The Oklahoma State Board of Education has approved a $4 billion budget request for the state Department of Education for the coming year, one that includes a $23.7 million increase driven by rising health insurance costs.
The agency’s budget is the largest of any state agency and touches schools in every part of Oklahoma.
The board approved the $4.007 billion proposal on Thursday, Oct. 23, during the first regular board meeting chaired by new state schools Superintendent Lindel Fields.
One month earlier, the board had tabled a $4.015 billion budget proposal by then-Superintendent Ryan Walters. Board members said during that meeting they hadn’t had sufficient time to review such a large document. Walters ultimately resigned days later to take a private sector job.
The new budget proposal includes two items that Fields has said are priorities for him as he serves out the remainder of Walters’ term, which runs until January 2027 – $11.9 million for dedicated literacy efforts (including money for concentrated tutoring) and $42.2 million to fund teacher retention and recruitment programs.
The latter includes the Oklahoma Teacher Empowerment Program, which allows school districts to identify and designate up to 10% of their teachers for advanced, lead and master designations annually. Teachers receive a stipend of $3,000 to $10,000, depending on the designation level.
“We wanted to highlight the resources that were available” for those two areas, Fields told the board.
Tulsa Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Kristen Stephens — a member of Fields’ “turnaround team” at the education agency — presented the details of the budget to the board. Stephens now is in charge of the state agency’s finances, operations, compliance, federal programs and human resources.
By law, state agencies are supposed to submit their budget proposals for the upcoming fiscal year by Oct. 1, but given the timing of Walters’ exit and Fields’ appointment, the Department of Education and the state board received extra time.
As board members prepared to vote, member Chris Van Denhende of Tulsa noted the large size of the budget and said he’d like the board to consider forming a finance committee within the board, “to be responsible for working with the Department of Education to better understand how they spend the funds.”
Fields said he’d be amenable to that idea.
The Legislature has the final say on all state agency appropriations.
Five legislators watched the board discuss and vote on the budget proposal. They were Republican Reps. Dick Lowe of Amber, Toni Hasenbeck of Elgin, and Danny Sterling of Tecumseh, along with Democrat Rep. Jacob Rosecrants of Norman and Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt of Oklahoma City.
Lowe, the chair of the House Education Committee, said he appreciated board members taking the time to try and understand and digest the budget before voting on it. The budget doesn’t veer far from what the agency was appropriated for the current year, when its budget was set at $3.983 billion.
“I think we have a solid budget, and I’m very confident that’s what we’ve got – a budget to look at and build from,” Lowe told The Oklahoman.
He said there may be some areas that lawmakers emphasize or add to, but “I don’t think we have anything that we’ll say, ‘Oh, we’ve got to get rid of that.’”
One of the few things being cut from the current budget is a $50,000 expense for civil rights curriculum. Agency officials said that’s because that program is ending.
Rising health insurance costs are an issue that spans state agencies and one the Legislature is working to address, Lowe said.
“It’s not just us dealing with it,” Lowe said. “Every Oklahoman is seeing the same increase. We’ve got to work toward a better outcome.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma education agency asks for more than $4 billion in funding
