By:
Paul Shinn
April 26, 2023 // Updated: May 8, 2023
Oklahoma legislators are considering several unpredictable, expensive, and dangerous proposals to drastically change our state education policy. These proposals would use tax dollars to fund private education for fewer than 1 in 10 Oklahoma children and take funding from public schools.
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Changes to funding our educational system — especially sweeping changes that could cascade negative fiscal impacts to other state agencies and programs — should be based on reliable data and should include input from Oklahoma parents and caregivers. Here are 10 questions we think lawmakers should be asked about these proposals. (And as with any math problem, lawmakers should be asked to show their work.)
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Unfortunately, our Governor squandered an opportunity to use federal dollars to mitigate this harm. As a result, these decisions have left the vast majority of low-income students without the resources they need to access a safe and quality education this coming school year.
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Additional federal dollars should be used to support low-income students through extended instructional time, lower student-to-staff ratios, and other initiatives. Such investments will prevent the COVID-19 slide from widening academic disparities even further.
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Support staff serve as the backbone of schools, and their responsibility to keep schools safe and clean have become even more critical amidst the coronavirus outbreak. We call on lawmakers and the State Department of Education to continue working together to ensure Oklahoma school support employees are paid during school closures.
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Students in Oklahoma experience trauma at higher rates than students in any other state. School-based counselors can help, but there currently are not enough to reach all students in need.
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![[Image Source: "OSU in the morning" by sringsmuth licensed under CC BY NC ND 2.0]](https://i0.wp.com/okpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/OSU-in-the-morning-Oklahoma-State-University-Flickr-Springmuth-CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1)
Oklahoma has not been immune from these issues, but the last legislative session saw state lawmakers provide an additional $25.3 million increase, or about 3.3%, in funding for higher education.
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By:
Paul Shinn
June 6, 2019 // Updated: May 27, 2021
Without accounting for inflation, next year’s appropriations will be the largest in state history, surpassing the $7.567 billion budget in FY 2019.
When adjusted for inflation, next year’s budget remains 10.2 percent below the budget of FY 2009 and 14.9 percent less than the peak year of FY 2007.
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While the 2019 legislative session was not as attention-grabbing as last year, public education still claimed a number of victories this session.
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By:
Paul Shinn
May 29, 2019 // Updated: May 27, 2021
Overall, it's best to think of this budget as a second step on what needs to be a long journey. When adjusted for inflation, this budget is still 10.1 percent below the FY 2009 level. Over half of state agencies still have lower budgets than they did in FY 2009 without accounting for inflation.
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