The leadership of the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA), the state’s largest teachers’ union, has long opposed school-choice programs that allow Oklahoma families to use their tax dollars to attend private schools.

But this year, OEA leadership is hailing the passage of a voucher-style program that allows families to use tax dollars for tuition at any public or private college, including private religious schools. And those who can receive the voucher scholarships include families earning more than $300,000 a year.

The OEA’s about-face on this issue would be surprising but for one fact: The program passed this year provides vouchers only to the children of teachers.

The union’s flip-flop has not gone unnoticed by those who have advocated for all Oklahoma families to enjoy school-choice opportunities.

“House Bill 1727 shares the same core philosophy as school choice: giving families the financial freedom to pursue the education that works best for their children,” said American Federation for Children Chief State Strategy Officer Ryan Cantrell. “Yet the very same union that championed this bill has long opposed other programs that do just that: the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit, the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship Program, and the Equal Opportunity Scholarship Program, programs that support children with special needs, military families, and low-income households.

“The truth is simple: when a benefit goes to the OEA’s members, the union will say it’s a wise investment in education,” Cantrell continued. “When it goes to other families, it’s somehow a threat. That kind of hypocrisy is both self-serving and harmful. Teachers deserve support, and so do all parents and children in Oklahoma.”

Income Cap for Oklahoma’s Promise: $80,000 (or $340,550)

The Oklahoma’s Promise program, which has been in existence for years and was originally called the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program (OHLAP), uses tax dollars to pay college tuition for certain Oklahoma families whose children maintain a minimum grade-point average in high school while taking designated courses in math, English, science, and other subjects.

Oklahoma youth who meet the program’s requirements receive state funding to pay for college tuition costs, including private-college tuition. According to the program’s most recent annual report, Oklahoma’s Promise 2023-2024 fall scholarships included more than $3.2 million in funds to help 1,076 students attend private universities, including Oral Roberts University, Mid-America Christian University, Southern Nazarene University, Oklahoma Baptist University, Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma Wesleyan University, the University of Tulsa, and more.

But, until this year, Oklahoma’s Promise provided voucher-style tuition support only to children from low-income and working-class families. To qualify, a student’s parents’ federal adjusted gross income cannot exceed $60,000 for families with up to two dependent children, $70,000 for families with up to four dependent children, or $80,000 for families with five or more dependent children.

But House Bill 1727, which was signed into law this month, allows the children of Oklahoma public school teachers to receive a state voucher scholarship for college tuition at either a public or private university, even when the child’s parents have household income far above the $80,000 maximum allowed for all other Oklahoma families.

Under the new law, a child whose parents include a teacher can have household income of up to 700 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. So where a non-teacher Oklahoma family with up to five children cannot have income greater than $80,000 and receive an Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship, under HB 1727 a teacher family with five children can have income of up to $340,550 and still receive the scholarship voucher, so long as one parent has worked as a teacher for at least 10 years.

Why do teachers need such an expansive income limit for their children to qualify for a voucher from the Oklahoma’s Promise program, rather than apply under the existing income limits for the program?

Because, as Ivy Riggs, associate executive director for the OEA, recently acknowledged, many Oklahoma teachers have household incomes well above the levels otherwise required to get an Oklahoma’s Promise college voucher.

On the April 11 edition of “Fried Okra,” the OEA podcast, Riggs bluntly noted, “A two-teacher household wouldn’t qualify.”

That’s because the average income of an Oklahoma public-school teacher reached $61,300 in the 2023-2024 school year, according to the National Education Association, the parent organization of the OEA.

That means a family in which a mother and father both work as public-school teachers in Oklahoma and earn the average salary would have a household income of $122,600. That’s 34 percent more than the maximum household earnings allowed for other families’ children to participate in Oklahoma’s Promise.

And household income in many teacher families is even higher since one spouse may work a job that achieves even higher levels of income, including professions ranging from lawyers to school administrators.

On the April 11 edition of the OEA podcast, Riggs said, “We’ve been so excited about this bill.”

“This one’s big,” added OEA President Cari Elledge.

“This specific OHLAP bill is going to really impact our educators and make them want to stay in the classroom, because what a benefit to them and their families moving forward,” said OEA Vice President Zach Grimm.

Teachers “need what’s best for their families,” Grimm added.

“When it can’t be compensation that’s being added to our salaries, it’s things like this that really make the difference,” Grimm said.

Riggs called the teacher-family only expansion of Oklahoma’s Promise “a huge teacher-retention effort.”

On the OEA’s May 30 podcast, Elledge called the voucher bill “a heck of a starting point” and a “good benefit.”

School-choice supporters agree.

They say HB 1727 is a meaningful benefit for teachers and hope the OEA will now show similar enthusiasm when it comes to supporting similar opportunities for all other Oklahoma families.

“If the OEA now supports empowering families with more educational options,” Cantrell said, “we welcome them to join the broader fight for educational freedom.”