The south side of the Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City back in February. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World File
According to a new examination of education funding cuts since the recession began in 2008, Oklahoma leads the nation in largest percentage cuts to per-pupil spending at 22.8 percent.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ latest report, “Examining States’ Dramatic K-12 Education Cuts,” says that restoring school funding should be an “urgent priority” because of the serious consequences of steep state-level cuts on education reform initiatives and state and national economies.
“Local school districts typically have little ability to make up for lost state funding on their own,” analysts said. “As a result, deep state funding cuts lead to job losses, slowing the economy’s recovery from the recession. Such cuts also counteract and sometimes undermine important state education reform initiatives at a time when producing workers with high-level technical and analytical skills is increasingly important to a country’s prosperity.”
All the state-by-state comparisons were made using inflation-adjusted dollar amounts and primary form of state aid to local schools.
Among the findings:
• Oklahoma tops the list of 34 states that are providing less funding per student for the 2013-14 school year than they did before the recession hit. Thirteen of those states have cut per-student funding by more than 10 percent.
•Only six states have reduced the dollar amount spent on students more than Oklahoma, where per pupil expenditures are down $810. Reductions ranged from $1,242 to $873 per pupil in Alabama, Wisconsin, Kansas, Idaho, New Mexico and California
•Oklahoma was also among the 15 states that has lower per-student funding for Fiscal Year 2014 than it did in the last fiscal year after adjusting for inflation.
When the Oklahoma State Department of Education released its initial state aid allocations in July for the current fiscal year, the actual dollar amounts were up $8.60 per pupil to $3,038.60.
State officials attributed much of the increase to the Legislature’s addition of $21.5 million for state aid this past session, but a number of factors are expected to reduce those figures when mid-year adjustments are made.
In addition to typical growth in the state’s public school population, schools across the state should also expect to see their state aid payments reduced in January because of the widespread tornado damage in multiple cities around the state this spring.
A voter-approved ballot initiative commonly referred to as State Question 766, which will exempt certain intangible properties from property taxes, will also reduce state aid to schools at mid-year.
While the share varies by state, nationally, 44 percent of all K-12 education spending comes from state funding, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
For local school districts that can’t raise more local tax revenue to cover the gap, state aid cuts mean scaling back educational services.
Over the last several years, schools have also suffered significant cuts to federal funding. Since 2010, federal spending for Title I — the major federal assistance program for high-poverty schools — is down 12 percent after adjusting for inflation, and federal spending on education for the disabled is down 11 percent.
The report cites the Bureau of Labor Statistics in reporting that nationwide, there were 324,000 fewer jobs in local school districts in June 2013 than there were in July 2008.
The authors say those job losses have reduced the purchasing power of workers’ families, in turn reducing overall economic consumption, and thus deepened the recession and slowed the pace of recovery.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities works at both the federal and state level on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals.
States where per-pupil spending remains more than 10 percent lower than 2008
Percent change, adjusted for inflation, from FY08 to FY14
Oklahoma -22.8 %
Alabama -20.1 %
Arizona -17.2%
Kansas -16.5 %
Idaho -15.9%
South Carolina -15.7%
Wisconsin -15.3%
Georgia -14.8%
California -13.8%
Mississippi -13.1%
Virgina -11.5%New Mexico -11.4%
Texas -10.4%
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities budget analysis and National Center for Education Statistics enrollment estimates.
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