Bill Works To Replace Federal Funding With State Funding For Public Education

A former teacher and current lawmaker is reintroducing a bill that would look into phasing out federal funding in Oklahoma education. The lawmaker who wrote the bill says he wants to see if it’s possible to replace the federal funds with state funds.

“Federal funding is not helping us be more successful with our kids. It's actually in fact causing more problems,” said Senator David Bullard (R-Durant).

Senator Bullard is reintroducing a bill that would direct the State Department of Education to create a 10-year plan to phase out the acceptance and use of federal funds.

“What I wanted to do was see if we could find a way for the state of Oklahoma to replace those funds,” said Sen. Bullard. “We've taken more and more and more federal funds over the years, but you've seen our ranking within other states has not changed one bit.”

This is the third year the senator has run the legislation, and many lawmakers have questioned if we have the state funds to back this effort.

“You don't wanna open up this Pandora's box in any way, shape or form. That's what I see it as too, because once you set it up can you get it closed down? Or are you setting yourself up for massive budget failures going down the road and harming our public schools?,” said Rep. Jacob Rosecrants (D-Norman).

Rosecrants says many local educators likely won’t be on board with this.

“There's gonna be massive pushback," Rosecrants said. "Think about any superintendent who's running a school, do you think they want to have any less funding whatsoever?”

Oklahoma Education Association President Katherine Bishop said in a statement, “If the legislator believes the state of Oklahoma has more available funds to allocate to public education, that’s great. However, to refuse federal funds returning to our state to help educate and feed Oklahoma children is an irresponsible, cruel failure of stewardship of Oklahoma taxpayer dollars."

Bullard also says he doesn't want to eliminate any funding from schools, he simply wants to look at replacing some of the federal dollars with state dollars.

“What I'm attempting to do is prevent the defunding of our schools by the Biden administration and make sure that our kids are protected from those federal regulations and strings that we just simply aren't going to abide by here in the state of Oklahoma,” said Sen. Bullard.

Bullard says one of the programs that he would like more local control over is feeding programs.

“I mean, why are we allowing somebody in D.C. to make our food so gross that kids who are hungry would rather throw that food away than eat it?,” said Sen. Bullard.

He says he’s visited some schools that throw away a majority of the free and reduced lunches they are given, and that money is essentially being wasted. He worries though, if the state does not continue to opt into the federal feeding programs, it could result in reduced federal dollars in other places.

“We know for a fact that their next target is going to be those free and reduced lunch programs. As a school teacher who watches kids go hungry and tries to do everything I could on that, it just sickens me to think that the Biden administration would try and defund schools in that manner. But we know it's coming, so we might as well have a plan,” said Sen. Bullard.

The state superintendent has also been very outspoken about removing federal dollars and federal overreach from Oklahoma education. Senator Bullard says the superintendent is on board with his bill.

State Superintendent Walters said in a statement, “The Federal Department of Education is a waste of resources .” He added that “the funds would be better spent close to home.”

Bullard says over the past three years he has tried to get an exact dollar amount of how much the state gets in federal funding annually, but hasn’t been given the number from OSDE. He’s hoping this legislation will spark research, and a conversation around phasing out what he calls unnecessary federal funds.

“What I want is a plan of understanding to make sure that our schools are protected and don't lose that funding and can maximize those dollars,” Sen. Bullard.

The legislation would require the 10-year plan to be approved by the House, Senate and Governor before it was officially put in place. Since the bill is a carryover from 2023, it will be eligible for hearings in the education and appropriations committees when session begins next month.

Full statement: Katherine Bishop, President of the Oklahoma Education Association:

"If the legislator believes the state of Oklahoma has more available funds to allocate to public education, that’s great. However, to refuse federal funds returning to our state to help educate and feed Oklahoma children is an irresponsible, cruel failure of stewardship of Oklahoma taxpayer dollars." Our state currently accepts federal funds for health care, transportation, infrastructure, agriculture, core services, natural disasters, etc. We are politicizing and hurting our students by singling out only education federal dollars that provide special education, resources for low-income families, child nutrition, among other services.  

We are concerned about this continued swell of creating political spectacle at the expense of Oklahoma’s children."

Full statement from Walters:

"The Federal Department of Education is a waste of resources and should be eliminated. Those funds would be better spent closer to home because states know best how to serve students."