Less than a week after President Donald Trump signed a March 20 executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and “return authority over education to the states,” Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters submitted a request to change the way federal funding is allocated, increase state autonomy and purportedly relieve districts from strict guidelines.
In a March 25 press release, Walters announced the Oklahoma State Department of Education had made a waiver request to USDE to distribute all federal Every Student Succeeds Act funds through a consolidated block grant. The move would release the state from “the bureaucratic strings tied to federal education funding,” Walters’ press release claimed, asserting the current distribution of federal funding imposes a “significant administrative burden” on OSDE.
“This approach will significantly enhance local flexibility, eliminate bureaucratic administrative layers, ensure continued services for students with learning differences and special needs, and give Oklahoma the ability to spend existing funds in a way that is best for Oklahoma students,” the press release said.
Commonly associated with the support of social services such as Medicaid, public housing and education, a federal block grant generally allows states to bypass federal restrictions and provides states more discretion toward allocations. If approved, a consolidated block of ESSA funds would allow the state to avoid federal regulations over those dollars and would provide OSDE with an annual sum of funding to allocate with few strings attached — unless the Oklahoma Legislature ties some on.
“Under a block grant, schools will be able to address their unique needs and priorities, fostering innovation and responsiveness. This also empowers parents and students with increased choices that best align with their individual values, needs, and goals,” Walters said in the waiver request (embedded below). “In order to assist schools in establishing priorities, aid in decision making and provide an effective basis for a comprehensive and continuous evaluation, each school will be categorized into types based on need.”
Since his initial campaign for state superintendent in 2022, Walters has advocated for increased parental choice in Oklahoma public education. If “permissible,” Walters said he intends to use the block grant in part to create “private school choice programs,” a proposal that could further inflame ongoing legal battles over the use of Oklahoma state funds to promote religious instruction.
“The OSDE will also provide a diverse marketplace of solutions, designed to offer schools, parents, and students a wide range of educational options,” he wrote in the request. “To expand educational choices for families, the marketplace of solutions will also include resources for classical curriculum support, providing funding for schools to implement classical education models; and, where permissible, private school choice programs, enabling parents to select schools that align with their religious values, provided those schools meet state accreditation standards.”
Block grants are issued to state or local governments under the notion that local authorities are better suited to handle local issues. Owing to the flexibility awarded to recipients, block grants can raise concerns that a lack of federal regulation may cause an increased risk of misspending. Walters said OSDE, the Legislature, schools and parents will work together to maximize district funding, while using the state’s A-F grading and accreditation systems to ensure Oklahoma’s regulatory oversight.
Additionally, the memorandum also includes Walters’ plan to provide families with additional resources and information about student curriculum — “including classical, religious, and other specialized curricula” — allowing parents to dictate and make choices about their child’s education.
Anticipating an increase of federal block grants coming down from the Trump administration, House Common Education Committee Chairman Dick Lowe (R-Amber) noted that Rep. Kevin West (R-Moore) passed a bill addressing oversight for potential block grants passed off the House floor last week.
House Bill 1221, also known as the State Accounts for Federal Expenditures (SAFE) Act, would require state agencies to create SAFE accounts, which would be subject to rigorous reporting, for any and all federal funds received through “competitive grant awards, direct monetary payments to the agency not associated with an established federal program the agency operates, and block grants,” according to a March 25 press release.
“The SAFE Act ensures federal funds are spent in alignment with Oklahoma’s priorities through a transparent process,” West said in the release. “This gives elected lawmakers a stronger voice on how our state agencies are spending federal funds and ensures Oklahoma taxpayers can trust how their state government is spending these dollars.”
On March 27, Lowe said everything legislators know right now about Walters’ block grant request “is probably hearsay.”
“We haven’t seen any letters come back to us or anything to the state,” Lowe said. “And until we do, we don’t know where we’re at. We’re putting processes in place. (…) We’re getting prepared to help make sure on the front end instead of the back end that, hey, we want money spent right, so we want to make sure it’s being done.”
HB 1221 mandates reporting, requires certain approvals and lays out statutory expectations of state agencies to notify certain authorities regarding any and all information related to federal expenditures. State agencies would be responsible for adhering to certain responsibilities including, but not limited to, the following mandates:
- “If the federal government, through legislation, directs that all federal funds to states are appropriated as block grants instead of program-specific funding, these funds shall be placed in SAFE Accounts created by the Office of Management and Enterprise Services for the correct agency or agencies that utilize the funds”;
- “For both current and new programs, agencies shall submit information as required under [Title 62, Section 34.36] of the Oklahoma statutes. Agencies shall also present such information as required in [Title 62, Section 34.95] of the Oklahoma statutes”;
- “The Legislature may formally disapprove of an agency’s use of block grant funding through a concurrent resolution. If such disapproval occurs, the agency shall inform its corresponding federal entity of the disapproval and withdraw from receiving such funds. If no action is taken by the Legislature on block grant funding, it is deemed approved and agencies shall use said funds in accordance with governing federal and state laws”; and
- “All agencies applying for competitive grants through Grants.gov, or any of its successors, shall submit to the speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, the president pro tempore of the Oklahoma State Senate, the governor, the House appropriations and budget chair, the Senate appropriations chair and the secretary of finance notice of the application that includes, but is not limited to, the application deadline, when the agency expects to hear it will be receiving funds under the grant, what federal department, agency, or other federal entity is awarding the grant, the amount of the grant, the purpose of the grant, and for how many years the agency will receive funding under the grant if it is awarded.”
Lowe said he wants to do what’s right “across the board” for Oklahomans, and that comes with following certain statutes in regard to block grants and federal funding allocations.
“We have block grants come down, whether it’s like Title I money, whether it’s IDEA money — there’s still statutes, federal statutes we have to meet,” Lowe said. “We don’t want to get in the situation that we haven’t met them when we spend the money. And so we don’t want to get in the situation (where) we get that claw back, and then it comes back to us as the Legislature to try to find the money to repay that back.”
Stitt, legislators react to Walters’ block grant request
Asked about the issue at his March 26 press briefing, Gov. Kevin Stitt encouraged legislators to start looking into how the state could appropriately allocate an ESSA block grant, but he also emphasized the need for new safeguards.
“If you think about block grants or money coming to the state without strings attached, we think that is a good thing,” Stitt said. “But in the same sense, we need to put some parameters around that spending to make sure it’s spent how Oklahoma thinks it should be (handled). So our state auditor is auditing money that comes in from the federal government based on federal requirements. Well, if those federal requirements go away, we do need to think through those things. It’s something that is brand new right now.”
Although Stitt offered neither an endorsement or nor opposition to Walters’ idea, he said his office will be heavily involved in the state’s oversight of education funds, if the state is granted the ESSA waiver.
“Whether this money comes in the way that [Walters] has proposed, I don’t know about that yet, and so we’ll see,” Stitt said. “I know the governor will be involved with — when we do have [federal] monies that come in, I want to make sure it’s on target, whether it’s our most vulnerable kids, or kids who have special needs, or whatever those programs are for, we want to make sure that gets to the school districts and gets appropriately spent.”
Walters’ idea has bicameral support from legislative leaders. Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton (R-Tuttle) and Oklahoma House Speaker Kyle Hilbert (R-Bristow) both praised the idea during their March 27 press availabilities. Hilbert said Republicans have been advocating for abolishing USDE and increasing state control of federal dollars for many years.
“Now we’ve got be ready to do what we need to do to put everything in place if and when that happens. And I think that’s important for many reasons,” Hilbert said. “Constitutionally, this is a state power not a federal power when it comes to education. But additionally, I think it’s the more practical solution in this day and age with the dysfunction of Congress. (…) At the end of the day, we’re responsive to our constituents. We’ve got to go see them at the diners and Walmarts and everywhere. States, we’re able to respond in ways that the federal government isn’t always.”
Paxton said he hopes block grant funding could ultimately reduce administrative bloat within public school districts.
“A lot of the money [school districts] receive from the federal government comes with strings attached, like they have to hire certain positions to help administer those funds, and that’s where we start getting all the administrators,” Paxton said. “If it comes down on the state level, we can decide, ‘Do we need all of those positions or not?’ Maybe those administrators used to be a certified school teacher, and now we can put them back into a classroom. That would be a really good move — block grant that money. (…) Maybe that allows us to reduce the amount of administrators and get more teachers back in the classroom.””
Oklahoma Senate Education Committee Chairman Adam Pugh (R-Edmond) released a statement of support for the idea.
“For years, educators have been hamstrung by red tape and arbitrary policies handed down by the U.S. Department of Education,” Pugh said. “The move by the Trump administration should be welcome, as it gives us the opportunity to focus more on the unique needs of Oklahoma children. Teachers will now be able to focus on educating students, not figuring out how to navigate constantly changing guidelines. We will ensure state leaders have control over any funding that comes to the state so any additional dollars are going to where they are intended. The heavy-handed mandates from Washington, D.C., bureaucrats have not advanced outcomes for Oklahoma kids. There is no one size fits all approach to education, which is what the U.S. Department of Education has been doing since its inception. Returning more power to the states, with no interruption in services to kids that need it most, will allow us to create and innovate, which I have been working on for years.”
Read the full waiver memorandum
