Education

Lower-income families benefiting from Oklahoma school choice tax credit

January 17, 2025

Ray Carter

A new report released by the Oklahoma Tax Commission shows that the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program has benefited far more children from lower-income families in its first year than children from families in the program’s top income bracket.

The number of children from lower-income families who are attending private school thanks to the program was 35 percent greater than the number of beneficiaries from the highest income bracket.

Among those receiving the tax credit this year were 7,815 children from families with incomes of $75,000 and below who qualified for the program’s maximum credit of $7,500 per child in the spring and fall of 2024. The program launched in January 2024, one year ago.

In contrast, there were 5,769 children from families with income exceeding $250,000, a group that receives a maximum credit of $5,000 per child.

Overall, nearly 80 percent of children benefiting from the program were from families who did not land in the program’s top income bracket. And 60 percent of children in the program were from the bottom two income brackets (out of five total). The two lowest-income brackets include low-income and middle-class families with incomes of no more than $150,000.

The tax commission data refute the claims made by opponents of the school-choice program.

When state House lawmakers debated the creation of the program on Feb. 22, 2023, state Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, said working-class beneficiaries would be “the exception to the rule.”

In November 2023, now-former state Sen. Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, argued that the school-choice program “barely prioritized” low-income families.

In a June 2024 interview with Oklahoma City’s NBC-affiliate KFOR news, state Rep. Andy Fugate, D-Oklahoma City, dismissed the program, saying the tax credit was helping “kids who are already attending these schools, whose families are comfortable paying for their education today.”

But many of the program’s most prominent beneficiaries have been children from families of modest financial means, including households headed by low-income single parents.

And working-class families continue to tout the program.

In a recent video, the American Federation for Children highlighted some of the beneficiaries of Oklahoma’s school-choice program who live in rural Oklahoma, focusing on Corn Bible Academy, which serves students in grades seven through 12 in western Oklahoma.

Ryan and Mandy Driskill were two of the parents featured.

Ryan Driskill noted that some people are surprised to learn a private Christian school exists in rural Oklahoma, speculating that view may be because “a lot of times ‘Christian school’ gets equated with ‘higher income’ or ‘higher status’ or something like that.”

“That’s definitely a misconception of private school, is that rich people go to private school,” Mandy Driskill said. “Because that’s not at all how it is out here.”

“There are a lot of families that sacrifice quite a bit, have sacrificed quite a bit, just to be able to have their kids at the school,” Ryan Driskill said. “So (it’s) really a breath of fresh air to be able to have a choice and have the funds through the tax credit to be able to do that.”

The American Federation for Children has separately highlighted a military family who benefitted from Oklahoma’s school-choice tax-credit program.

Dawn Cordova, an Enid mother whose husband was a Chief Master Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force for most of their married life, noted that when the family moved to Enid in 2023, her son did well in the local public school but her young daughter did not. That led the family to enroll the girl in St. Joseph Catholic School.

“The tax credit has made it much easier to choose a private school option, and the way we look at it is these are our tax dollars anyway,” Cordova stated. “I hope lawmakers can support and expand this program so more children can attend a school that’s the right fit for them, just like Isabella.”

$13,736 Per Student in Oklahoma Public Schools

Notably, the tax-credit program is making private schools financially viable for working-class Oklahoma families at a much lower cost than the per-pupil revenue average in Oklahoma’s public schools.

According to financial data reported by schools to the state’s Oklahoma Cost Accounting System (OCAS), Oklahoma public schools had $9,600,703,488 in new revenue from all major sources in the 2023-2024 school year when student enrollment was 698,923.

That comes out to an average of $13,736 per pupil in Oklahoma’s public school system.

In contrast, the 7,815 children from families with incomes of $75,000 or less received $45.2 million in credits through the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program. Even though those families qualified for a maximum credit of $7,500, the average award was $5,784 per child.

The Oklahoma Tax Commission report notes that the size of the credit awarded can be no more than the maximum allowed ($7,500 for lower-income families) or the “amount of tuition and fees, whichever is less.”

“Thus, if a student’s tuition was less than the max credit allowed, the lesser amount was awarded,” the Oklahoma Tax Commission report noted.

Average tuition in Oklahoma private schools is substantially less than the per-pupil revenue in Oklahoma public schools, according to a recent survey, and in many instances appears to still be less than $7,500 based on the tax commission’s data.

The Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program was capped at $150 million in its first year, but the cap is scheduled to increase to $250 million per year. As the program grows, the share of students from low-income and middle-class families who benefit is expected to increase.