Legislation pre-filed

January 20th was the deadline for pre-filing bills in preparation for the new session of the Oklahoma Legislature which begins February 7th.  Needless to say, some of the bills are already attracting attention.  There are MANY bills focused on education with a lot of attention focused on teacher retirement, school district re-organization, and curriculum.  Some have already garnered notice due to their anti-science focus (see NCSE website).  Others are so-called “shell” bills, with titles and numbers given to an act that will be detailed in committee.  So as the session progresses, you’ll want to come back and watch how each bill’s language changes as it progresses through the committee process.   You can keep track of the latest action by visiting the Oklahoma Legislature’s homepage.  There is a link to the list of introduced bills and you can see their number, title, and author.  You’ll also be able to track each bill as it morphs through each stage of the legislative process.  It’s interesting reading, but one word of advise, don’t save this for late-night reading… too many scary parts!