The Legislature recently adopted a measure, and the governor signed it into law, that revises the state school funding formula. It gets rid of duplicate and triplicate student counts so more money can be appropriated to actual students in the schools where they currently attend and receive their education.
Had nothing been done, the taxpayers would have spent $200 million for 55,000 non-existent students. We also would pay virtual charter schools for students they may no longer serve.
This legislation was upsetting to some administrators who have for many years been able to use a three-year high count of average daily membership. The problem became highlighted when many schools closed last year during the pandemic, and parents moved students into virtual charter schools. The legislature realized when those students came back to their traditional schools, the virtual charters would still be able to count them for up to three years. This would have watered down overall per-student funding.
Districts still will be able to use counts from the immediate previous year or from the current school year if they are growing. Taxpayer dollars were always intended to follow the student. Schools have other sources, such as bonds and local funding sources to help them meet needs that extend beyond serving the student.
On this same topic, we also drafted legislation to keep local ad valorem dollars with traditional public schools and not be sent to charter schools. That issue came about after the State School Board recently settled a 2017 lawsuit that would have allowed local dollars to go to charters.
Instead, lawmakers created the Redbud School Funding Act, which would use medical marijuana taxes and the Common School Building Equalization Fund to meet the building needs of brick-and-mortar public charter schools, which are not allowed to bond and which receive less per-student funding that traditional schools.
The Act also, however, will help our rural schools. It directs the State Department of Education to use this money to issue annual per-student funding grants to public schools in low property value areas. There are 334 such districts throughout the state that could benefit from these grants.
On another topic, we are still working diligently to address broadband issues in rural and urban areas. Many measures are still making their way through the legislative process.
The House also recently passed a bill that would require the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to manage Medicaid expansion internally rather than adopting managed care run by out-of-state, private corporations. The state plan would cost about $164 million this year. The outside plan would cost about $2 billion for the initial contracts. Local hospitals and health care providers are in favor of the state-run plan as they’ve had good results getting quick reimbursements from the Health Care Authority and feel it’s been well-managed.
The bill still awaits Senate action and if approved will head to the governor's desk. He’s been very vocal in his opposition to the state plan, so he’s likely to veto it. If that occurs we would need two-thirds of both legislative chambers to override it.
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