For years, public-school officials have argued that Oklahoma’s poor academic outcomes would improve significantly if per-pupil funding were increased dramatically.

Yet, at several dozen Oklahoma schools that have some of the state’s highest levels of per-pupil revenue—ranging from $30,000 per student to more than $100,000—the end result has not been consistently outstanding academic outcomes. Instead, many of those districts have astoundingly large sums of money sitting in bank accounts.

In Oklahoma, schools receive local property tax revenue along with state appropriations and federal funds. Under Oklahoma’s school funding formula, the more local tax revenue a school receives, the lower that school’s state appropriation. That system is designed to provide roughly equivalent per-pupil revenue to all schools.

But at 41 school districts, local revenue is so significant that they receive no state funding. Those schools have per-pupil revenue well above, often far above, the statewide norm.

A recent report on school finance, issued by the Oklahoma Secretary of Education, included a section examining those no-state-aid schools.

“On average, these 41 districts carried over 48% of their revenue at an average of $10.5 million in carryover funds—a very large sum considering that most of these districts are very small in size,” the report noted.

Of the 41 districts, only four carried over less than 30 percent of their revenue at the end of the year. Nineteen districts carried over 50 percent or more of their revenue.

The Peckham district topped the list with carryover funds comprising 76 percent of revenue, according to the report. Peckham school leadership did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

The Secretary of Education report found that schools across Oklahoma have significantly increased the amount of money placed in reserve in recent years as school funding has exploded.

Total revenue to Oklahoma public schools in 2025 was more than $3.2 billion greater than in 2018, according to state finance records. But a good share of increased funding was dropped into carryover funds.

Since 2018, school officials have increased the amount of money placed in carryover funds from around $2.4 billion during the 2017-2018 school year to more than $4.5 billion by the 2024-2025 school year, records show.

Ben Scafidi, a professor of economics and director of the Education Economics Center at Kennesaw State University, noted there has been a nationwide trend of schools leaving more money unspent. While there are legitimate reasons to maintain a certain level of financial reserves, he said the growth of carryover merits greater inspection.

“Districts may have a large carryover of funds when they are working on a large capital project in the next year, such as building a new school,” Scafidi said. “However, districts that consistently have a large carryover of unspent funds at the end of each year are overcharging local taxpayers.

“Prudence suggests that public school districts should keep a healthy reserve to cover any unforeseen expenses,” Scafidi continued. “Nevertheless, districts nationwide have increased their end-of-year fund balances significantly since the early 2000s. The state of Oklahoma should analyze this issue and, at a minimum, highlight the issue of school districts keeping excess reserves overcharging local taxpayers.”

Does Money Buy Better Academic Results?

Taxpayers might accept higher levels of school carryover if a district is producing above-average academic outcomes for students and higher pay for teachers.

But many of the 41 non-state-aid districts have worse academic outcomes than the state norm, and many provide lower average pay to teachers with a bachelor’s degree than do other schools in the same county.

In the 2024-2025 school year, 27 percent of all Oklahoma public-school students scored “proficient” or better on state tests for math, English Language Arts, and science.

In 15 of the 41 high-local-funded districts, the share scoring “proficient” or “advanced” on state tests was even lower: Peckham (24 percent), Sweetwater (19 percent), Stroud (22 percent), Avant (11 percent), Geary (17 percent), Frontier (24 percent), Dover (26 percent), Mill Creek (15 percent), Billings (6 percent), Hardesty (3 percent), Cimarron (18 percent), Calvin (23 percent), Osage (8 percent), Wynnewood (15 percent) and Davidson (11 percent).

Those below-state-average outcomes occurred even though those 15 school districts had significant total per-student revenue, based on the revenue figures reported by the Secretary of Education report and enrollment figures on the state report card website: Peckham ($131,397), Sweetwater ($59,940), Stroud ($71,693), Avant ($55,785), Geary ($96,465), Frontier ($62,122), Dover ($77,600), Mill Creek ($33,322), Billings ($52,895), Hardesty ($56,464), Cimarron ($32,315), Calvin ($30,398), Osage ($30,931), Wynnewood ($25,439), and Davidson ($34,170).

On the other hand, in 26 of the 41 districts, academic performance on state tests exceeded the statewide average.

However, at only four districts did half or more students score proficient on state tests for math, English, and science: Cleora (63 percent proficient), Kildare (50 percent), Oakdale (66 percent), and Maple (54 percent).

Student demographics, including poverty and the share of students speaking English as a second language, can play a notable role in academic outcomes, and those demographics vary widely from district to district. Also, several of the 41 high-funded districts have very small student populations, so demographics can change significantly based on small enrollment shifts at those districts from year to year.

At a significant number of high-funded districts, the average pay for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree (including benefits) was lower than the average in at least one other school district in the same county, and in several instances teacher pay was the lowest in the county.

Of the 41 high-funded districts that receive no state aid, state records show that 14 pay teachers with bachelor's degrees the highest average salary (including benefits) of any school in their respective counties. Those districts are Peckham, Banner, Cleora, Fargo, Stroud, Balko, Frontier, Okarche, Mill Creek, Thomas-Fay-Custer Unified District, Pryor, Straight, Thackerville, and Freedom.

But 11 districts’ average teacher pay was the lowest in their respective counties: Arnett, Avant, Geary, Dover, Alex, Billings, Cimarron, Deer Creek-Lamont, Calvin, Osage, and Davidson.

At the remaining 16 districts, average pay for teachers with bachelor’s degrees was neither the highest nor the lowest in their respective counties.

Given the high rate of carryover in most of the 41 districts that have substantial local revenue, the Secretary of Education report suggests a greater share of funding could be used to augment teacher pay and classroom instruction.

“These districts may struggle to spend carryover funds while attempting to avoid state carryover penalties, but they could instead use excess dollars to provide the most competitive teacher salaries and rigorous academic environments in the state,” the report stated. “Allowing districts to direct a certain percentage of carryover funds and interest earned on carryover toward teacher compensation without incurring state penalties on excess carryover could encourage beneficial investment in student learning.”