Fund established to increase teacher salaries
Modernization of the Oklahoma Lottery continued this year with adding some additional tangibility around where Lottery funds are spent in education, as is constitutionally required.
On Thursday, Governor Kevin Stitt signed House Bill 4388 which allows Lottery funds to serve as a state match to the dollars that local school districts contribute to certify advanced, lead and master teachers. This will increase teacher salaries, give them promotion opportunities while staying in the classroom and help stem a teacher shortage that is impacting schools across the state.
“The Lottery is a long-time supporter of public education and we are excited that a portion of our proceeds will now be able to go directly to teachers across the state,” said Jay Finks, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Lottery Commission. “The Teacher Empowerment Fund identifies tangible beneficiaries for Lottery dollars, which helps assure people that win or lose, their money is helping Oklahoma teachers. This program is absolutely the right next step in modernizing the Oklahoma Lottery.”
Since its inception, the Oklahoma Lottery has contributed more than $1.1 billion to education, but it is often hard to know where exactly those funds are going. This year, Lottery leadership worked with the Legislature to continue to contribute broadly to common education, Career Tech and higher education, but will now have a portion of its funds go into a Teacher Empowerment Fund to help pay Oklahoma’s best teachers more.
Annual net proceeds from the Lottery are deposited into the Oklahoma Education Lottery Trust Fund. The first $65,000,000 deposited into the fund is distributed to various general education funds across the state, of which 45% is allocated to common education, 45% is allocated to higher education, 5% is deposited into the state’s
teachers retirement system and 5% is deposited into a school consolidation fund. As outlined in House Bill 4388, any additional profit will be directed to the Teacher Empowerment Fund. In FY21 and FY22 alone, the Lottery is projected to contribute more than $158 million to Oklahoma education.
“The Oklahoma Lottery has grown significantly over the past six years and future years’ projections have shown to be just as promising, making it a dependable funding stream for this program,” said Representative Kyle Hilbert, author of House Bill 4388. “This bill is crucial to the long-term success of public schools in Oklahoma. It provides a clear career advancement pathway for teachers that allows them to receive higher pay without having to leave the classroom.”
Eligibility and selection criteria for advanced, lead and master teacher certificates will be determined by each school district and approved by the State Department of Education. School districts are expected to select the highest-quality teachers to participate through criteria that may include, b++ut is not limited to, teacher observation, out-of-classroom time, student performance, teacher leadership responsibilities, student surveys and contributions to the school community.