Education and Budget Bill for Oklahoma

Nothing is expected to be moved in the House or Senate until the education budget has been solidified. The disagreement between the two chambers is primarily because of tax credits. 

"What they both have in common is, and what we elevated and critiqued was that there isn't any type of accountability. That's the problem with these types of voucher schemes is that you don't have the same type of government oversight or oversight that we usually provide any type of agency,” says Representative Cydni Munson.

House Bill 1934 creates the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Act and establishes a "tiered system" of tax credits for parents or guardians who send their children to private schools or choose to home-school them.

Members of the House want to ensure that rural schools will benefit from the education package and the Senate has remained adamant on increased teacher pay and funding for public schools.

On Monday, Governor Kevin Stitt met with Senate Pro Tempore Greg Treat and House Speaker Charles McCall to discuss the education budget, on Thursday Governor Stitt said a deal could be announced soon. 

"We got kind of the bones of the framework and now the speaker and the pro tem have their education chairs kind of fine-tuning and get the last little details and we should be able to start working on drawing up that legislation. As you know, they need to get this stuff filed probably by Monday morning,” says Gov. Stitt.

Later that same evening, Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat said negotiations had hit another snag.

"They had a two-hour meeting that resulted in an agreement between the negotiators unfortunately the house has come back today and wants to do some mortifications to that, so we are not where we thought we'd be today,” says Senate Pro Tem Treat.

Senate Democrat Leader Kay Floyd says the impasse over education funding has caused the legislature to fall behind in introducing the state budget for review. 

"We cannot govern in this state if we don't know how much money we're going to have to govern,” says Sen. Floyd.

As Oklahoma continues to experience a major teacher shortage, one of the capitol's main goals is teacher recruitment.

"This has been such a difficult year. There’s been so much disruption during this year and it’s not because of COVID it’s not because of being out of school it’s because of lack of personnel,” says Katherine Bishop, President of Oklahoma Education Association.

Some lawmakers and educators are concerned that the education impasse and remarks made by Superintendent Ryan Walters may have a negative impact on teacher retention and recruitment.

"Teachers want to know that they have support in their school families and their school communities. They want to know that they have support from their state leaders, and what they're seeing is that they do not have the support from their state leaders,” says Representative Trish Ranson.

“Our teacher and our support professionals and administrators are stretched beyond belief and to hear the political rhetoric that is continued to happen it's a knife in your heart,” says Bishop.

Floyd adds other states introduced their budget at the beginning of the session allowing more time for their legislators to work with the state budget.

"Now we've got big issues in this state, and we need to know how much money we have. Let's take healthcare. It's a huge issue. We are number one in the country for death by heart disease. Number one, we have a maternal mortality rate of 24% for every 100,000 live births, making us 11th in the nation." says Sen. Floyd.

Democratic leaders say there has been a lack of transparency when it comes to preparing the budget.

"It is incumbent upon us as elected leaders who represent millions of Oklahomans across the state. To hear from all sides, regardless of whether we agree on everything, we still need to hear everyone's viewpoints, and what we're seeing happen right now with the gridlock and the stalemate that's happening over the education discussion is that every other piece of the budget and all things that Oklahoman’s care about being held hostage," says Rep. Munson.

House Appropriations & Budget Chairman Kevin Wallace says they have been transparent during the budget process in a statement that read in part.

".... Each year, every member of the legislature has access to agency budget requests beginning Oct. 1. Every house member is assigned to an appropriations and budget subcommittee. These meet annually in public meetings with the multiple state agencies, boards, or commissions that receive state funding that falls under their purview... Time for questions and debate is given when we hear this legislation. We also give regular updates throughout the year on how much funding is available and make our priorities widely known. This all leads to an incredibly transparent budget process, giving ample time for members of the legislature and the public to hear information on how state dollars are appropriated and expended."