Education

GOP voters back expanding Oklahoma’s school-choice tax credit, poll shows

November 18, 2025

Ray Carter

Since its inception, the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program has offered refundable tax credits to assist families in covering the cost of private school tuition. However, the program is currently capped at $250 million in credits per year, meaning some families may be turned away if demand exceeds supply.

A new poll shows that Oklahoma Republican voters overwhelmingly support both the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit and efforts to eliminate the program cap.

The new poll, commissioned by the organization “yes. every kid. foundation,” shows that “likely 2026 GOP primary voters overwhelmingly support giving families more education freedom and removing the budget cap limiting participation in Oklahoma’s Parental Choice Tax Credit program.”

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, with the largest credits going to those with the lowest income.

Families earning up to $75,000 can receive a $7,500 per-child refundable tax credit; those earning $75,001 to $150,000 get a credit of $7,000 per child; families with income between $150,001 to $225,000 qualify for a $6,500 credit; those earning $225,001 to $250,000 receive a $6,000 credit; and those earning $250,001 and up qualify for a credit of $5,000 per child.

Families in the two lowest-income brackets are given priority if the program reaches its $250 million cap.

The “yes. every kid. foundation” poll shows that 67 percent of likely Oklahoma Republican primary voters view the tax-credit program favorably, and 64 percent support removing the cap. Only 21 percent of GOP primary voters oppose lifting the cap.

The poll also found that 56 percent of respondents said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate for governor who supports removing the cap and expanding the program.

Furthermore, 53 percent of K-12 parents surveyed expressed interest in using the program (with 33 percent being “very interested”), while 13 percent reported they already use the program.

The poll found 63 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that the cap should be eliminated because it “limits the number of students who can use the program to about 5 percent of all K-12 students in the state.”

Sixty-two percent of respondents said they were more supportive of the program after learning that Oklahoma “spends about $14,000 in taxpayer money every year to educate each child at a public school, yet this tax credit is half of that. By allowing more families across the state to use this tax credit to help pay for approved education expenses, we can better educate our children while also saving taxpayers money.” Only 14 percent said they were less supportive.

A report released in April, “Rankings of the States 2024 and Estimates of School Statistics 2025,” by the NEA Research, found that Oklahoma public schools had $14,066 in revenue receipts per student in the 2023-2024 school year when calculated based on average daily attendance.

This year, parental demand almost exceeded the supply of credits currently authorized for the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program. According to a Nov. 3 report from the Oklahoma Tax Commission, the program has already awarded $248.5 million of the $250 million in available credits for the 2025-2026 school year.

The trendline indicates demand is likely to exceed supply next year, particularly as more families opt to shift children from the public-school system to private schools, a trend reinforced by the interest expressed by parents in the “yes. every kid. foundation” poll.

Among those applying for tax credit for the 2025-2026 school year were the families of 4,121 students who shifted to private school for the first time this year. Nearly 73 percent of those students came from lower-income and middle-class families with incomes of $150,000 or less.

So far this year, the program has served 39,598 total Oklahoma children. Of that total, nearly 56 percent of students come from low-income or middle-class families with incomes below $150,000.

According to Census data, the median income of Oklahoma families is $82,640, meaning over half of families with children in Oklahoma have incomes exceeding the cutoff for the tax-credit program’s maximum $7,500 per child tax credit.

The “yes. every kid. foundation” poll surveyed 513 likely 2026 Republican primary voters from Oct. 29 to Oct. 31 and had a 4.3-percent margin of error.

The poll showed the Republican gubernatorial race is a dead heat between Attorney General Gentner Drummond and former House Speaker Charles McCall, who had 22 percent apiece, while Chip Keating (son of former Gov. Frank Keating) had 7 percent and former state Sens. Jake Merrick and Mike Mazzei had 2 percent apiece. The poll showed 44 percent of primary voters were undecided.

A summary statement issued with the results of the “yes. every kid. foundation” poll stated, “GOP primary voters want to give families more options to personalize learning, and they see expanding access to the state’s Parental Choice Tax Credit as a way to achieve that. Republican candidates for governor who embrace education freedom stand to gain, as GOP primary voters will be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports more freedom and removing the cap.”