The entire strategy for education in Oklahoma is failing. It is wrong and unjust | Pastor
It remains to be seen if the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Act passed last year will improve or degrade educational outcomes in Oklahoma. My prediction is that it will negatively impact outcomes.
In his recent op-ed, former Gov. Frank Keating makes the argument that this tax credit will enable middle- to low-income families to afford a private school education. To qualify for the tax credit, one must already be enrolled in a private school or planning to enroll. That means a low-income family would have to figure out their cash flow on a monthly basis to pay for tuition while waiting for the tax credit. For low-income families, this simply is not possible with the increased costs in groceries and rent over the last two years. Not to mention the lack of private schools in low-income neighborhoods, which would increase the cost of transportation. The initial hurdle to enroll in private school is too high. The tax credit will not make it more accessible.
I am a pastor of a church in a diverse, middle- to lower-income area. I tutor a child in reading from a local elementary school. He has an older sister in high school and a single dad who works hard as an auto mechanic. When my student and I started working together two years ago, he was a second-grader reading below kindergarten level. This is a common story following the pandemic. With a little time and effort, he steadily improved and is now about to finish third-grade reading at grade level. I know a little about his struggles. There happens to be a pretty affordable private school nearby. Annual tuition is half the cost of higher-end schools at $10,250 per year. But there is no way his single dad with a blue-collar income could afford to enroll him there.
Let’s do the math. Average hourly pay for auto mechanic jobs is about $25. That’s $52,000 per year. Not bad. Take home pay is $3,463 per month. Average rent is $1,400 per month for a small three-bedroom home. In 2024, a family of three on a thrifty plan should budget $813 per month for groceries, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That means, no fast food. Transportation, $400. Utilities, $300. Internet/phone, $200. Car payment, $200. That leaves them with $150 at the end of the month.
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Tuition for private school? The initial application and enrollment fee is $275. Which month should they skip their car payment to make that happen? Even with the $7,500 tax credit, it would be impossible for them to afford private school. The tax credit comes in two installments per year. So, his dad would have to pay $854 per month for him to attend. If he puts that on a credit card and waits six months for the tax credit to come in, it would add $253 of interest to a balance of $5,124. The tax credit payment would be $3,750, leaving a credit card balance of $1,627. If he pinches his pennies and saves the extra $150 left at the end of each month, and if nothing breaks or goes wrong, he’ll still end up $727 short.
According to the Private School Review, 37,668 students in 2023 were attending Oklahoma private schools compared to the nearly 700,000 students in Oklahoma public schools. Last year, 30,000 families applied for the tax credit from the $150 million fund. That is 4% of the total student population in Oklahoma. But, more than 20% of our total student population lives below the poverty line in Oklahoma. To think this fund will lift the 20% of students in poverty to afford private school tuition when it is only reaching 4% of the total student population is absurd. The 4% it is reaching are mostly current private school families, not new or prospective ones and certainly not low-income families.
The tax credit also will not make private school tuition more affordable. The opposite will happen. As those in the upper-middle class to upper class with the financial wherewithal to switch from public to private schools in order to take advantage of the tax credit as the public fund increases from $150 million to $250 million over the next two years, there will be higher demand for private education. Basic economics tells us that as demand increases while supply stays limited, costs will go up. Private tuition costs will inevitably increase as more families apply for and receive the tax credit. Private school will be even more out of reach for lower-income families.
Furthermore, this increase in funding for private education is happening while state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters presented an Oklahoma State Department of Education budget this year with a $47 million decrease. As we defund public education and increase funding for private education, available only to those who can afford it, lower-income and rural families are watching their educational systems crumble. Couple that with polemical attacks on public school districts and teachers, and the result is Oklahoma saw 19% of its teachers exit the system last year.
The entire strategy for education in Oklahoma is failing. It is wrong and unjust. Instead of providing hundreds of millions of dollars for 4% of students in Oklahoma, we should worry more about the other 96% and drastically increase funding for public education. Instead of using our children's education as an arena for cultural and political shenanigans, we need to focus on improving outcomes, teaching kids to read who have fallen behind, and significantly increase teacher pay and retention. Otherwise, Oklahoma will pay dearly with an undereducated workforce in 10 to 15 years. As a follower of Jesus, I believe we need to pay better attention to how we treat the working class and poor in our state.
The Rev. Adam Young is the senior pastor at Sunny Lane United Methodist Church in Del City and lives in Edmond with his wife and four boys who attend public schools.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma education tax credit program does not help low-income families
