could graduate an Oklahoma college or university debt free and with a stipend to help them focus on their new profession, that would be an incredible benefit to them and the students they will teach," he said.

House Bill 3454 passed 12-0 in the House Appropriations & Budget Subcommittee for Education and now passes to the full House A&B Committee for consideration.