Education

Oklahoma students spend a year less in class—and it shows

April 6, 2026

Jonathan Small

Academic outcomes in Oklahoma public schools are among the nation’s worst.

Also, Oklahoma has one of the nation’s shortest school years.

Those facts are not unrelated.

According to the Education Commission of the States, 36 states mandate a minimum number of days per school year.

Oklahoma mandates only 166 days of school, so long as school is in session for 1,080 hours per year. Only Minnesota currently mandates fewer days, with that state having a 165-day minimum.

The commission reports that 29 states set a minimum of at least 180 days. Neighboring Kansas requires 186 days.

That’s a huge gap. Oklahoma House Speaker Kyle Hilbert has noted that our state is “about a month-and-a-half behind the national average” for days in school. Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton has noted, “If you add up, for all the Oklahoma kids that start in kindergarten and finish in 12th grade, we are one year behind every other state in this nation in the amount of days those kids have been in front of their teachers.”

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests administered in 2024, only 23 percent of Oklahoma 4th-grade students scored at or above proficient in reading in 2024. Only two states did worse. 

But aren’t those outcomes a money problem? No.

According to financial data reported by schools to the state’s Oklahoma Cost Accounting System (OCAS), Oklahoma public schools had $9,586,994,906 in revenue from all sources (local, state, and federal) during the 2024-2025 school year, aside from cash forward and similar savings.

Since districts reported an average daily attendance of just under 645,904 during the 2024-2025 school year, that translates into revenue of $14,842 per student. That exceeds tuition at most private schools in Oklahoma and represents a nearly 53-percent increase from the per-pupil revenue Oklahoma schools reported in the 2017-2018 school year.

The shortness of Oklahoma’s school year is one obvious culprit for our poor outcomes.

Sadly, our school year is even shorter than 166 days, because schools can count days when no children are present as instructional time, such as professional development days.

That’s why state Rep. Rob Hall, R-Tulsa, filed House Bill 3151. The legislation, as amended on the House floor, would raise the minimum number of school days per year to 173 starting in the 2027-2028 school year, so long as lawmakers also provide another $175 million in funding over the next two years.

School funding normally increases every year, so the $175 million boost is likely to be achieved. Tying that funding increase to an increase in instructional time is a trade worth making.

Oklahoma needs to maximize students’ learning time. HB 3151 doesn’t completely close the gap between Oklahoma and its peers nationwide, but it makes a good start.