Lawmakers have found a disconnect between OSDE's rising funding requests and number of employees

Discussion over a $4.7 million budget request from the Oklahoma State Department of Education to fund rising costs of student assessments has resulted in legislators asking why the agency needs the extra money, given the number of employee departures in recent months.

More than 130 employees have left the agency ― the vast majority via either resignation or retirement ― since state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters took office in January 2023, and at least 65 of those have come since last July. Walters has falsely claimed he fired 130 people and has dismissed those who left the agency as “bureaucrats.”

Walters has boasted of an agency with less bloat and claims the departures have saved taxpayers money. That said, his budget request for the upcoming fiscal year includes a request for money to pay for the equivalent of 426.9 full-time employees, or FTEs in legislative parlance. That’s down only slightly from the 440 FTEs he requested for the current fiscal year and is more than the 426.7 FTEs requested by his predecessor, Joy Hofmeister, for the 2023 fiscal year.

The request for 426.9 FTEs by Walters comes even though only the agency currently has only 384.8 FTEs ― about 42 fewer full-time employees than the request would indicate ― according to House sources. Still, legislative leaders apparently are taking to heart Walters’ claims about saving money while preparing his agency’s budget.

Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, told The Oklahoman a difference in 130 FTEs ― the number Walters falsely claimed to have fired ― would result in about $9 million in savings that could be reallocated to other areas of the agency.

“That was their budgeted FTE, but their actual FTE ― from what the state super has said ― is down 130 FTEs,” Pugh said. “He has said he’s fired, and reduced staff, by 130 FTEs. With that being said, that’s about a $9 million, over a year, realized cost savings. If that’s true, then the money is there to pay for the assessments out of their budget.”

High number of departures from state education department a topic of discussion among legislators

When legislative leaders met last Thursday in a public hearing to discuss budget items, they held an extended discussion when they came to the agency’s $4.7 million request. Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, told House negotiators the Senate was willing to go as high as $4.2 million and asked if it was a recurring cost, which House Appropriations Committee Chair, Kevin Wallace, R-Wellston, confirmed.

Wallace said federal pandemic-era funding had been used to pay for the assessments in recent years, but that money is no longer available. He said the costs for the assessments has risen from $9 million to more than $13 million. House Speaker Pro Tempore Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, responded that he’d spoken with the state Department of Education’s lobbyist, Lindsey McSparrin, that morning, who told him the reasons why the cost of assessments had risen.

Hilbert, who likely will be the House speaker next year, said he was told by McSparrin the increase was “due to an increased amount of students taking the assessment, overall higher costs for assessments, standard setting for grades three through eight must be done for (English and Language Arts) and math, added reporting for ACT and added Spanish translations.”

Treat then broached the subject of the agency’s large number of recent departures: “You know, there should be a large savings over there, with 130 less employees. Can they not fund this themselves?”

Hilbert responded, “It’s funny you ask that. I asked that very same question this morning.”

He told a story about another state agency that, in 2017, “had budgeted substantially more FTEs than they actually had. Then, on, like, page 72 of the 100-plus-page slide deck, they buried that they had used that $40 million or some odd for IT and administration, which was a very curious thing to me, as a brand-new freshman legislator, to ask about.”

Hilbert said he asked a similar question to McSparrin.

“The response was, I can’t remember if it was 80 or 90, but either 80 or 90 of those 130 employees have been replaced and some of those employees also were funded from federal funds, and so the funds aren’t there to replace them,” Hilbert said. “But also, I do believe there, from what I’ve seen from media reports, a lot of those employees that have left the state Department of Education had been there for a long time, and so I imagine the costs of them leaving would be substantial, from buyout and the leave and all that accrued.”

Thus, Hilbert said, “I don’t believe that they’re sitting on a big pile of cash in operations, from the gap between FTEs and actual employees for those reasons, but I do think maybe, in a year from now, if they still have this gap of 40 actual employees to FTE count they budgeted for, there would be, but I don’t believe there is today.”

Hilbert said if Senate leaders “pull the (agency’s) revolving funds and see differently, I’d be open to that conversation” about having the agency cover the extra assessment cost itself.

Key player in determining state education budget wants to see the numbers

Pugh said he’s asked questions of state Education Department officials about employee numbers and labor costs, but hasn’t yet received a response, although he expects one soon. But if what McSparrin said was true, there would still be a gap of about 40 FTEs, Pugh said.

“That’s probably $3 (million) or $4 million,” Pugh said. “We need the accounting data. We want to cover the assessment cost, because the schools have to take the assessments. We don’t want to shortchange that funding stream. It draws down from a federal match, so we need to make sure that the state money is there, so the federal match comes in as well, because it’s a mandate.

“One thing I always do is I look at the budgeted FTE, which is what you get paid for, versus the actual FTE, which is who you actually staff. If those numbers are off one or two, that could be pretty benign. But when you’re off 130 from what you’re budgeted versus your actual, then that’s a significant cost difference we have to reconcile. … That’s something we do with every agency.”

Pugh said it’s a fair question, “if you’re touting the fact that you’ve cut all this staff.”

Dan Isett, a spokesman for the agency, didn’t answer questions from The Oklahoman about how many employees the agency currently has, whether 80 to 90 of the 130 positions have been filled, how many positions remain open, how much money the agency has saved during the past year due to having fewer employees, and why the agency couldn’t absorb the extra $4.7 million in assessment costs, given that Walters has spoken about saving taxpayers money by having fewer employees.

Instead, Isett issued the following statement:

"Superintendent Walters has been breaking up bureaucracy and woke ideology in the public school system. The liberal teachers (sic) unions and the woke left are out of step with Oklahomans so they attack and abuse the judicial system at every turn to save their institutional brainwashing. Superintendent Walters represents a threat to their ability to use our schools as indoctrination centers.

"Walters is focused on eliminating bureaucrats and union lackeys. Anyone hired in his administration will be focused on parents, teachers, and kids to bring back common sense to the state. This is in keeping with his commitment to maintain a lean, efficient agency that makes the most of the hard-earned money taxpayers provide."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma lawmakers question OSDE budget requests amid staff departures