Budget & Tax, Education

Purchasing power has declined

November 14, 2023

Curtis Shelton

At the risk of stating the obvious, inflation has been soaring over the past few years. Since 2017 the value of a dollar in the United States has fallen more than 20 percent.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator

Households across the country and in Oklahoma have seen an increase in monthly expenses. As costs have gone up, so too have salaries as workers have been demanding, and largely receiving, higher wages. Price increases have been used to argue for increased government spending. Since 2017 total gross receipts collected by the state have grown by 58 percent. Much of that additional revenue has been used to increase funding to education, including teacher salaries.

This sort of environment makes it likely that private schools in Oklahoma will increase tuition. Private schools will have to find some way to deal with increasing costs as well as offer more competitive salaries to keep up with the public-school salaries that have grown by $8,000 on average over the past seven years.