With demand almost exceeding the supply of school-choice tax credits this year, state lawmakers have voted to raise the cap on the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program by $25 million for the 2026-2027 school year.

Members of the Oklahoma Senate gave overwhelming support to the boost, sending the legislation to Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is expected to sign it into law.

The Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program provides refundable tax credits of $5,000 to $7,500 per child to cover the cost of private school tuition. The largest tax credits go to those with the lowest incomes, and families with income of less than $150,000 per year are prioritized.

This school year, the families of 39,587 children used the Parental Choice Tax Credit program to send their children to a private school using $247.8 million in credits, according to the most recent report from the Oklahoma Tax Commission. Based on trends, demand is expected to exceed the $250 million supply during the 2026-2027 school year unless the program cap is altered.

House Bill 3705, by House Speaker Kyle Hilbert and Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, increases the amount of school-choice tax credits to $275 million next year to ensure no families are denied opportunity.

State Sen. Julie Daniels, a Bartlesville Republican who carried the bill on the Senate floor, urged lawmakers to support the program increase “on behalf of the 39,500 children who were able to benefit from this program in the last school year and on behalf of those parents who are using the application window right now to find out if they are eligible and to help one or more of their children to be able to attend the school that they have chosen for them.”

About 56 percent of children using the program this year are from low-income or middle-class families with incomes below $150,000. Among those who used the program to shift to private schools for the first time this year, the Oklahoma Tax Commission reports that 72 percent of children are from families with incomes of $150,000 or less.

“We are continuing to see most of the students served, the families are $150,000 or below,” Daniels said.

State Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, complained that the school-choice program will have provided a cumulative $975 million in tax credits to Oklahomans from 2024 to summer 2027 once HB 3705 becomes law.

But Oklahoma public school funding remains at record highs, and the cumulative amount of revenue directed to Oklahoma public schools from all sources dwarfs the cumulative amount directed to the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program during its existence.

Oklahoma public schools will have received around $33.3 billion in total revenue, excluding savings, from spring 2024 to the end of the 2026-2027 school year, based on current trends.

For every $1 spent on the parental choice tax credit program during those years, public schools will have received more than $34.

Boren also argued that private schools should be subject to the same mandates and regulations as public schools, including for admissions.

But that would effectively require private schools to duplicate public schools’ curriculum and prohibit private schools from having a serious religious mission, making private schools into poor duplicates of Oklahoma’s public schools even as the state’s public schools have produced some of the nation’s worst academic outcomes.

State Sen. Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, objected to the fact that the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program is open to all Oklahomans, just like the public school system, including Oklahomans with incomes of more than $250,000.

But those same families get a much larger taxpayer subsidy when they send their children to Oklahoma public schools.

Under the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program, families with incomes above $250,000 receive a tax credit of only $5,000 per child.

Excluding cash forward and other savings, Oklahoma public-school funding from all other sources—local, state, and federal—was $9,586,994,906 in the 2024-2025 school year. Since districts reported having an average daily attendance of just under 645,904 during the 2024-2025 school year, that translates into a revenue average of $14,842 per student.

HB 3705 passed the Oklahoma Senate on a 39-9 vote. The bill previously passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on a 70-19 vote. The bill now goes to Stitt, who has already indicated his support for the legislation.