Since 2018, Oklahoma’s per-pupil public school revenue has increased by 51 percent. But academic outcomes have declined steadily since 2018 despite the massive funding increase.

That defies expectations.

When C. Kirabo Jackson, a professor of education and professor of economics at Northwestern University, and Claire L. Mackevicius, an assistant professor of education policy and equity at the University of Oregon, did a meta-analysis of 31 studies across the country in 2024, they found that increased spending typically has at least a marginal benefit.

Patrick Graff, director of legislative policy for the American Federation for Children, summarized Jackson and Mackevicius’ findings as showing that states will typically generate “approximately 5-6 more days of learning per $1,000 per year in 2018 dollars.”

According to financial data reported by schools to the state’s Oklahoma Cost Accounting System (OCAS), Oklahoma’s public schools had $6,300,400,107 in new revenue and statewide enrollment of 694,816 for an average of $9,067 per student in the 2017-2018 school year.

By the 2023-2024 school year, those figures rose to $9,600,703,488 with student enrollment of 698,923, generating a per-pupil average of $13,736 per pupil.

Based on the aforementioned research, the increased funding should have generated the equivalent of an additional 14 days of learning in Oklahoma public schools.

Instead, academic outcomes in Oklahoma remain extremely poor. 

The average ACT score in Oklahoma is lower today than in 2018. And on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests administered in Oklahoma and nationwide in 2024, Oklahoma’s composite score on the NAEP fourth-grade reading test was significantly better than only two states nationwide, while in 8th-grade reading, Oklahoma did not outrank any state.

Those results raise many questions about the management of Oklahoma schools and how officials have spent their windfall funding. Notably, data indicate that Oklahoma continues to devote less funding to the classroom than most states.

A new report finds that Oklahoma trails 60 percent of states in the share of public-school employees who are teachers.

The State Leadership 2025 Index, produced by the State Leadership Initiative, found that teachers represent less than 48 percent of staff at Oklahoma’s K-12 schools. The report showed that 30 states’ K-12 workforces included a higher share of teachers.

Idaho topped the nation with 58 percent of K-12 staff composed of teachers.

Neighboring Missouri ranked third-best in the country, while Kansas ranked 13th-best.

Among states that border Oklahoma, only in Colorado did teachers comprise a smaller share of the K-12 workforce.

The State Leadership report warns that “having more than half of education employees in tertiary roles is a sure sign of overemployment by the government and massive bureaucracy bloat.”

Similarly, according to information compiled by a National Center for Education Statistics report for the 2022-2023 school year, only 53.3 percent of Oklahoma school funding went to instruction, on average.

That’s substantially lower than the national average of 58.8 percent.

Only one state—again, Colorado—spent a lower share on instruction.

And many Oklahoma schools spend an even smaller share of their budgets on instruction than the already-low state average.

Less than half of school funding goes to instruction in roughly 150 of Oklahoma’s more than 500 school districts, according to state records.

House Bill 1280, by state Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, sought to improve that metric by requiring that at least 50 percent of a school district’s annual budget go to “instructional expenditures” starting in the 2025-2026 school year.

The Oklahoma State School Boards Association, a lobbyist group funded with schools’ tax dollars, 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.”

Form-style letters sent to lawmakers on behalf of school administrators and their allies declared, “Locally elected school boards and our local superintendents should be able to make the best decisions for their students when allocating their budgets.” One such email called the 50-percent mandate “arbitrary” and warned that it “could result in schools being forced to purchase unnecessary classroom supplies.”

The Oklahoma Parent Legislative Advocacy Coalition (PLAC) backed school administrators who opposed the legislation, dismissing calls to make classroom funding a priority as “spending unnecessarily in classrooms in order to meet a baseless budget mandate.”

HB 1280 failed on a 36-57 vote in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

In a recent interview, the head of the OSSBA argued that Oklahoma public-school spending should be increased by at least $1 billion. However, he suggested much of the proposed increase would be spent outside the classroom on non-instructional expenses.

In their report, officials with the State Leadership Initiative urge Oklahoma and other states to take a different approach and cut K-12 administrative “bloat.”

“In many states, fewer than half of K–12 staff are teachers,” the report states. “That’s indefensible. Cap administrative hiring, redirect funds to classrooms, and follow lean models like Florida and Utah—where streamlined systems deliver top-tier outcomes.”