OKLAHOMA CITY — Late Friday afternoon, Gov. Kevin Stitt’s office announced the decision to award $30 million in federal relief funds to three education initiatives.
Claiming it would help stabilize the state’s education system, $10 million will go towards private school tuition vouchers for about 1,500 homeless and low-income families across the state who have either had a job loss or other negative economic impacts due to the pandemic. Recipients must have attended the private school during the 2019-2020 school year and be at risk of not being able to afford to stay at the same school in 2020-2021.
The Oklahoma Private School Accrediting Commission has been requested to oversee the distribution of emergency educational relief funding to these families. Starting Aug. 1, families can apply and complete an eligibility form to receive the $6,500 voucher.
Another $12 million will go to school districts to facilitate to access digital curriculum, including Advanced Placement coursework. The funds will be overseen by a new ini- tiative, “Learn Anywhere Oklahoma.”
The remaining $8 million will be made available as $1,500 grants to families to pay for curriculum content, tutoring or technology needs through another new initiative, the “Bridge the Wallet Gap” program. The grants will be awarded on a first come, first served basis.
“As our students face disruptions from COVID-19 and schools turn to distance learning, we must ensure all Oklahoma students have the supplies necessary to access virtual courses and curriculum, ” Gov. Stitt said. “By giving families these funds, we are empowering them to choose what materials are most necessary to make their children successful academically.”
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.
The award amounts are based on the relative population of residents between the ages of 5 and 24 and the number of students counted under section 1124 of the Every Student Succeeds Act. The latter criteria is the count used to determine a school’s eligibility for Title I funding.
Part of the fund was already allocated, with $8 million going to a competitive grant program co-sponsored by the state Department of Education that awarded funds to 150 school districts and charter schools across Oklahoma to address students’ specific COVID-related needs.
An additional $1 million was allocated earlier this month to northeastern Oklahoma’s Tri-County Vo-Tech to launch a tuition-free accelerated job training program called Skills to Rebuild. Starting in August, the program specifically offers certif- icates in accounting, health care, nursing, child development, computer networking/cybersecurity and manufacturing.
The Friday afternoon announcement received a chilly reception from public school advocates. More than 700,000 students were enrolled in an Oklahoma public school during the 2019-2020 academic year, representing 91 percent of the state’s children.
In a statement, Oklahoma Education Association President Alicia Priest blasted the decision to allocate federal funding to private schools that are not subject to state scrutiny.
“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,” she said.
“The governor is using this crisis as a way to funnel emergency funds that our schools desperately need to new, unproven nonprofits and to private schools, which have zero academic accountability.”