Legislative Study to Focus on School Funding, Teacher Shortage, Student Enrollment Growth
OKLAHOMA CITY – A college professor has calculated that if state appropriations for common education had been maintained at 2008 levels, public schools in Oklahoma “would have had over $607 million more” than they have now to cope with a shortage of teachers and an abundance of students.
Research performed by Dr. Ken Hancock, assistant dean of the College of Education at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, indicates that the ratio of state appropriations to local tax revenue dipped from $1.85-to-$1 in 2008 to $1.45-to-$1 in 2013.
Hancock may review his research when the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Common Education meets Sept. 30 to discuss school funding, per-pupil spending and adequate resources for classrooms. The daylong study will be held in State Capitol Room 206.
Audio from the session will be aired online at www.okhouse.gov, and during the meeting teachers are encouraged to participate interactively on Twitter using “#OklaEd” in their posts.
The session is actually a consolidation of three studies requested by state Reps. Joe Dorman, D-Rush Springs; Donnie Condit, D-McAlester; Curtis McDaniel, D-Smithville; Dustin Roberts, R-Durant; Ann Coody, R-Lawton; and Dan Fisher, R-El Reno.
School funding in general, and per-pupil spending and adequate resources for classrooms, are scheduled to be discussed from 9 a.m. to noon and from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. State funding for special education is set to be discussed from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
State appropriated funding for schools fell by $217 million between 2009 and 2012, the Oklahoma Policy Institute reports. The amount allocated to education via the state funding formula during that same period slipped by $213 per student: from $2,050 in Fiscal Year 2008 to $1,837 in FY 2014.
The Legislature’s appropriations to Oklahoma’s public schools have not recovered from the peak level of five years ago, ledgers reflect. Appropriations to schools climbed to a record $2.531 billion in Fiscal Year 2009-10, then plunged to $2.278 billion in FY 2012 – a drop of $253 million. The $2.507 billion appropriation for the 2014-15 school year is $24 million lower than the appropriation five years ago, without factoring in inflation.
The budget reductions have been compounded by the addition of 40,000 more students over the past six years; enrollment statewide now numbers 681,000 students, the policy institute said.
Dorman said individuals who have confirmed they will participate in the combined study include Steven Crawford, executive director of the Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration; Dr. Jim Ferrell, assistant professor in the NSU College of Education; Claudia Swisher of Norman, a retired National Board Certified Teacher who is regional coordinator of Education Leadership Oklahoma; and David Blatt, executive director of the Oklahoma Policy Institute.
A presentation also is expected to be delivered by Shawn Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, who has emphasized the severe shortage of teachers in this state.
The OSSBA “repeatedly heard from local school officials that finding teachers is increasingly difficult,” particularly special education teachers, elementary and high-school math and high-school science teachers, Hime wrote recently.
School districts “of all sizes in all areas of the state” were scrambling to fill more than 800 teaching positions as the school year began last month. That number didn’t include many positions that were filled with teachers who needed emergency certifications “because they weren’t fully qualified,” Hime said. A record number of teachers were granted emergency certification this school year, he said, and some positions were filled with substitutes, he added.
“The reported vacancies also didn’t include positions eliminated because administrators couldn’t find a qualified teacher, opting instead to increase class size and perhaps hire a teaching assistant.”
Oklahoma lost more than 1,300 teachers between the 2009-10 and 2011-12 school years “at the same time the student population was on the rise,” Hime noted.
“Policymakers want accountability for schools,” he wrote. “Yet it’s the responsibility of policymakers to find the necessary resources for public schools…” The most important resource schools have is teachers, Hime asserted. “There just aren’t enough of them.”
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