OKLAHOMA CITY — Citing a need to hire more school counselors to help address the lasting impacts of COVID-19, the state board of education unanimously approved a $3.2 billion budget proposal for fiscal year 2022 Thursday.
The proposal calls for $191 million more than what public education received for fiscal year 2021 from the Oklahoma legislature, including $110.8 million to offset the cuts in state aid due to a revenue failure.
Among the casualties in the state aid cuts was $18 million for a proposed School Counselor Corps, which would pay for 350 additional school counselors. As of the end of the 2019-2020 school year, the 703,650 students enrolled in public or charter schools across the state were served by 1,679 counselors.
Assuming enrollment has remained level through the early weeks of the 2020-2021 academic year, Oklahoma is short 1,051 school counselors to reach the recommended ratio of 250 students for every school counselor.
Some of the federal coronavirus relief dollars were allocated towards helping school districts address students’ social and emotional learning needs. However, those funds were limited, thus prompting the request.
“Supporting students with any number of traumas in their lives has to be a priority,” State Department of Education Chief of Government Affairs Carolyn Thompson said. “That has been magnified by the pandemic. These traumas have been exacerbated by social isolation, school closures, family members losing their jobs or any number of other stressors.”
By comparison, the state school board requested $3.29 billion for 2021. Had it been approved, it would have put perpupil funding on par with the dawn of the Great Recession.
Along with $60.6 million for science and health textbooks, the 2022 proposal also calls for an additional $17 million to cover increased health insurance costs for certified teachers and support personnel, $1 million for infrastructure upgrades to better protect student data and an extra $500,000 for Advanced Placement support in advance of a mandate from the state legislature that all independent districts offer at least four AP courses by 2024-2025.
School board members and officials with the Oklahoma Department of Education acknowledged that the legislature will probably be working with fewer resources in the upcoming session. However, they made it clear that the potential budget crunch does not absolve the legislature from its obligations to fund public education.
“We are presenting a budget that is respectful of where we are but it is definitely one that we know does not fully encompass what our classroom teachers and what our families want and need for their children in public school,” Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said.
In other business, the board unanimously rejected applications from both Christian Heritage Academy and Altus Christian Academy to participate in the Lindsey Nicole Henry scholarship program.
The program allows public school students with an individual education plan or receiving services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to use tax dollars as a scholarship towards an approved private school. There are currently 65 approved sites across the state, including two in southwestern Oklahoma: Lawton Christian School and Corn Bible Academy.
In making the motion to deny the applications, board member Kurt Bollenbach noted that neither school met the anti-discrimination requirements laid out in federal law for entities receiving public dollars. Among the protected categories under federal discrimination statutes are religion and sexual orientation, both of which were omitted from the schools’ non-discrimination statements included in their application packets.
“On their face, I don’t think we can approve these because they do not cover all the protected categories,” Bollenbach said.