State education board approves $2.9 billion budget request for FY19
The state Board of Education on Thursday approved a nearly $3 billion budget request for Fiscal Year 2019, one that funds teacher pay raises and textbooks and boosts spending for reading and alternative education programs.
The spending plan is $473.6 million more than was appropriated for the current fiscal year.
The $2.9 billion request by the state Education Department, which will be reviewed by the state Legislature, includes $287.8 million for a $5,000 teacher pay raise that is “regionally competitive.”
State schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister called it “long past time” to make teacher pay raises “a formal part of the budget.”
“What we know is we don’t have enough people stepping into Oklahoma classrooms,” Hofmeister said. “Those who are coming in are feeling they do not have the support to be able to work with children and do not have some of the tools they need.”
The amount set aside for raises would benefit about 49,000 teachers statewide, figures provided by the state agency show.
“Students are not choosing to go into education,” said board member Carolyn Franks, a former teacher. “They look at the pay out there. Why would they want to become a teacher? Pay is a big, big part of it.”
The budget request includes $1.9 billion for financial support of schools to help with increased enrollment and rising costs, a nearly $54 million increase. The request also includes about $58.6 million for instructional materials — including reading books and math books — that have gone unfunded the past two years.
In delivering the agency’s budget presentation Carolyn Thompson, chief of government affairs, noted that alternative education and reading sufficiency programs are underfunded and need an additional infusion of $12 million combined.
“We have requested what we believe is the actual need ... for each of these programs,” Thompson said. “You’ll see quite significant increases in some of these areas.”
Schools requested $17 million last year for alternative education but received $10 million, Thompson said.
“They actually spent $17 million,” she said. “Actually, they spent upwards of $40 (million), if you include sources they took from federal funds.
Schools, Thompson added, “are spending quite a lot of money in this area, and the state has not met its obligation to fully fund this particular mandate.”
Similarly, the Reading Sufficiency Act is a law that calls for students in kindergarten through third grade who are reading below grade level to receive $150 per student for school and district supports.
“We have 80,504 students needing this support,” she said. “If you do the quick math, you end up with over $12 million dollars, which is our request this year, which is almost double what the amount was funded at last year.”
Funding for public school activities, meanwhile, was increased by $45.2 million. In addition to alternative education and reading sufficiency programs, the agency requested more money to fund grants that support the expansion of STEM, reading and special education programs, increase access to Advanced Placement courses and provide bonuses for psychologists, speech pathologists and audiologists.
The spending plan also increases by $24.6 million the amount required by law to pay for teacher and support staff health insurance, officials said.
William Flanagan, of Claremore, cast the lone dissenting vote. Flanagan expressed concerns about submitting a higher spending plan given the state’s current budget situation.
“We know that there’s 99.9 percent probability this document will be discounted,” he said. “When that gets discounted, the actual value of the input from the department is also discounted.”
Board member Lee Baxter, of Lawton, said he understood Flanagan’s concerns.
“What I’ve concluded is, no matter what you send them, it’s going to be discounted,” Baxter said.
Said Franks: “I believe in this budget. If we lower it by 10 percent they’re still going to discount it. ... Let’s put on it what we really feel are the department’s needs.”