For as much as we talk about the state of the education system in Oklahoma, it’s strange to me that the various sources of school funding don’t receive more attention when debating how to improve things.
The amount of funding is mentioned, of course, as dollars spent per student factors into the state’s overall ranking, but where we’re getting the money from matters, too. That part of the equation stood out to me when I heard that State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters has requested the U.S. Department of Education to grant Every Student Succeeds Act funding as a block grant to be distributed from the state level instead of from its federal source.
If Walters and other state leaders are to be believed, federal bureaucracy and “red tape” are to blame for all of Oklahoma’s learning woes, and an ESSA block grant could represent a path to success. What that success looks like is anyone’s guess right now, but we know Walters has a checkered history with federally appropriated money, so giving him complete freedom over another large sum may seem like a questionable proposition, to say the least.
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