Rep. Ellen Pogemiller targets Oklahoma education with new legislative push

More than 1,500 bills have been filed for the 2025 legislative session, including multiple efforts aimed at recruiting and retaining teachers and support staff.

Newly elected Rep. Ellen Pogemiller, (D-Oklahoma City), has filed 10 bills, with half focusing on education. One of her proposals seeks to revive the Counselors Corps program, originally created in 2021 using federal COVID-19 relief funds. The program supported 170 schools during its operation.

"$12 million a year it would be a match between school districts and the State Department of Ed to fund school counselors, social workers, and mental health workers," Pogemiller said.

Pogemiller emphasized the demand for increased mental health support in schools, citing conversations with constituents during her campaign.

"When I was knocking on doors one of the things that I heard about from person after person was the need for more school counselors and mental health supports for our students," she said.

In addition to mental health initiatives, Pogemiller has filed a bill aimed at establishing new requirements for adjunct teachers. Her proposal would ensure adjunct teachers are on a path to becoming certified educators.

"To me, they're not much different than a long-term sub but unfortunately they're placed in a classroom just like all the other types of pathways we have for educators," Pogemiller said.

She stressed the importance of maintaining consistent professional standards for all educators.

"As a parent, I want to ensure everybody in the classroom meets a certain requirement and is also required to have the same professional development as all of the other educators in the building," she said.

Pogemiller is also advocating for a $5,000 pay raise for all educators and a 6% pay increase for support staff.

"When you talk to students and you ask them why they come to school or who had the most impact on their life it was those teachers, those administrators, those support staff that kept them in school but also engaged them in learning," she said.

Additionally, Pogemiller has introduced a bill to stop penalizing schools for chronic absenteeism on their annual report cards.

The deadline to file bills for the 2025 legislative session was 4 p.m. Thursday. Lawmakers will return to the Capitol to begin their work on Feb. 3.