The problem with Stitt’s preference of basing funding on last year’s enrollment numbers alone is that many Oklahoma families have temporarily switched their kids to online charter schools. That means if this new formula were to be implemented for the next school year, many Oklahoma public schools would suffer, while schools with higher enrollment counts, like online charter schools and private schools, would likely have more funding for their students.
Stitt’s conversation about school funding quickly turned into a rant to send kids back full-time to the schools he wants to defund. I don’t know if our esteemed governor remembers this or not, but we’re kind of in the middle of a goddang global pandemic. If Oklahoma schools already can’t afford to pay enough teachers so they can have smaller class sizes, nurses to care for the kids, or for cleaning supplies, rushing kids back into the classroom full-time may create more ghost students than prevent them.