The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education have their agenda ready for lawmakers.
State schools will ask lawmakers for more money in fiscal year 2016.
"If you look at all the new money requested in the budget — we believe it's a conservative budget — it requests $98 million in new money, about a 9 percent increase, and every dollar is tied to our top initiative in college degree completion," said Chancellor Glen Johnson.
The regents will ask the state for almost $1.1 billion. State appropriations have dropped from 74 percent of the higher education budget in 1988 to 37 percent of it in 2015.
Johnson said the regents also want continued funding for the Oklahoma’s Promise financial aid program.
"More of these students have jobs in the state one year after graduation even than the general student population," Johnson said. "So it works, it's transformational, and certainly we need to keep in intact."
The program is for eighth through 10th graders whose families make less than $50,000 a year. The students take college prep courses and must keep a 2.5 GPA and stay out of trouble. In return, they get free tuition at a state school.
Although there will be bills to allow guns on school campuses this legislative session, the regents don’t support them. Current policy allows the presidents of the system’s 25 institutions to allow weapons on an individual basis.
"Other than that, there's really no scenario where weapons on our college campuses do anything other than promote a more dangerous environment for our students, our faculty, our staff and our visitors," Johnson said.
Johnson said the state’s higher education officials don’t oppose the second amendment or gun ownership, and they believe current laws work.
Johnson was in Tulsa to present the regents’ legislative agenda. The legislature’s regular session begins Feb. 2.
