Education, Economy

Report: Oklahoma ranks 16th in school choice, trails Arkansas and Texas

January 28, 2026

Ray Carter

Education remains a major factor in economic growth, and Oklahoma is among the states providing the greatest amount of opportunity to the most families through its school-choice programs, particularly the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program.

A new report from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) ranks Oklahoma 16th-best nationally when it comes to “student-centered funding programs” like the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program.

But the report dings Oklahoma for capping its school-choice program, which will prevent many families from accessing school choice starting next year and impede future growth. Were it not for Oklahoma’s $250 million cap on the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program, the state would have ranked even higher.

At the same time, the “2026 ALEC Index of State Education Freedom” report gives higher marks to two states that border Oklahoma—Arkansas (tied for fifth-best for student-centered funding programs) and Texas (tied for seventh-best for its newly created statewide school-choice program).

Arkansas, in particular, is now outperforming Oklahoma. In Arkansas, the raw number of students participating in that state’s school-choice program exceeds the number participating in Oklahoma’s program—even though Arkansas has far fewer K-12 students than Oklahoma.

According to the latest report from the Oklahoma Tax Commission, the families of 39,846 children have used the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program during the ongoing 2025-2026 school year.

But in Arkansas, 46,578 students are participating in the Arkansas Children’s Educational Freedom Account Program. Public school enrollment in Arkansas totaled 465,421 this year, which was a decline of roughly 9,000 students compared to the prior year, as many families shifted children to private schools.

Oklahoma, where public-school enrollment has hovered around 700,000 for several years, has also seen students shift from public to private schools, although data are limited.

According to the Oklahoma Tax Commission, the families of 3,804 children have used the Oklahoma Parental Tax Credit program to shift their children from public to private school during the ongoing 2025-2026 school year. Among those shifting a child to private school for the first time this year, 72 percent of families were low-income or middle-class families with adjusted gross income of $150,000 or less, and 44.5 percent had an income of $75,000 or less.

Census data show that, among married-couple families, the median household income in Oklahoma is $95,573, meaning half of Oklahoma’s married-couple families earn more than that amount.

This is the first year state officials have tracked the number of students shifting from public schools to private schools in Oklahoma. No data are available for families that shifted in the 2024-2025 school year or during the spring of 2024 when the Oklahoma Parental Tax Credit program first launched, although private-school officials report having a significant influx of working-class families enrolling since the program’s creation.

State data also cannot determine how many children enrolled in kindergarten in private schools in recent years would have been enrolled in public schools if the Oklahoma Parental Tax Credit program did not exist.

However, Oklahoma Tax Commission data does suggest the Oklahoma Parental Tax Credit program is already helping thousands of children attend private school who would not otherwise be able to attend.

In particular, while public data show 668 students who qualify for state welfare programs used the Oklahoma Parental Tax Credit program to shift from public school to private schools for the first time this year, there are 3,403 children who qualify for benefit programs who use the parental choice program, meaning thousands of those low-income children have now attended a private school for at least two consecutive years now.

Unlike Arkansas’ program, the Oklahoma Parental Tax Credit program is currently capped at $250 million in credits per year. The Oklahoma Tax Commission reports that $249,087,024 in credits have been issued so far this year.

In comparison, the Arkansas school-choice program will total an estimated $327 million this year.

In both Arkansas and Oklahoma, school-choice programs are allowing families to attend private school at a much lower taxpayer cost than the per-student revenue in public schools.

According to an April 2025 report by NEA Research, “Rankings of the States 2024 and Estimates of School Statistics 2025,” Oklahoma public schools had $14,066 in revenue per student, based on average daily attendance, in the 2023-2024 school year, while Arkansas had $16,130.

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.

Yet even among the lowest-income children who can receive the maximum $7,500 credit, Oklahoma Tax Commission data show the average tax credit has been just $7,091 (for those with incomes below $75,000) and $7,093 (for children who qualify for welfare benefits)—meaning those children are attending private school at nearly half the per-pupil revenue provided to public schools.

In Arkansas, the average amount expended per child for an Education Savings Account is $6,694.

If demand for Oklahoma parental choice tax credits exceeds the $250 million supply next year, as current trends suggest, some applicants will be turned away.

To prevent that from happening, Gov. Kevin Stitt is calling for lawmakers to eliminate the cap, and Senate Majority Floor Leader Julie Daniels of Bartlesville has filed legislation to increase the cap. Under Senate Bill 1389, by Daniels, the cap on the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program would increase by 20 percent whenever 90 percent of credits are claimed in a given year.

The cap on Oklahoma’s program is a major factor in the state not ranking higher in the ALEC report.

“Our goal is to not only make parents and policymakers aware of the education freedom environment in their state,” Andrew Handel, director of ALEC’s Education and Workforce Development Task Force, wrote in the report, “but to also highlight what changes they can implement to make more learning options available to families.”