‘Win-win solution’: School choice tax credit frees up more than $70 million for Oklahoma public schools 

School choice benefits thousands of students in Oklahoma, but it also helps public schools.

According to an article by Jonathan Small, president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, the 42,000 students using the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit have freed up more than $70 million for public schools.

Participating families receive up to $7,500 per child to put toward education expenses, including private school tuition. The program has helped approximately 7,300 students leave public schools in Oklahoma, Small writes, but those schools still receive level funding from the state.

“As a result, every time a student uses the PCTC program to leave public school and enroll in a private school, it effectively frees up $15,111 in the public school,” Small writes in an article published in The Journal Record.

School systems can then reallocate those funds to other uses. In this way, school choice is helping public schools.

“Mathematically, because public schools don’t lose 100% of the funding associated with educating that child, their per-student spending increases as a result of school choice,” Corey DeAngelis, a leading school choice advocate and Heritage Foundation research fellow, told Heartlander News in a message.

Other national studies show school choice supports public schools instead of diminishing them.

“Fostering competition and accountability through well-designed school choice policy produces far greater academic returns for public school students than simply increasing public education budgets,” American Federation for Children (AFC) Senior Fellow Dr. Patrick Graff said in an article.

Graff’s analysis showed that Florida public schools experienced academic gains 11 times greater than predicted growth due to competition from Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarships.

DeAngelis said there are gains all around.

“School choice is a rising tide that lifts all boats. It’s a win-win solution,” he said.