Senate removes art education from Oklahoma high school graduation requirements

HB 3278 prioritizes workforce development, local control, over well-rounded educational opportunities, leaving students at-risk of losing access to arts education.

April 25, 2024

Scarcely ten days after receiving an award from the Oklahoma Arts Council for helping to secure $10 million in federal pandemic relief funding to support the state’s art sector, Senator Adam Pugh stood before the Oklahoma Senate and asked them to approve a bill that would remove art education as a requirement for state students to graduate from high school.

Emphasizing workforce development, local control, and school district flexibility, Pugh on April 22 asked his colleagues to vote for HB 3278, which he authored along with Representative Rhonda Baker. The legislation would change Oklahoma’s high school graduation requirements, removing one unit each of world language and art education and adding a fourth unit of math, among other things. The bill would also create a set of “pathway” courses, of which students would have to take six units which align with their Individual Career and Academic Plan (ICAP), an assessment program that begins in the sixth grade.

Under the bill, dubbed the Graduation Act of 2024, public school districts would be required to offer only courses mandated by the state for high school graduation, such as math, English, science, and social studies. Everything else would be up to local school boards.

“(School districts) should be reflective of the communities they serve,” Pugh said during debate, adding that if teachers want students to enroll in their classes, they should make them more attractive. “The state doesn’t need all 530 school (districts) to look the same.”

The bill authors worked on the legislation for two years, consulting education advocates, superintendents, school board members, teachers, and businesses, Pugh said. “What the schools asked for, however, wasn’t more stringent language requirements or computer science requirements or fine arts requirements.”

The State Chamber also lobbied for the bill, telling supporters in an email that it worked closely with the business community, local school leaders, Oklahoma Career Tech, and legislators to help students become “career ready.”

HB 3278 passed by a vote of 35 –11, receiving bipartisan opposition. Democratic Senator Jo Anna Dossett voted for the measure, and five Republican members—Senators David Bullard, George Burns, Nathan Dahm, Warren Hamilton, and Shane Jett—voted against the bill. Because the bill was amended in the Senate, it now goes back to the House for final approval.

During the 2021-22 school year, over 91,000 Oklahoma high school students—49 percent of the state’s 9-12 students—were enrolled in art education courses, according to the Oklahoma Arts Education Data Project, a research tool that tracks art education offerings in K-12 public schools. HB 3278 puts those students at risk of losing access to courses such as music, drama, dance, theater, visual arts, and more.

More than 26 percent of Oklahoma’s K-12 public schools did not offer any art courses in 2021-22, and 16.8 percent of students did not have access to art education, affecting rural students more than urban ones. Research shows that art education helps bolster academic achievement, keeps students engaged in school with less stress, reduces chronic absenteeism, develops interpersonal skills, teaches students to accept constructive criticism, and improves focus.

The final passage of HB 3278 would remove the only requirement for arts education in state statute, which could trigger a downward spiral of fewer students enrolled in art classes, fewer art teachers employed in public schools, and fewer art classes being offered. Senator Julia Kirt asked Pugh about this concern during debate.

“I do not believe that to be true,” Pugh said.

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