At the 118th American Farmers and Ranchers state convention in Norman, Oklahoma, Farm Director, KC Sheperd had the chance to visit with Speaker of the House Charles McCall, about improving education across the state and looking out for rural school districts.
House Bill 2775, authored by House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, includes a $500 million increase in funding for public schools throughout the state that will fund $2,500 pay raises for every teacher not designated as an administrator; $50 million to be distributed to schools receiving below-average funding from annual local tax revenue; and $300 million to be distributed to public school districts on a per-pupil basis.
“It is a bill that is dropping this year that really is going to provide a very high level of funding resources for all of our rural schools throughout the state of Oklahoma,” McCall said. “There are over 500 school districts in the state of Oklahoma, and many of those school districts are in the smallest parts of Oklahoma in terms of population.”
The bill specifically, McCall said, will invest an additional 500 million dollars into public education. Of the 500 million dollars, McCall said 300 million dollars will go into a new fund called the “Oklahoma Student Fund.”
“Through that fund, that 300 million dollars, no one school district in the state of Oklahoma will be able to pull more than two million dollars out of that fund,” McCall said.
What this means, McCall said, is that normally, dollars that are absorbed by larger metro schools will be capped at two million.
“That pushes more money, more dollars out, to the rural parts of the state and the smaller schools,” McCall said. “That is a trade-off for a tax credit that would be authorized for private schools, which we know would be heavily utilized in the metros. That doesn’t provide a lot of benefit to the rural parts of the state, so the trade-off in the bill is to give rural Oklahoma more funding dollars than they would normally get through additional public education funding.”
McCall explains further and refers to the bill as a “rural multiplier” of funds for those rural schools.
“It has a tremendous upside for the rural parts of the state,” McCall said. “It gives them exactly what they need in rural Oklahoma. We just need more money for these smaller schools to enhance their curriculums and provide more opportunity for the students that live there because we know public education is what educates the vast majority of our rural students.”
The tax credit approach, McCall said, is different from a voucher or an ESA (education savings account).
“A voucher/ESA approach is something that I staunchly oppose and have stood against last year and will continue to stand against it going forward,” McCall said. “But with a tax credit, why that is the path to pursue for private school option, for parents of the state that want to send their kids to a private school, is because, with a tax credit, you have to prove up your expenses.”
To use a tax credit, McCall said individuals must prove that they have enrolled a child in a private school, or if they are homeschooling, they have to turn in their receipts for education expenses such as tutoring and curriculum.
“You have to prove you spent the money to get the credit, which keeps the waste, fraud, and abuse at bay,” McCall said.
The voucher system pulls from the state’s public education fund, McCall said, whereas the tax credits do not.
“Tax credits reside with the taxpayer and have nothing to do really with the state,” McCall said. “So, the taxpayer is basically keeping their own money, so to speak, with the exception of those families that have no taxable income, and there is a mechanism in the bill to help a very low-income family who wants to try to maybe enroll in a private school.”
With legislation in full swing, McCall also discussed some other big-ticket items regarding more education-related bills, rural broadband, healthcare, and economic development.
