Budget & Tax , Education
Ray Carter | January 10, 2022
Public schools carry over more than $1 billion
Ray Carter
Oklahoma public schools carried over more than $1 billion at the end of the 2021 state budget year, marking an increase of more than 50 percent in school savings over the past five years.
The carryover amount is the most ever recorded, based on available records. Statewide data on school districts’ carryover has been publicly posted since 2006.
School carryover has surged 51.6 percent since June 30, 2017, when Oklahoma schools reported carrying over $661.4 million, to a little over $1 billion as of June 30, 2021.
The increase in school savings has been achieved even as districts also boosted teacher pay following salary increases approved by the Legislature in 2018 and 2019.
A recent report from the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) found that Oklahoma’s average teacher salary now ranks highest in the immediate region and 21st nationally after adjusting for tax burdens and cost-of-living differences.
Ray Carter
Director, Center for Independent Journalism
Ray Carter is the director of OCPA’s Center for Independent Journalism. He has two decades of experience in journalism and communications. He previously served as senior Capitol reporter for The Journal Record, media director for the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and chief editorial writer at The Oklahoman. As a reporter for The Journal Record, Carter received 12 Carl Rogan Awards in four years—including awards for investigative reporting, general news reporting, feature writing, spot news reporting, business reporting, and sports reporting. While at The Oklahoman, he was the recipient of several awards, including first place in the editorial writing category of the Associated Press/Oklahoma News Executives Carl Rogan Memorial News Excellence Competition for an editorial on the history of racism in the Oklahoma legislature.