A portion of a recent announcement by Gov. Kevin Stitt has caused quite a stir with Oklahoma’s elected Democrats in the Oklahoma State House of Representatives and the Oklahoma Senate.
Within a 1,200-word press release sent Friday by the governor’s office, a 240-word portion brings up the idea of providing CARES Act funding for students attending private schools.
That section of the release has upset lawmakers and teacher’s union members.
One senator, Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, criticized the governor for his decision for allocating that money.
“We have more than 700,000 public school students whose families are counting on their local school districts to keep them safe amidst spiking numbers of COVID-19 cases and don’t have adequate funding for sanitation, protective equipment and proper ventilation,” Sen. Hicks said. “We should prioritize funding for our public schools to prepare and implement plans which meet the return to learn guidance released by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Instead, one third of the funds are being used to support less than 10 percent of Oklahoma families in the private school system.”
Gov. Stitt’s plan, once enacted, would help to stabilize all of Oklahoma’s education system and reduce Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) by providing temporary funds to students currently attending private schools whose continued attendance is threatened by the financial fallout of COVID-19.
“We have great private schools in Oklahoma which serve homeless children and children living in poverty,” Gov. Stitt said. “Assisting those families will be our first priority and greatest focus, followed closely by helping families who have suffered severe financial hardship from COVID-19’s impact on employment and job opportunities.”
The $10 million initiative will allot funds to low-income families who have suffered a COVID-19-related job loss or a demonstrated economic impact due to COVID-19-related factors. More than 1,500 Oklahoma families will be able to access $6,500 funds.
“These children are already living with great personal uncertainty and hardship,” Gov. Stitt said. “To force children from those families to uproot to entirely new schools, separated from their friends and educational support system, will only compound ACEs for many of them. The Stay in School Funds will provide greater stability to those children, and reduce the associated trauma they face from COVID-19.”
Sen. Hicks wasn’t the only Democrat to react to Stitt’s plan.
In a statement from the Democratic caucus, lawmakers wanted to point out private schools have additional opportunities to generate revenue, like tuition and forgivable federal small business loans, which public schools don’t have.
Congress set aside approximately $3 billion of the $30.75 billion allotted to the Education Stabilization Fund through the CARES Act for the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEERF)
Since the GEERF was announced by the US Department of Education in March as an effort to help schools navigate the pandemic, Oklahoma Democrats and Oklahoma’s public education community have made it clear that these public funds should not go to private schools.
“Private schools in Oklahoma have been granted millions in forgivable federal small business loans, while public school districts have not had that option,” Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa said. “Adding $10 million of the GEER funds to the tax dollars these private schools have already received, it appears private schools are being placed in a much better position to safely return to school next month.”
Ninety percent, 703,000, of Oklahoma’s students attend public schools. After accounting for homeschooled students, private school students make up less than 10 percent, 39,000, of our state’s student population.
“It is no surprise that after months of receiving federal GEERF money, Gov. Stitt has finally chosen to spend them in a way where children and families have to compete with one another through another grant program to see relief,” Rep. Trish Ranson, D-Stillwater said. “We need public education funding for all students without the added barriers.”
By creating private school vouchers with public dollars, our state’s public school system, which is already underfunded, will suffer financially.
No elected Republicans offered a release with comments after Stitt’s announcement Friday.
In response to the Oklahoma Education Association’s comments from
Oklahoma Private School Accrediting Commission (OPSAC) has been requested to oversee the distribution of emergency educational relief funding to these families. Families will apply and will complete an eligibility form.
Families can begin applying for the funds August 1. More information about the program will be announced soon at opsac.org.
Oklahoma Education Association president Alicia Priest also criticized Stitt’s plans for the funding.
“Gov. Stitt had $40 million to help support Oklahoma schools, which have been overcoming major challenges to feed, educate and support children in a time of great fear. In the end, he opted to spend only half of those dollars on public schools,” Priest said.
“The governor is using this crisis as a way to funnel emergency funds our schools desperately need to new, unproven nonprofits and to private schools, which have zero academic accountability,” Priest said.
“Public schools serve 91 percent of students but are receiving 50 percent of the emergency funding. This is straight out of Betsy DeVos’s playbook. He has taken a stand, and it’s not with Oklahoma’s children,” Priest said.
Jonathan Small, president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and a supporter of Stitt’s plan, said OEA and its parent association the National Education Association, “is known for bizarre actions like working to give boys access to girls’ bathrooms and endorsing Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. Recently the OEA added to the bizarre by trying to give the impression that public schools are receiving only half of Oklahoma’s education-related federal COVID funding. Any suggestion to that effect is patently false.”
Small said how Oklahoma received $360 million in federal funding to cover the costs of the education response to COVID-19.
“Of that $360 million, $160.9 million went to the state’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, which pays for COVID-19-related expenses at public schools, and $39.8 million went to the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, which pays for a host of initiatives. The remainder primarily went to colleges.” Small said the governor’s “Stay in School” initiative will allow some low-income children from highrisk populations whose public-school options are failing them to instead attend private schools.
“It received $10 million. Ten million is not 50 percent of $360 million. Ten million is not half of $160.9 million. Ten million is not half of $39.8 million. The OEA’s claim has no basis in mathematical reality,” Small said.
“Most of the children who will benefit from the governor’s ‘Stay in School’ initiative fall into three categories: homeless children, teens recovering from addiction, and low-income, mostly minority families,” Small said.
Oklahoma Private School Accrediting Commission (OPSAC) has been requested to oversee the distribution of emergency educational relief funding to these families. Families will apply and will complete an eligibility form.
Families can begin applying for the funds August 1. More information about the program will be announced soon at opsac.org.