Democrat lawmakers like state Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, questioned why this year’s budget does not increase funding for teacher pay. (Photo by Janice Francis-Smith)
OKLAHOMA CITY – A few months ago, Oklahoma leaders earmarked millions in state funding for voucher-style programs in a plan that eventually failed to pass. This year’s budget, unveiled this week, didn’t find any new money for the state’s public school funding formula.
Instead, legislation introduced this session has created new methods by which public schools’ funding might be cut.
That sends the wrong message to the state’s remaining teacher workforce, said Democrats who debated against the budget due to the way education was handled.
“Our teachers have had a very intense and difficult prior two years in the classroom, and this feels as if the Legislature is not supporting them remaining in the classroom,” said state Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City. “We’re very concerned about our teacher shortage and don’t think we’ve done near enough to invest in retention bonuses or stipends to ensure that they feel supported.”
Last fall, staffing shortages in schools prompted Gov. Kevin Stitt to implement a plan to allow state workers to serve as substitute teachers. Stitt himself highlighted the need to increase teacher pay during his State of the State address.
“Oklahoma students can’t be the best without the best teachers,” Stitt said in February. “That’s why I’m proposing matching funds so that our best teachers can make six-figure salaries and stay in the classroom.”
Stitt’s plan to provide $128.5 million for education savings accounts for every student, for parents to use as they saw fit for education, failed to pass in the Legislature. Other legislation to create a teacher certification program that would pave the way for six-figure teacher salaries for certain teachers also stalled.
Oklahoma has come a long way to improve teacher pay since teachers went on strike in 2018, Hicks said. Recent investment in education brought Oklahoma teacher pay, averaging about $54,000 per year, up to fourth place in the region, behind Colorado, Texas and New Mexico.
“Promises were made by the legislative body at that time, and we have upheld that promise until this year,” said Hicks. In a session that included a historic tax-incentive package to lure in new business, the fact that the Legislature has not regarded educators with the same urgency as workers in other sectors of the economy is striking, she said.
“We’ve given a lot of grace to businesses,” Hicks said. “We’ve not had that same attitude toward protecting our workforce in teaching.”
On Thursday, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 612, which would cut 5% of a school’s funding if administrators fail to enforce a rule requiring students to use the restroom that corresponds to their sex at birth.
The measure would be enforced if a parent makes a complaint to the State Board of Education, which would have the power to revoke 5% of the school’s funding if members determine the school failed to comply with the rule.
State Sen. Kevin Matthews, D-Tulsa, noted that the decision to cut a school’s funding would lie not with a court of law but with individuals appointed to the Board of Education by Stitt. The bill’s author, state Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, could not provide another example of a state law that included a reduction in state funding as part of the punishment for violations.
“This is 100% political,” Matthews said.
In April, two of Stitt’s appointees to the board, Jennifer Monies and Trent Smith, spoke during the public comment portion of a State Board of Education meeting to question why the elected Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister had not placed on the agenda an item to examine Stillwater Public Schools’ bathroom policy.
Stitt’s Cabinet appointee, Secretary of Education Ryan Walters, has made Stillwater Public Schools’ bathroom policy a key focus of his campaign for the elected position of superintendent of public instruction. Hofmeister is leaving the position to run for governor.
The Stitt administration did find funding in recent years to support a voucher-like program, however, using $8 million in federal coronavirus relief money to fund a program that provided funds directly to parents through a program under Walters’ direction. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General has opened an audit into how the state used those funds, finding the money was used for a variety of purchases that appear to have no relation to educational uses.
Lawmakers are still considering a proposal to designate the first $65 million collected from the Oklahoma Lottery for teacher pay raises, tuition grants, construction costs and other public school needs. That legislation is still working its way through the process.
State Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, defended the budget by highlighting that the overall spend on education is on par with previous years. Last year, common education received $3.164 billion, representing about 36% of the state’s entire spend; this year, common education is to receive $3.181 billion, representing about 33% of the state’s spending capacity.
Thompson noted that the Oklahoma Department of Education has a revolving balance of $173 million.
Hicks disagreed that schools are going to be all right with the money they have on hand. Inflation has increased costs to the point where anything less than an 8% increase will feel like a cut, said state Sen. Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City.
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