The budget deal is done, and nearly every state agency is receiving another round of funding reductions. That leaves an important question: what programs will be cut to make up the loss? How cuts are distributed will have a huge effect on state services, but the Legislature seems to be abandoning its responsibility to make these hard decisions.

In previous years, the Legislature would approve budget limit bills directing agencies on how to spend state dollars. Although each agency’s budget bills looked a little different, sections typically included:

That changed last year, when leadership chose not to run budget limit bills for most agencies. This year there are less than a handful. Read the rest of this entry »

As revenues have come in significantly below estimates this year, funding to state agencies was cut 5 percent a month from August to November and 10 percent each month since (see our updated fact sheet). OK Policy’s intern Matt Gardner has been tracking media reports of the ways that cuts in state funding over the course of the downturn. He provides this report of some of what’s transpired in recent months.

Budget cuts in recent months appear to have affected Oklahomans from all walks of life. Many agencies have been forced to cut jobs, offer bailouts, or implement furlough days, but cuts have required agencies to go further and eliminate services altogether.

Some examples:

• The Bill Willis Community Mental Health Center faces more cuts, despite having eliminated its 20-bed men’s substance abuse program. That was to save $1.2 million. Now, the center has been asked to trim $300,000 more. According to Executive Director Margaret Bradford, “without this type of treatment you’re going to see more and more people end up in the criminal justice system,” costing the state more money than the treatment. Read the rest of this entry »

Our new Stimulus Update looks at the $52 billion in education funding in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA, better known as the stimulus). The education programs, in contrast to most other ARRA funds coming to state and local governments, mainly consist of a two-year increase to existing programs that are heavy on operating, not capital, costs. Some examples are:

• Increased Pell Grants for college students ($93 million so far in Oklahoma);
• More funding for special education, education for schools serving low-income students, and vocational rehabilitation ($276 million in Oklahoma); and
• Expanding Early Head Start programs and serving more children at existing Head Start centers (at least $28 million in Oklahoma). Read the rest of this entry »

There is no doubt about our commitment–as a nation and a state–to improving educational opportunities and outcomes. Sometimes we forget about the key role nutrition plays in helping kids get to school and be ready to learn. For many Oklahoma children, nutrition means the free and reduced price school meal program. It’s as big a part of the school day as English, math, and social studies class.

During the current school year, more than half of Oklahoma’s school-age population – 56.3 percent – live in families with household incomes low enough to qualify to receive free or reduced school meals. According to a report prepared by the State Department of Education, just under 300,000 public school students, or 46.4 percent, qualified for free school meals, which means that their family income was below 130 percent of the federal poverty level, or $27,560 per year for a family of four. An additional 63,000 students, or 9.8 percent, qualified for reduced-cost meals, which is based on family income below 185 percent of the poverty rate ($39,220 per year for a family of four).

Read the rest of this entry »