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$80 Million K-12 Increase May Have Limited Impact On Per-Pupil Funding

Shelly Deas, principal of Lee Elementary School in Oklahoma City, shows the school’s system for tracking achievement and improvement levels of each student. Students in blue are at the highest performing level; students in red are at the lowest.
Clifton Adcock
/
Oklahoma Watch

Oklahoma could add $80 million to K-12 education funding in a budget deal announced by Gov. Mary Fallin Friday, but it’s unclear how it will impact Oklahoma’s per-pupil funding levels.

The proposed budget for fiscal year 2015 calls for adding $40 million to cover health insurance costs for school employees, and another $40 million for the state’s funding formula, according to the state Department of Education. That formula is used to allocate money to districts to pay for teachers, textbooks, transportation and other costs.

Oklahoma Watch is a nonprofit organization that produces in-depth and investigative journalism on important public-policy issues facing the state. More Oklahoma Watch content can be found at www.oklahomawatch.org
Oklahoma Watch is a nonprofit organization that produces in-depth and investigative journalism on important public-policy issues facing the state. More Oklahoma Watch content can be found at www.oklahomawatch.org

If the budget were approved by the Legislature, adding $80 million would be a 3.3 percent increase from the state Department of Education’s current $2.4 billion budget.

Oklahoma ranked third-to-last nationally in per pupil funding, and last in the seven-state region in 2010-2011, according to the most recent data available at the National Center for Education Statistics.

That ranking likely would not change under the proposed budget, especially if enrollment continues to grow as expected.

Oklahoma currently has an estimated 670,890 students.

Variables that will impact per-pupil funding include how much student enrollment increases, how much the cost of benefits increase, any changes in state and local district funding levels, and whether the Legislature approves separate legislation increasing education funding.

The state does have a pending bill in the Legislature that would add $600 million to education over 10 years if the state hits goals for tax revenue growth.

That bill, HB 2642, is in a conference committee meant to iron out the differences in the Senate and House bills. The committee’s deadline to send a bill to the governor is May 30.

Friday’s budget proposal does not include that additional funding. If the legislation were to pass, the state would have to recalculate the proposed budget.

Oklahoma Watch is a non-profit organization that produces in-depth and investigative journalism on important public-policy issues facing the state. Oklahoma Watch is non-partisan and strives to be balanced, fair, accurate and comprehensive. The reporting project collaborates on occasion with other news outlets. Topics of particular interest include poverty, education, health care, the young and the old, and the disadvantaged.
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