Tulsa-area public school leaders are calling on the Legislature to approve an education budget in the next two weeks so districts can avoid consequences of having to plan for layoffs and other cuts without an accurate idea of how much their state aid will be reduced for the next year.
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A news release issued Wednesday by the Tulsa County Area School Administrators said members are frustrated that the Legislature failed to finalize an education budget by April 1 as required by the Fund Education First law passed in 2003. It's a deadline that's commonly missed, but this year the issue is complicated by the state's revenue failure, and TCASA is pushing the Legislature to act immediately.
“We can’t wait until the end of the legislative session for a budget because we need answers in order to know what to expect moving forward into the next school year,” said Jenks Public Schools Superintendent Stacey Butterfield, who also serves as president of TCASA. “As we try to make difficult decisions about personnel and programs, we need to have as much information as possible.”
Schools have seen their state funding reduced by more than $50 million since January, and even deeper cuts are expected for the coming school year. Districts are required by law to institute reduction in force proceedings for teachers prior to the first Monday in June. Decisions regarding support employees must be made before June 1.
The TCASA release says superintendents and boards of education won't have enough time to make informed decisions if the state education budget isn't finalized by April 30.
“Even if we won’t be fully funded, we call on lawmakers to comply with Fund Education First and provide a budget for common education as soon as possible. Otherwise, districts will be forced to make cuts without clear direction in order to remain solvent and in legal compliance ourselves, which may result in cutting more positions than necessary,” Broken Arrow Superintendent Jarod Mendenhall said.
Shawn Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, has said school districts want to budget conservatively, but many districts will be required to lay off administrators and teachers. Timely budget information will allow districts to hold layoffs and increased class sizes to a minimum, Hime said.
Layoffs could exacerbate increases in class size and reductions in student course and program offerings caused by the statewide teacher shortage.
In late August, an OSSBA survey found that 1,000 teacher vacancies remained even though 600 teaching jobs had been eliminated over the summer break. The Oklahoma State Department of Education reported that in 2014-15, 856 public school classes had to be canceled because of the teacher shortage.
“Our state is already facing a severe teacher crisis, and this level of uncertainty will only drive more educators from Oklahoma as they seek employment in states where the public education systems offer better pay, more security and better opportunities,” said Union Public Schools Superintendent Kirt Hartzler. “This failure to act only further harms Oklahoma’s education system by not only depleting common education of financial resources, but also of quality teachers. We must know what we are dealing with by April 30 so we can make difficult decisions.”
