At 22.8 percent, Oklahoma has had the largest percentage cuts to per-pupil spending in the nation since the recession began in 2008, an examination of education funding cuts indicates.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' latest report, "Examining States' Dramatic K-12 Education Cuts," says 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."
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities works at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals.
All of the state-by-state comparisons were made using inflation-adjusted dollar amounts and the primary form of state aid to local schools.
Among the findings:
- Percentagewise, 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 $873 to $1,242 per pupil in Alabama, Wisconsin, Kansas, Idaho, New Mexico and California.
- Oklahoma was also among the 15 states that have lower per-student funding for fiscal year 2014 than they 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 to local schools this past session, but a number of factors are expected to reduce those figures when midyear adjustments are made.
At the same time that they have typical growth in the number of students, schools across the state are likely to see their state aid reduced in January because of widespread tornado damage to property this spring and new exemptions of "intangible properties" from property taxes because of the voter-approved ballot initiative State Question 766.
Gov. Mary Fallin's spokesman said that though this new report takes into account only funds that are distributed through Oklahoma's school funding formula, another $74 million in additional appropriations is also "relevant ... because it is an increase in education funding that benefits students and supports teachers."
"Gov. Fallin has pursued reforms she thinks will improve education in Oklahoma, and we are going to continue to seek out other ways of improving education totally independent of appropriations," Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz said.
Jeff Mills, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, said lawmakers cannot discount the long-term effects of more than $200 million in cuts to public schools since 2008.
"We did receive some new money this year, but it also shows how much we still have to make up, and until we do so, we will fall further and further behind," Mills said.
State Superintendent Janet Barresi said she had not had an opportunity to review the report, "but I have been advocating for targeted increases in education funding to benefit student learning. The reality is we do not pay our teachers enough, and that is why I want our schools to increase pay $2,000 for each teacher."
Sapulpa Superintendent Kevin Burr, current president of the Tulsa County Association of School Administrators, said his district is one of many that have slashed their spending and employee numbers to the bone and have already built into their budgets modest teacher pay increases "for those who are left."
He noted that schools have taken on a slew of costly, time-consuming new state reform initiatives at the same time.
"Kids are dramatically affected by the lack of funding," Burr said. "We in Sapulpa and schools across the state have reduced class offerings and increased class sizes, and moms and dads know there are fewer curriculum opportunities for kids. They come up all the time and ask, 'Why don't we have an expanded foreign language or music or art or elective program that meets kids' interests like we had when we were in school?'
"The answer is we simply can't afford it."
By the numbers
States where per-pupil spending remains more than 10 percent lower than in 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% |
| Virginia |
-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
Andrea Eger 918-581-8470
andrea.eger@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Okla. No. 1 on list for largest per-pupil cuts
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