Heading into 2020, Oklahoma legislators have introduced a number of bills in an effort to fight the state’s teacher shortage.

StateImpact followed legislators’ actions on education, criminal justice reform, Medicaid expansion and abortion.

Educators have proven to be a powerful force throughout the primaries and a rising political outsider who opposes a key issue among many teachers is having trouble getting their support.

This past legislative session lawmakers passed a $430 million tax package in order to fund teacher pay raises. Now a group called Oklahoma Taxpayers Unite is working to overturn the tax increases. This has created a lot of uncertainty for school leaders who now wonder if they’ll be able to afford the teacher raises they fought so hard for.

An anti-tax group is circulating a petition to overturn new state taxes, but multiple education groups have challenged the petition, saying it is unconstitutional.