K-12 education freedom is expanding, but even more can be done for Oklahoma families | Opinion

Thousands of Oklahoma families this year will become new investors in their children’s education by being financially empowered to access the highest-quality and most suitable schools available for their children. This is just the beginning of this exciting new trend in K-12 education, which can be expanded further to benefit more families in our state even sooner.

Last year, thanks to the leadership of Gov. Kevin Stitt and the Oklahoma Legislature, the state passed the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Act. This new law provides up to $150 million in refundable tax credits in 2024 for families to cover the cost of up to $7,500 in tuition and education expenses for students from low-income households. For students from households with higher income, the credit gradually declines to $5,000.

Families of about 30,000 students by early January applied for the tax credits to cover education expenses, including for tuition to attend private and religious schools desired by parents for their children. Because of the statewide credit cap, families of thousands of students will not be able to benefit this year.

Fortunately, this statewide cap under the law will increase by $50 million in 2025 and again in 2026. But more can be done to ensure that students from low-income to middle-class families in Oklahoma can access the kind of education that until now has been accessible almost exclusively to upper-income households.

In the U.S. Congress, legislation titled the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) has been proposed that would provide federal credits equal to 100% of a charitable donation from an individual taxpayer or business to a scholarship-granting organization for K-12 education expenses. If passed, hundreds of thousands of Oklahoma students could use privately funded scholarships for elementary and secondary education, empowering their parents to choose from an even broader array of educational options.

The federal ECCA would ensure that no Oklahoma family of limited means would be without the financial ability to choose the best education available for their children, including families that homeschool their children, reside in Indian Country or reside in rural areas and decide to retain their children in a district public school. That is because scholarship-granting organizations could award scholarships for a variety of education expenses beyond private school tuition, including tutoring, special needs services, online learning, homeschool expenses, and education technology and software.

The question may rightly be asked: Should Washington be involved in education? Isn’t that a state and local issue? More so, I believe education is best determined by parents, not state bureaucrats and certainly not in Washington.

More: Guest: Public schools in OK shortchanged as costs for public private schools funding rise

That is why the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Act is such a landmark law: It empowers more families to determine their children’s education by financially enabling them to make the best choices. The federal ECCA would do likewise by generating privately funded scholarships for parents to deploy to meet their children’s education needs, without strings attached or mandates from Washington’s education bureaucracy. The ECCA also has been endorsed by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, an organization supporting public policy that respects federalism and individual liberty.

Having served as governor and in both houses of the Oklahoma Legislature, I know firsthand that the lawmaking process is typically slow and can take years, especially in Washington. But children grow up fast and families don’t have the time to wait, particularly after the prolonged school closures during the pandemic and the resulting learning loss.

Passing the federal ECCA not only would ensure more families have access to educational choice, but also more scholarship funds for K-12 purposes which would supplement the state’s tax credits available to Oklahoma’s children, especially in higher-cost areas of the state. Passage of the ECCA would also mean that by augmenting Oklahoma’s innovative state-level educational choice offerings, our state can become a national leader in ensuring equal opportunity in education for every child.

The Educational Choice for Children Act has substantial support in Congress and is co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin and Reps. Tom Cole and Kevin Hern in the U.S. House. I urge our state’s congressional delegation to support this important school choice legislation to ensure that no Oklahoma student is without means to get the best education their parents can secure for them.

Frank Keating served as the 25th governor of Oklahoma from 1995 to 2003.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Congress to decide legislation that would lead to greater school choice