Budget & Tax, Education

State data contradict Munson's claims about taxes, education funding, teacher pay

August 26, 2026

Ray Carter

As leader of the Oklahoma House Democratic caucus, state Rep. Cyndi Munson of Oklahoma City has been a chief voice for Democrats in Oklahoma.

But as that voice, she’s been a source of more than one claim that didn’t align with reality.

Recently, in comments posted on social media, Munson dramatically overstated the prominence of income-tax collections in state government finances.

While discussing her opposition to gradually phasing out the personal income tax, Munson stated, “We’ve got to keep our income tax. That’s 70 percent of our revenue for our state budget. We need that money.”

But according to the Oklahoma Tax Commission, the personal income tax comprised 39.1 percent of total state tax collections in FY25.

This is not the first statement Munson has made about public-policy issues that was contradicted by data.

In his final State of the State speech in February, Gov. Kevin Stitt noted, “We increased public education funding more in my term as governor than in the past 25 years combined. At the same time, we’ve cut taxes by $1.6 billion and let Oklahomans keep more of their money.”

Following the speech, Munson argued that Stitt’s claim was fundamentally false, claiming the school-funding increases noted by Stitt were merely the result of backfilling budget holes dug prior to Stitt’s election.

“Ten years ago yesterday I joined the Legislature in the state House, and we were faced with a $1.5 billion budget deficit,” Munson said following Stitt’s speech. “Massive cuts were made to education, to human services, and to other various core services of government. But education, in particular, got the biggest cuts.”

However, the revenue reports made by Oklahoma public schools paint a different picture.

Those reports show that total funding for public schools dropped only once during the time frame referenced by Munson. That reduction was roughly a half-million dollars. In comparison, total funding for Oklahoma public schools has since increased by more than $3.5 billion.

In the 2015-2016 school year, Oklahoma public schools reported having $6,012,945,264 from all revenue sources (federal, state, and local), excluding carryover savings. That was a decline of $504,956 from the prior year when schools reported having $6,013,450,220.

Oklahoma public school funding has steadily increased since that time.

By the 2024-2025 school year, the most recent for which full data are available, Oklahoma public schools reported having $9,586,994,906 in revenue from all sources, excluding carryover and similar savings.

In a similar instance, Munson declared in an April 23, 2025, press release, “We rank 49th in the nation for public education and last in the region for teacher pay and per-student spending.”

Munson’s release did not cite a source for her teacher-pay claim. It was contradicted even by left-wing sources.

A report issued in April 2025 by NEA Research showed that Oklahoma’s average teacher salary in 2023-2024 was $61,330, which was higher than the average in three of the six states that border Oklahoma, not last in the region.

The NEA report was issued at roughly the same time Munson claimed Oklahoma teacher pay was lowest in the region.

Furthermore, in February 2026 officials with the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) also rebutted Munson’s claim.

According to OSDE, Oklahoma’s average teacher pay of $61,330 ranked in the middle of the seven-state region based on the raw dollar figure. After officials adjusted states’ teacher pay for cost-of-living differences, Oklahoma offered the second-highest average teacher pay in the region based on its actual buying power.