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Oklahoma’s nearly $3.2 billion common education budget is the most important in state historical past.
Legislators have usually touted their dedication to funding common education within the wake of the 2018 trainer walkout.
But, the slender progress — of lower than half a % from the earlier 12 months’s budget — is insufficient, plenty of critics have mentioned. It actually doesn’t sustain with the present 8% inflation price.
Common ed makes up roughly a 3rd of Oklahoma’s $9.8 billion budget. And a lot of the $16.8 million rise within the budget is definitely earmarked — so colleges will see no enhance for day-to-day operations.
All meaning the precise cash falls wanting the place it must be, Rep. John Waldron, D-Tulsa, mentioned throughout debate on a budget invoice.
“We can do better,” he mentioned. “Teachers and support staff count on us as much as do students.”
Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore, is chairman of the House Education Budget Subcommittee. And he defended the education portion of the budget.
“You know, we’ve put record amounts of money in the budget over the last six years, and I’m sorry this may have fallen short of some people’s expectations,” he mentioned.
The budget additionally features a massive enhance for increased education. The increased education enhance is about 7.5%, price tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to carry its annual allocation as much as $873 million. That’s the best complete since 2016.
The budget is predicted to be absolutely authorised this week because the legislative session attracts to an in depth.
Here’s what different lawmakers have mentioned concerning the education portion of funding:
Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa:
“A half-percent increase for the common education budget when the state budget has grown by nearly a billion dollars falls short of the needs of our public schools and the 700,000 students they serve. Once distributed among the line-item projects funded in the budget, the half-percent increase won’t make it to our public school districts. Due to global inflation caused by the pandemic, operation costs are at an all-time high. If we can give an international, multi-billion dollar company $700 million, surely we can find a way to help our community school districts manage rising costs.”
Rep. Trish Ranson, D-Stillwater:
“An incremental investment in common education is necessary to give students the stability they need. Instead, we’re told ‘not this year.’ A budget held flat is a cut when considering the current inflation rate. Our districts have to make tough decisions that affect the learning of our students. We cannot hope for economic development in this state without simultaneously investing in our children’s education.”
Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, D-Norman:
“This budget provides a slight increase in appropriations for common and higher education, while the state has more money than in past legislative sessions. The half-percent increase isn’t enough to help public schools navigate inflation and the scars from historic funding cuts in the not-so-distant past. Progress takes investment, and this budget simply doesn’t do enough to invest in our teachers, support staff, and classrooms.”
Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City:
“There is no higher priority than investing in our public schools, yet this budget includes little new investment in education, which is essentially a cut. Oklahoma continues to lag our neighboring states in investment in the school funding formula. Many of our teachers are frustrated and contemplating retirement or leaving the profession altogether. There is an urgent need to address these challenges, but this status quo budget fails to do so.”
House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka:
“Thanks to years of fiscal self-discipline, Republicans have produced yet one more more and more solvent budget that gives historic financial savings, returns taxpayer cash and funds key investments unexpectedly. This budget avoids overspending, helps households combat inflation and positions all Oklahomans for future prosperity, whether or not in occasions of alternative or problem. On behalf of the House, I recognize the various contributions of the House, Senate, Governor and other people of Oklahoma to this wonderful budget.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City:
“This 12 months’s budget settlement displays that the Oklahoma Legislature prioritizes education, regulation enforcement and healthcare. It does so in a way that’s fiscally sound. It additionally acknowledges that Oklahoma households are being damage by failed federal insurance policies and offers them significant reduction – along with the tax cuts we handed final 12 months. This is all potential due to a mixture of powerful choices made by this Legislature in 2017 and conservative fiscal restraint within the years since. I’d like to increase my gratitude to my Senate colleagues, our House counterparts, and the Governor for his or her work on this budget that can pay dividends for years to come back.”
In a information launch from House Republicans:
“The largest area of the budget continues to be education, at $4.2 billion, or 44%. In the agreement, public K-12 schools continue to be funded at the highest level in state history, $3.2 billion, on top of billions of dollars in federal pandemic aid for schools and surging local property tax revenues in many school districts.”
“Higher education receives $873 million, including a $60.6 million, or 7%, state appropriation increase, the largest increase to colleges and universities in recent history.”
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