Walters relies on a state statute that requires the state and districts to “provide a financial plan that will ensure full educational opportunities for every child in Oklahoma.” Guidance on the state department’s website argues that a full education includes no-cost school meals.
According to the guidance, a new budget system will “verify that districts are prioritizing student nutrition over high administrative and other costs [to ensure] that all Oklahoma students have access to free, healthy meals throughout the school day.”
Districts will be required to “immediately” submit proposed budgets with estimated costs to provide free meals to all students. OSDE will then review each budget.
If a district cannot cover the cost, the department will “suggest cost-cutting measures” and require a re-submitted budget. If the district does not comply, OSDE may withhold state funds or accreditation, or revoke certificates.
According to the guidance, OSDE will also “implement a rule” requiring all meals or snacks served in schools to be free of seed oils, artificial food dyes, ultra-processed foods and “pesticide-laden foods.”
The State Board of Education must approve an emergency rule before it can go to the governor’s desk.
The potential rule mirrors a recent executive order from Gov. Kevin Stitt requiring state leaders to review the use of artificial food coloring in school lunches and requested a federal waiver to exclude soft drinks and candy from SNAP.
In a news release, Walters cites “gross mismanagement and bloated bureaucracies that prioritize administrative paychecks over kids’ basic needs,” and “administrators pocket[ing] a 14% salary hike.”
On X, Walters said Oklahoma would “require education funds to go from administrator and bureaucrats' pockets to school lunches.”
“We have got to get away from growing government, growing bureaucracy, growing administrators,” Walters said in a video. “We have too many administrators in schools. We need less administrators and more of the taxpayer dollars to go to kids directly.”
It is unclear how OSDE would require districts to prioritize administrative salaries to fund the new policy — or if there is statutory authority to do so.
StateImpact sent Walters’ office a list of questions, including:
- What is the deadline for new budgets to be submitted, and won’t districts need to confer with their boards first?
- Is OSDE requiring that administrative salaries be prioritized in budgeting? If so, what is the statutory authority to do that?
- How will OSDE ensure that teacher positions are not cut to meet this mandate?
- Will the rule on food quality be an emergency rule?
The office replied in a statement that did not directly answer the questions.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office said it did not have a comment on Walters’ authority to mandate the policy.
The Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration said it was reviewing the new policy.
The Oklahoma State School Boards Association provided StateImpact with a copy of an email Executive Director Shawn Hime sent to members Monday afternoon.
It noted that state law limits school budgets in areas like minimum teacher salaries and restrictions on administrative costs, and there is no law requiring districts to pay for all students’ meals.
Hime also said using district funds to offset student meal costs is “strictly a local decision.” He said there is no law that provides for OSDE to demand an audit or penalize a district for not providing free meals.
Matt Riggs, director of school finance at the Oklahoma Public School Resource Center, said “immediately” submitting a revised budget to OSDE would be a difficult lift for schools. The state department usually releases state aid allocations in July.
At Macomb Public Schools, where Riggs was previously the superintendent, he said the school board approved an estimate of needs and an expenditure budget. That went to the county excise board, which would then be put in as an appropriation that allowed the district to spend money in those areas for the remainder of the year.
“You can’t do a budget until you have your appropriations approved,” Riggs said. “You don’t get your formal appropriations approved until the excise board does that, and they typically don’t do that until the fall. … So I don’t have any idea how that would even be possible, because you can’t budget what you don’t [know].”
Chris Bernard, president and CEO of Hunger Free Oklahoma said while his organization was pleased that Walters agreed every child in Oklahoma should access free school meals, the state department is not accomplishing the goal in a sustainable way.
“Frankly, I don’t think that you can just find the money to pay for school meals in administrators’ salaries,” Bernard said. “No state who has done universal school meals has done it without adding dollars to budgets. The costs are significant.”
The organization instead supports policy that leverages existing federal programs, like the Community Eligibility Provision. CEP eligibility is based on the percentage of students on programs like SNAP, Medicaid and TANF, or who are homeless or in foster care. Schools can be reimbursed for meals for 1.6 times the percentage of those students.
According to Hunger Free Oklahoma’s report, the recent inclusion of Medicaid data in CEP eligibility calculations has increased school participation from 382 schools to 849, which meant nearly 300,000 students receiving free school meals.
Bernard said the best way to ensure universal school meals is to assist more districts in finding resources like CEP and increasing state funding to bridge the gaps CEP cannot completely fill.
Oklahoma’s Democratic lawmakers offered a mixed response in a Monday afternoon news release. Rep. Annie Menz (D-Norman) said she was “stunned and thrilled” to hear about the mandate but hoped Walters would collaborate with the legislature to determine “lasting budget solutions.”
Rep. John Waldron (D-Tulsa) echoed Menz, saying he was “glad to see OSDE taking this stand” and hoped to continue to work with the department “without disruption to local school finances.”
Rep. Ellen Pogemiller (D-Oklahoma City) noted the deadline for schools to apply to participate in CEP was June 30.
“This new potential mandate arrived too late for districts to adjust their plans, and our state won’t have the chance to prioritize this in the budget until next year,” Pogemiller said. “Happy to work towards this goal, but the reality is that Walters’ approach is an unfunded mandate.”
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