As reported in our April 2 edition, Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed a bill into law that changes the state’s funding formula for local school districts.

Several organizations, including the Oklahoma State School Boards Association and the Organization of Rural Oklahoma Schools opposed House Bill 2078, which was co-authored by Senator Zack Taylor (R-Seminole).

Passage of the bill drew criticism from State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, who said “kids will lose” if schools are forced to make cuts as a result of HB 2078.

The Producer reached out to Dr. Bob Gragg, Super intendent of Seminole Public Schools, for his perspective on the new legislation. Gragg’s response, which includes his thoughts on the action of the state school board in regard to a pending lawsuit with the Oklahoma Public Charter School Association, appears below in its entirety.

From Bob Gragg, PhD:

Let me begin with a quote from State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Joy Hofmeister who said, “Children in rural Oklahoma deserve to have a high quality education and HB 2078 potentially jeopardizes that. This bill removes financial safeguards meant to protect all students from the impact of abrupt changes in the local economy. Kids will lose when schools are forced to make sudden cuts in essential services and opportunities which provide access to a well-rounded education.”

I believe that the “safeguards” that Superintendent Hofmeister is referring to are the state funding formula “hold-harmless” provisions which have been there to protect against short-term enrollment fluctuations and to protect students from harmful sudden cuts to teacher staffing, and academic services.

Those provisions will be cut in half by this legislation, moving from the current two-year protection to a oneyear provision effective for the 2022-2023 school year. This means that when the local economy downsizes due to employment opportunities, such as jobs moving from rural areas to metropolitan areas, then the rural schools could be forced to reduce staff without time to rely on routine staff attrition. This could also increase class sizes and put more students in each class when school districts lose funds without adequate time to plan for the changes.

The current funding formula is not perfect, and neither is the projected funding formula. However, the current formula has worked very well for the majority of school districts in Oklahoma, and has been touted as one of the most equitable funding formulas of any of the states. The most criticism that the current formula has received during the past few years, is that it has never been fully funded as it was intended.

The challenges under the new formula rules will be minimal for districts that have a steady growth pattern of student enrollments. For districts where the economy and job market is volatile, impacting student enrollment with an up and down ebb and flow, the challenges and abrupt changes will be the norm under the new formula. The challenges will likely have an impact for schools without a steady growth in student enrollment in terms of teacher recruitment when there are vacancies that need to be filled.

District leaders will adjust and find ways to meet the challenges with the integrity and grit that comes with the territory, just as they always have. They will rise to the challenges on behalf of the students and communities that school districts serve.

These challenges are of grave concern to me and my fellow school leaders in Oklahoma. The bigger concern that I have is in regard to the State School Board’s action to approve a resolution from a pending lawsuit with the Oklahoma Public Charter School Association last week. If that action is allowed by the courts to stand, it could dramatically alter the way that public school districts are funded. I’ve been a professional educator since 1973, which spans nearly 50 years, and most of that has been as a school administrator.

I’ve experienced a great deal of changes in funding formulas and the rules that they entail, and I cannot even get a solid grasp around the possible outcomes of that resolution. It attacks the Oklahoma Constitution in terms of an overreaching nature and the demands it could place on all local school districts. It erodes the powers given to local boards of education to provide and fund public education in Oklahoma, and would allow locally approved tax revenues to be distributed illogically to follow students attending charter schools and/or students who have transferred to other schools outside of the local districts boundaries.

If communities want to have a say in the local tax base for school districts, and to have some say in terms of local control, then we need to sit up and pay attention to the potential of the State Board of Education’s actions of March 25, 2021.