The Oklahoma House of Representatives on Tuesday made available to the public an online dashboard to compare each chamber's budget proposals with agency requests. Each allocates more than $3.8 billion to the state Department of Education.
House Speaker Charles McCaul, who is pushing for a one-quarter personal income tax cut, has proposed keeping the education budget roughly flat.
“You'll see the historic education funding that was put into public education last year redirected into this budget,” McCall said.
The Senate plan includes a $100 million increase in stipends for school support workers and an additional $2.65 million in payments to student teachers. The state began paying student teachers in 2021-2022 using federal COVID-19 relief funds, but those funds are set to expire.
Neither chamber's proposal would earmark money for Public Instruction Superintendent Ryan Walters' back-to-basics plan. Walters proposed spending a total of $16 million on the plan, which would include paid tutoring, bonuses for teachers whose students show growth, screeners and an online reading assessment program. was.
The Department of Education in February launched a request for bids for a statewide reading testing device estimated to cost $4.5 million, even though the state Legislature has not agreed to fund it.
Negotiations with the governor will continue until a final state budget is agreed upon. The Budget Transparency Portal is linked to the home page of the House of Commons website. Have questions, comments, or story ideas? Email us or direct message.
— Jennifer Palmer
“Oklahoma Watch (oklahomawatch.org) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization covering public policy issues facing the state.”
