Topic: PreK-12 Education

When K-12 schools are underfunded… (Guest post: Elizabeth Smith)

Elizabeth Smith is the planning director for the Yale National Initiative at the University of Tulsa, a partnership between TU, Tulsa Public Schools, and Yale University to strengthen teaching in Tulsa schools.  She recently completed a Ph.D. in Public Policy,… Read more [More...]

Mapped: The Oklahoma school districts with the most and least per pupil state aid

It’s well known that state aid funding in Oklahoma has struggled in recent years — since 2008 we’ve cut per student state aid by 24.2 percent after inflation, the largest drop in the U.S. Cuts to state aid affect all… Read more [More...]

In its current form, Education Savings Accounts proposal would widen inequality (Guest post: John Lepine)

John Lepine is an OK Policy Research Fellow. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in Educational Administration, Curriculum, and Supervision at the University of Oklahoma. He is also a reading specialist and English department chair at the McLain Magnet High School… Read more [More...]

Why charter schools get an outsize share of mid-year State Aid funding (Guest Post: Shannon Meeks)

Shannon Meeks is the Chief Financial Officer for Putnam City Schools. Each year in late December, state aid payments to public schools are adjusted based on changes in student enrollment and local tax revenues during the first part of the… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma’s teacher shortage is not just about salaries (Guest Post: John Lepine)

This is the first of a three-part series appearing this week on the OK Policy Blog that will examine the reasons behind Oklahoma’s teacher shortage and what we can do to fix it. You can read part two here and… Read more [More...]

New report: Oklahoma’s education funding per student drops even more

Oklahoma continues to lead the nation for the largest cuts to general school funding since the start of the recession, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. After inflation, Oklahoma’s general preK-12 education funding… Read more [More...]

Schools alone can’t overcome poverty. They need a community.

We need a whole community to meet the needs of the whole child.The community school model is a cost-effective, national reform strategy that seeks to do just that. [More...]

Oklahoma’s public schools have relatively low administration costs

A breakdown of Oklahoma's school spending by category shows that shuffling dollars around won't fix the funding shortfall. There are simply not enough savings to be found from cutting administration to significantly improve funding for instruction, and even while spending on administration remains low, administrative burdens on schools have increased due to new mandates approved by lawmakers. [More...]

New report examines 30 years of education reform efforts in Oklahoma (Guest Post: Kathy McKean)

Kathy McKean is the director of the Oklahoma Technical Assistance Center, which provides evaluation and professional development to Oklahoma schools. The drive to improve education that began with the publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983 has continued for… Read more [More...]