OKLAHOMA CITY — State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister has specific ideas about how a $39.9 million block grant from the Department of Education should be spent. Spoiler alert: it does not involve voucher programs. Speaking to reporters via video conferencing after
Thursday after a meeting of the state Board of Education, Hofmeister said her office wants to see the state’s share of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund used to help address the digital divide that has become more apparent with school districts’ shift to distance learning.
More than a quarter of students across Oklahoma do not have reliable internet access, forcing school districts to incorporate paper packets and OETA programming into their curriculum.
“Not warranting a reminder, but I will say most all of us could not have anticipated the need to shift to distance learning and what all came from the required closing of the economy,” she said. “Our focus is on the needs of our students and connectivity issues. This is a real chance to address lingering problems.”
Gov. Kevin Stitt has publicly indicated his interest in using the money to expand access to Advanced Placement classes in rural areas and backfilling funding for a tax-credit scholarship program that provides tax credits for those who make donations for private school scholarships or to provide limited grants for public schools.
This block grant is separate from the $161 million award to the state Department of Education that was also included in the CARES Act.
Under the terms of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, governors in each state, along with Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, have the authority to award emergency subgrants to school districts, post-secondary institutions and education organizations left scrambling in the wake of COVID-19.
Additional meetings are still in the future between the governor’s office and the state Department of Education to discuss specifics about Oklahoma’s microgrant proposal. Under the terms of the program, the U.S. Department of Education must have a proposal in hand from the state before the actual funds are awarded.