Due to the state’s budget crisis, the Oklahoma State Board of Education has cut 3 percent of funding, or $46.7 million, to K-12 schools for the remaining six months of the fiscal year.
The board, which unanimously agreed to accept the cuts Thursday, also recommended cuts for school lunch matching funds, advanced placement teacher training and test-fee assistance, and staff development for schools.
Steffie Corcoran, executive director of communications for Oklahoma’s State Department of Education, said that there has been an abundance of misunderstanding about the cuts recommended last week, as they do not anticipate a “significant impact” on the foodservice in Oklahoma public schools.
“What the agency is recommending regarding school lunches is that 30 percent of the appropriated dollars currently in a restricted line item be moved to the account known as Financial Support of Public Schools, more commonly known as the funding formula,” Corcoran told FSD via email. “Transferring those dollars does not de facto cut school lunches by 30 percent but rather gives districts greater flexibility in how to spend them.”
As a result, Corcoran added that school districts are free to continue to pay for school lunches out of that account, but in the event of “a low carryover budget or increasing budgetary crises as a result of the revenue failure, can tap [it] to pay teachers, keep the lights on, or fulfill any other critical needs as they arise.”
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