Public school funding reports called ‘fake news’
The chair of the state House common education committee called reports of declining state funding for public schools “fake news” in an email to Republican lawmakers on Tuesday.
“I know there is a lot of talk about educational funding and the massive cuts we have caused education funding (fake news) but the numbers don’t lie,” State Rep. Michael Rogers, R-Broken Arrow, wrote in his email, a copy of which was provided to The
Oklahoman and its authenticity confirmed by Rogers.
“You can see how we have increased funding per pupil every year since 2010,” wrote Rogers, referring Republican lawmakers to a link in his email to the state Department of Education website.
The link in Rogers’ email includes per-pupil funding from all sources, including federal sources and other dedicated funding sources, which showed an increase in per-pupil funding when the total is divided by the number of students.
Rogers said the link proved the Legislature had increased state funding for education on a per pupil basis.
However, state education allocation, which is what the Legislature is tasked with setting, has declined by $182 per student since 2008.
The $128 million increase in school staff health insurance alone has decreased per-pupil spending by $25 each.
In context
“The Oklahoma Cost Accounting System factors in all sources of funding, not only state dollars, and the specific costs that make up Oklahoma’s per-pupil expenditures are required by state and federal law,” said state Department of Education spokeswoman Steffie Corcoran, referring to the information linked to in Rogers’ email.
“It is important to put into context what those numbers represent. Costs for state-mandated expenditures like health insurance for certified and support staff have skyrocketed and account for more and more of the state-appropriated funds. Flex Benefit Allowance increases alone are $172 million since the 2009-2010 school year.
“Additionally, we are seeing greater numbers of students — such as English learners or students in special education— whose needs require additional financial resources. Without question, the funds that remain for students continue to diminish. Oklahoma’s average per-pupil expenditure is the lowest among our neighboring states.”
When reached for comment on Wednesday, Rogers told The Oklahoman he felt the debate over education funding is often complicated by a lack of consistency when talking about numbers.
“It’s frustrating when one group will put out that we are spending $7,000 per pupil, another group says we are spending $14,000 per pupil,” Rogers said. “How are we going to define per-pupil expenditure as a state?”
Funding numbers
According to the state Department of Education, state-appropriated public school funding for the past five years has been: •2016-17: $2,383,589,159 •2015-16: $2,450,638,896 •2014-15: $2,484,873,132 •2013-14: $2,407,604,082 •2012-13: $2,333,604,082 Public school enrollment across the state has increased by more than 20,500 students over that span.
Dividing state appropriations with the number of public school students last year comes out to roughly $3,436 in per-pupil spending, which was a decrease of more than $100 per student from the previous year.
State appropriations account for most of the general funding of school districts, which is used to pay teachers, utility bills and other operational costs.
The state funding formula for schools issues money for each student, with the exact amount fluctuating based on student demographics, such as poverty and special education.
The poverty factor
“There are far more factors involved in why our schools are struggling today . ... The biggest one is that since 2009 we have 61,000 more students in poverty,” said Shawn Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association.
Hime said education funding can be a complicated subject, but he looks forward to working with lawmakers about how funding levels are impacting public schools.
“I’ve always worked well with Rep. Rogers. I expect to reach out to him and walk him through some of the issues,” Hime said. “It is very difficult to understand and it is very complex, because we are not talking about a static number of students from 2009 to 2017.”
Many school leaders have said the decrease in per-pupil funding from the state has resulted in cut programs and larger class sizes.
“I’m a superintendent who would be happy to sit down with (Rogers) and show him the cuts we’ve had to make,” tweeted MidDel Public Schools Superintendent Rick Cobb, including the hashtag #realnews.
Rogers didn’t dispute the claim in his email, but said the state should be spending more money on public schools.
“You can talk numbers on both sides but my biggest concern is asking where we are at and using the same set of numbers,” Rogers said. “We are far from where we need to be and I tell my colleagues that all the time. Unfortunately people don’t like to forward those emails.”