(May 28, 1999) Late Thursday evening, in the waning hours of its 1999 Legislative Session, Oklahoma's legislature passed a bi-partisan measure giving the country its 37^th charter law. Oklahoma joins Oregon as a new charter state as Oregon's Governor Kitzhaber signed the nation's 36^th law earlier Thursday evening. While Center for Education Reform [CER] staff sort through last night's negotiations to the Oklahoma bill to provide more details on the new law, here's what we do know:

• Local school boards and vocational community colleges will both be allowed to charter these public schools.
• Charter schools can be chartered in school districts with 5,000 or more students (mainly Oklahoma City, Tulsa and their surrounding communities and suburbs).
• The charter schools will have the option of collective bargaining.

        CER staff spent months in collaboration with community leaders and lawmakers as a resource and advisor. In addition, Jeanne Allen, CER's President, spent time in Oklahoma City last week with them building momentum for charter schools.

        Congratulations to State Superintendent of Education Sandy Garrett, Representative John Bryant (Tulsa), and the many others who worked hard in the last week of the session to ensure Oklahoma's children were given this important educational choice.