New state budget boosts funding for public schools, teacher incentives
Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, and House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, shake hands during an announcement of a 2026 budget deal on Wednesday at the state Capitol. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY — A budget deal state leaders struck on Wednesday will boost funding for Oklahoma public schools and raise the ceiling on teacher pay in the 2026 fiscal year.
After giving a similar increase last year, Gov. Kevin Stitt and legislative leaders agreed to pour another $25 million into public education funding, but this time with a caveat from House Bill 1087. Accompanying the extra $25 million will be a one-day increase to the minimum length of an Oklahoma school year. Students must have at least 166 days of instruction rather than 165.
HB 1087 also extends the teacher salary schedule by 15 years, meaning public school teachers will receive annual step raises for up to 40 years instead of reaching their maximum salary at 25 years.
A classroom teacher with a bachelor's degree must earn a salary of at least $64,021 after 40 years, under the bill.
'What we have been saying again and again repeatedly is what we need to invest in (and) focus on in public education is making sure we're recruiting and retaining quality educators and making sure we're having as much quality time in front of those educators as possible,' House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, said at a news conference Wednesday where the budget deal was revealed.
Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, said $25 million is 'not adequate' to help public schools counteract rising costs from inflation, especially while the cap for tax credits supporting private school students is pre-scheduled to increase by $50 million.
'Twenty-five million dollars is not enough to do the transformative change we need to have in the classroom,' Kirt told reporters on Thursday.
The Oklahoma State Department of Education budget, which covers most appropriations for K-12 schools, will increase by 3.15% to $3.98 billion.
That's an even larger funding boost than the Education Department's head, state Superintendent Ryan Walters, requested. But in doing so, lawmakers and the governor discarded several of Walters' ideas.
The agency's budget includes no funds for Bibles, despite Walters' request for $3 million to buy a copy for every public school classroom. His ask for $500,000 to give educators concealed-carry firearm training, $1 million for a new teacher induction program, and $1 million to recruit military veterans and former law enforcement officers to the teacher workforce also went unheeded.
An Education Department spokesperson declined to comment Thursday.
Another $1 million in 'efficiencies' from the agency, which has lost dozens of employees over the past two years, will transfer from the Education Department to public schools.
The Legislature dedicated $5 million to a high-dosage tutoring program inspired by a similar initiative Walters established at the Education Department. Both the House and Senate have advanced legislation to pay reading and math tutors to meet with struggling students multiple times a week.
Lawmakers agreed with Walters' request to boost the state's teacher maternity leave fund by $4 million. Walters advised that demand for the $2.5 million fund has been high and the number of participating districts is growing.
Another major incentive for longtime teachers made the cut in the state's budget for higher education. The Legislature will dedicate an extra $740,310 to the Oklahoma's Promise college scholarship program to include children of classroom teachers with 10 or more years of experience.
Members of the state's largest teacher union, the Oklahoma Education Association, are feeling 'optimistic' after seeing lawmakers prioritize teacher benefits this year, the organization's president, Cari Elledge, said.
She said the 15-year increase to the salary schedule 'will hopefully give people a reason to stay' in the classroom.
'This might help keep some people in the profession longer, which could benefit students because these are people who don't have to be trained and know what they're doing,' Elledge said.
The new state budget moves a $250,000 asthma inhaler fund away from the Education Department to the University Hospitals Authority and Trust, the entity that oversees hospitals on the University of Oklahoma medical campus.
The state Legislature created the $250,000 fund in 2023 to distribute asthma inhalers to all public schools. Lawmakers became openly frustrated last summer after more than a year had passed without the agency disbursing any of the money.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who was asked to investigate the matter, found the Education Department was 'neither speedy nor responsible' with the program and showed a 'lack of understanding of basic purchasing procedures.'
The Education Department still has not spent the $250,000, said the Senate's budget leader, Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry. In the meantime, he said the University Hospitals Authority and Trust has been working with the Brendon McLarty Memorial Foundation to provide inhalers to schools.
'We now have experience with them and their ability and their desire to be part of this program,' Hall said of the hospitals authority. 'So we'll just take that money and put it over there and let them administer the program.'
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
34 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to leave mass layoffs at Education Department in place
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to pause a court order to reinstate Education Department employees who were fired in mass layoffs as part of President Donald Trump's plan to dismantle the agency. The Justice Department's emergency appeal to the high court said U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston exceeded his authority last month when he issued a preliminary injunction reversing the layoffs of nearly 1,400 people and putting the broader plan on hold.
Associated Press
41 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to leave mass layoffs at Education Department in place
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to pause a court order to reinstate Education Department employees who were fired in mass layoffs as part of President Donald Trump's plan to dismantle the agency. The Justice Department's emergency appeal to the high court said U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston exceeded his authority last month when he issued a preliminary injunction reversing the layoffs of nearly 1,400 people and putting the broader plan on hold. Joun's order has blocked one of Trump's biggest campaign promises and effectively stalled the effort to wind down the department. A federal appeals court refused to put the order on hold while the administration appealed.
Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
How Defunding Planned Parenthood Impacts Health Care
Happy June! Thanks for spending another Friday with us. Reach out: ecordover@ and klong@ And a very special thanks to Politico Journalism Institute Fellow Laney Crawley for her help with this edition. The GOP-led spending bill that passed the House on May 22 vows to defund Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider and a health care resource that is used by one in three women (and one in 10 men) across the U.S. The organization has been on the chopping block since President Donald Trump took office. In March, the new administration cut funding to several Title X providers, including Planned Parenthood, shorting the organization tens of millions of dollars. If the bill succeeds to pass the Senate, Planned Parenthood patients would not be able to get care through Medicaid. At least 20 Planned Parenthood clinics have already had to close down this year across Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Utah and Vermont, due to what they say is financial and political strain. 'We are in a fight for survival, not just for Planned Parenthood health centers, but for everybody's ability to get high quality, affordable health care,' President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund Alexis McGill Johnson tells Women Rule. 'We can't overstate how it will disrupt the entire fabric of the health care system,' Ruth Richardson, CEO of the Planned Parenthood North Central States affiliate, tells Women Rule. The fight against Planned Parenthood is multifold and long-standing. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) introduced her own bill in 2023 titled the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, saying 'the nation's largest abortion provider has no business receiving taxpayer dollars.' Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a similar bill — the End Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Providers Act — in the Senate in January. (The Congressional Budget Office found that defunding the organization would cost the government more than it saved.) And when the Supreme Court first announced it would hear arguments in a South Carolina lawsuit over whether Medicaid can be stripped from Planned Parenthood, nearly 100 Republican members of Congress wrote to the high court urging the justices to side against the health provider. (The court heard arguments in April and the case is ongoing.) Without Medicaid reimbursements, McGill Johnson and Richardson explain, the clinics cannot stay financially afloat and up to 200 of the 600 Planned Parenthood clinics across the country may have to close. Shutting down these clinics may leave millions of Americans without health care they've relied on for years, forcing many of them to travel for care or to forgo lifesaving preventative measures such as wellness exams and cancer screenings. 'You're certainly not stopping the need for care. You're putting the burden on people to get that care. It means that people are going to delay treatment until they're able to get there,' McGill Johnson says. Excluding Planned Parenthood from Medicaid 'does not just impact patients on Medicaid,' McGill Johnson adds, 'It actually impacts all of us who rely on those clinics and hospitals, particularly in rural areas in order to get that basic access to care.' The services these clinics and centers provide go beyond just abortion or even reproductive health services. '$2.8 million of our funding, right now, is frozen,' Richardson says. And the people who will be most affected by the defunding are already the most vulnerable in the community, McGill Johnson and Richardson add. 'The majority of our health centers are in rural or medically underserved communities. We see patients regardless of their ability to pay. We believe that they deserve access to high quality care. This is our literal reason for existing.' Since many of the physical clinics are closing, Richardson says the organization has expanded other operations like online care. 'Virtual care is critically important now, especially thinking in terms of just the increasing health care deserts we're already seeing within our rural communities,' Richardson says. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood and its affiliates are lobbying lawmakers on the Hill. 'We are hoping that reason will prevail in the Senate,' McGill Johnson says. POLITICO Special Report Elise Stefanik, a Potential Candidate for Governor, Focuses on New York's Local Races by Nick Reisman for POLITICO: 'ALBANY, New York — Republican Elise Stefanik, who's considering a run for governor next year, is turning to races close to home. The House Republican on Wednesday will announce the creation of a political action committee to raise cash on behalf of local Republican candidates in New York. She's expected to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to start.' Karine Jean-Pierre Is Leaving the Democratic Party. Her Former White House Colleagues Have Some Thoughts by Eli Stokols for POLITICO: 'Karine Jean-Pierre's announcement that she's leaving the Democratic Party — timed with the rollout of a new book — has detonated long-simmering grievances among her former White House colleagues about Jean-Pierre's pursuit of celebrity and personal media exposure while serving as then-President Joe Biden's press secretary. The attention-grabbing ploy lit up Democratic and Biden alumni texting groups and reignited frustrations that burned for years about Jean-Pierre, according to seven former Biden administration officials granted anonymity to describe private conversations.' AOC Backs Zohran Mamdani for NYC Mayor by Emily Ngo for POLITICO: 'Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed fellow Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as her first choice for New York City mayor, putting her high-profile mark on a primary where he has surged among progressives. The lefty firebrand unveiled her preferred slate in the June 24 primary in an interview Thursday with The New York Times. She said she will rank Adrienne Adams, Brad Lander, Scott Stringer and Zellnor Myrie in that order after Mamdani. Adams, the City Council speaker, was also endorsed Thursday by Rep. Yvette Clarke as her No. 1 choice, POLITICO reports exclusively.' Number of the Week Read the full story here. MUST READS US Customs and Border Protection Quietly Revokes Protections for Pregnant Women and Infants by Dhruv Mehrotra for WIRED: 'US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has quietly rescinded several internal policies that were designed to protect some of the most vulnerable people in its custody — including pregnant women, infants, the elderly and people with serious medical conditions. The decision, outlined in a memo dated May 5 and signed by acting commissioner Pete Flores, eliminates four Biden-era policies enacted over the last three years. These policies were intended to address CBP's long-standing failures to provide adequate care for detainees who are most at risk — failures that have, in some cases, proved fatal.' Hundreds of 'DEI' Books Are Back at the Naval Academy. An Alum and a Bookshop Fought Their Removal by Nadra Nittle and Mariel Padilla for The 19th: 'When the U.S. Naval Academy stripped 381 books tied to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from its library, retired Commander William Marks saw more than censorship — he saw a threat to the Navy's future. But last week, after immense public outcry, most of those books returned to Nimitz Library shelves. All the books the academy removed in early April had one thing in common: Officials flagged them for DEI themes. They include Maya Angelou's 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,' Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and Elizabeth Reis' 'Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex.' The purge followed directives from Trump-appointed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has called DEI initiatives 'divisive.'' Supreme Court Rules for Straight Woman in Job Discrimination Suit by Adam Liptak for The New York Times: 'The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously ruled in favor of a straight woman who twice lost positions to gay workers, saying an appeals court had been wrong to require her to meet a heightened burden in seeking to prove workplace discrimination because she was a member of a majority group. The decision came two years after the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions programs in higher education and amid the Trump administration's fierce efforts to root out programs that promote diversity and could make it easier for white people, men and other members of majority groups to pursue claims of employment discrimination. The standards for proving workplace discrimination under a federal civil rights law, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote for the court, 'does not vary based on whether or not the plaintiff is a member of a majority group. Quote of the Week Read more here. on the move Sophia Kim is now director of media relations and comms strategy for the Council on Foreign Relations. She is an Obama White House and Small Business Administration alum. (h/t POLITICO Playbook) Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the former Energy and Commerce chair, is launching a nonprofit aimed at inspiring a new generation of leaders. The Cathy McMorris Rodgers Leadership Institute will be led by her former district director Kristina Sabestinas, with longtime campaign official Dawn Sugasa serving as senior adviser. (h/t POLITICO Influence) Mary Thomas is now CEO of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. She previously was chief strategic growth officer of the Job Creators Network. (h/t POLITICO Playbook)
