In 2018, Oklahoma teachers walked off the job to demand tax increases for school funding, which lawmakers passed. The argument for the tax hikes was that additional money would improve teacher hiring and retention and boost academic outcomes in Oklahoma schools.

Since 2018, total school funding from all sources has surged by more than $3 billion, but a new report shows that the increase has done relatively little to increase teacher numbers in Oklahoma.

Between the 2018-2019 school year and the 2024-2025 school year, staff numbers at Oklahoma public schools increased from 86,709 to 92,979. Of the 6,270 additional school employees hired during that time, just 602 were teachers, or less than 10 percent, according to WANDA, a database maintained by the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University.

In contrast, Oklahoma public schools hired an additional 810 individuals to fill district administration and central office worker positions. For every teacher added to the system since 2018, there have been 1.3 administrators or central-office workers added.

The surge in administrative positions has occurred even as Oklahoma public-school enrollment declined by 8,588 students from the 2018-2019 school year to the 2024-2025 school year.

Policymakers say those figures paint a distressing picture of local management practices in Oklahoma public schools.

“This data reveals a troubling disconnect between the record investments taxpayers have made and what’s actually happening in classrooms,” said state Rep. Chad Caldwell, an Enid Republican who is chair of the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Education. “Even as Oklahoma has significantly increased education funding in recent years, too little of that is translating into more teachers.”

“We know more than 60 percent of our school funding is not going to instruction in public schools, and this report is just more evidence of that,” said state Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, an Elgin Republican who is a former teacher now serving as vice-chair of the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Education. “These figures show the need for superintendents to review their school budgets to make sure every dollar possible is going to the classroom and not non-teaching positions.”

Of the 6,270 additional Oklahoma public-school employees hired between the 2018-2019 school year and the 2024-2025 school year, Edunomics Lab officials determined that 602 were teachers; another 1,749 were paraprofessionals, or “teachers’ aides;” 2,260 were non-teaching, school-based certified full-time employees (such as assistant principals, nurses, academic coaches, and specialists); 810 new hires were district administration and central office workers; and 848 worked in transportation, food services, custodial facilities, and similar jobs.

Other states in the region have made teachers a larger share of new public-school hires, based on the data compiled by Edunomics Lab.

New teaching positions comprised 25 percent of the net increase in Texas public schools’ workforce, compared to less than 10 percent in Oklahoma.

In Arkansas, teachers accounted for 27 percent of the net increase in the public-school workforce.

In neighboring Missouri, new teachers represented 30 percent of additional school hires.

Within Oklahoma, numbers vary widely across districts.

In the Oklahoma City district, the school system added 281 employees from the 2018-2019 school year to the 2024-2025 school year. None of the additional positions were teachers.

Instead, the Oklahoma City district reduced the number of teachers it employed by 221. That may be tied to the fact that the Oklahoma City school district’s student enrollment declined by 4,780 during that time.

But even as student enrollment and teacher numbers both declined in Oklahoma City, the district hired another 71 administrators and central-office employees, as well as 176 non-teaching school-based employees, which includes assistant principals. Transportation, food service, and janitorial employees increased by 107, and the district also hired an additional 147 paraprofessionals.

The situation was similar in the Tulsa school district. Although the total number of school employees declined at Tulsa during the time reviewed by Edunomics, there was a net increase in administrative positions.

Tulsa reduced the number of teachers in the district by 395 and also cut 209 teachers’ aides. But the school added 52 administrators or central-office employees.

Enrollment in the Tulsa district declined by 2,895 students during the time covered by the analysis.

In the Moore school district, officials hired an additional 18 teachers and an additional 18 administrators or central-office employees for a one-to-one ratio. The district’s enrollment declined by 1,071.

Officials at the Sand Springs district bumped the number of teachers by three, even as the student population declined by 78. But the school increased administrative and central-office positions even more—raising the number of those employees by 14. For every teacher added in the district, Sand Springs officials added 4.6 administrators.

The Muskogee school district has seen its student enrollment decline by 921 since the 2018-2019 school year and has reduced the number of teachers in the district by 68. But the district has increased the number of people working in district administration by six.

Other districts appear to have prioritized teacher hires.

The Bartlesville district veered from statewide trends by reducing the number of administrators and central-office workers by two while increasing the number of teachers by 41. Forty-six percent of employees added in the Bartlesville district since 2018-2019 have been teachers. The district’s student enrollment has increased by 210.

The Chickasha district, which had stable student enrollment through the years reviewed, added 13 teachers and reduced the number of positions in all other categories, including administration.

Major Funding Increases, Declining Academic Outcomes

Total Oklahoma public-school revenue from all sources—local, state, and federal—has surged more than $3 billion since 2018, rising from $6.3 billion to $9.5 billion, excluding cash forward and other savings.

Oklahoma public schools reported serving an average daily attendance of 645,904 students in the 2024-2025 school year when schools received $9,586,994,906 in revenue, providing per-pupil revenue of $14,842.

That was an increase of nearly 53 percent in per-pupil revenue from 2017-2018, when that figure stood at $9,724 based on average daily attendance.

Yet the massive increase in school funding has not generated academic improvement.

According to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests administered in Oklahoma and nationwide in 2024, Oklahoma fourth- and eighth-grade students’ achievement in reading and math is now ranked among the nation’s worst.

Researchers say 10 points on a state’s NAEP scale score roughly equate to a year of learning. Oklahoma’s fourth-grade reading NAEP score has declined nine points since 2019.

At the same time, the average ACT composite score in Oklahoma schools in 2025 continued its downward trend and was significantly lower than in 2018. An identical share of students took the test in both years.

Officials have long tied poor academic outcomes to the fact that Oklahoma spends a smaller share of education funds on instruction than nearly all states in the country.

According to information compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics report for the 2022-2023 school year (the most recent available nationwide), only 53.3 percent of Oklahoma school funding went to instruction, on average. The national average was 58.8 percent.

Data released by Caldwell in 2025 showed that less than half of school funding went to instruction in roughly 150 of Oklahoma’s more than 500 school districts.

Caldwell sought to address that problem during the 2025 legislative session, filing House Bill 1280, which would have required that at least 50 percent of a school district’s annual budget go to “instructional expenditures.”

But the Oklahoma State School Boards Association opposed the bill, claiming HB 1280 was “an intrusion on local control and prevents school boards from allocating funds based on the needs of students.”

The legislation ultimately failed to pass the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

Caldwell said the data compiled by Edunomics Lab shows the need for policymakers to do more to ensure school funding is reaching the classroom.

“When enrollment is decreasing, but administrative staffing is growing, it raises serious questions about priorities,” Caldwell said. “Kids don’t benefit from another administrative title; they benefit from teachers, instructional support, and direct services that meet them where they are.

“That’s why I’ve introduced reforms to ensure more education dollars are spent in classrooms, where they belong,” Caldwell continued. “If we’re serious about improving outcomes, we need our resources where they’ll have the greatest impact on kids. The future of Oklahoma depends on the success of our students today.”