Oklahoma public schools being shorted $16.3 million more in final month of fiscal year

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The Oklahoma State Department of Education on Tuesday announced one last revenue shortfall in a devastating year for common education funding.

The Common Education Technology Revolving Fund, one of six revenue sources used to fund the state aid funding formula in Oklahoma, came up $16.3 million short. That means local schools will see their June payments from the state — their final of the fiscal year — shorted once more.

Matt Holder, chief operations officer at the State Department of Education, said the agency warned local districts about the likelihood of this shortfall a little over a month ago.

“The biggest effect on the districts is on fiscal year 2017. It’s going to reduce their cash fund balances moving into the next year because it’s impossible to make any cuts at this late date.”

Tulsa Public Schools’ share of the revenue shortfall is $1.02 million.

“We’ve planned for reductions at these levels and have adjusted the fiscal year 2016 budget to accommodate them,” said TPS spokesman Chris Payne.

The Common Education Technology Revolving Fund is tax revenue generated from the gross production of oil.

The June deposit to that fund was just $2.5 million, bringing total revenue collected for fiscal year 2016 to $31 million. That is $16.3 million below the Legislature’s original appropriation of $47.3 million.

Other funding sources of state aid are the General Revenue Fund; Education Reform Revolving Fund, commonly referred to as the 1017 fund; Mineral Leasing Fund; Oklahoma Lottery Trust Fund; and Constitutional Reserve Fund, which is also known as the Rainy Day Fund.

Local school officials and board members have had to repeatedly rebalance their budgets since state officials first declared Oklahoma was in revenue failure in late December.

In January, schools were notified of a $46.7 million reduction, followed by another revenue failure declaration and reduction of $62.3 million reduction in March. Later that month, state leaders tapped the state’s Rainy Day Fund to restore $51 million for schools.

With this latest cut of $16.3 million, the net reduction in state funding for schools stands at $74.3 million for fiscal year 2016, which ends June 30.

Holder said it’s a certainty that some school districts will end the year with their budgets in the red, but it’s too early to know just how many.

“I don’t know that it will be a huge number, but there will be some,” Holder said. “Everyone has done a fairly good job of adjusting. There will be some districts that are going to struggle to make it work.”

State funding fluctuations FY16

Source: Tulsa Public Schools/Tulsa World