The saga of Oklahoma Senate Bill 580

This story began when a very small school district wanted to provide alternative education but found that it was not a part of the Statewide Alternative Education Program. It turns out that there were ten K-12 districts in Oklahoma, all very small, that receive no alternative education funding. Why? Because when the program was set up, these districts reported no need for the program.

So, a bill was written -- and revised -- to provide the minimum funding level for all these districts.

The orignial minimum funding level was written into law 10 years ago as $10,000. When the cuts came a few years ago, the programs who received the minimum level were cut by the same percentage as the larger districts. (Remember the 25% cut? We do!) We have not fully recovered from the cuts, so the current minimum funding level is $9,667.

So, you'd think it would cost $9,667 x 10 = $96,670 to fund these ten districts. SB 580 would provide a vehicle for doing that. The bill has passed the Senate, but the title has been stricken because the bill would have a fiscal impact. If the bill passes, someone has to pay for it -- either through a direct appropriation or by dividing the cost among the current grantees.

Well, dividing $96,670 among the current grantees would be a problem, and that's what people were talking about when a bigger problem came along.

It seems that rewriting this law would have the effect of causing all of the programs at the minimum funding level to receive $10,000 next year. This would increase the cost of the bill to $186,000. If the bill passes, and if there is no appropriation, there's only one place to get the money -- from the districts that currently receive more than the minimum.

So, if the bill passes and if there is no appropriation, we would rob Peter to pay Paul. In most cases the impact would be relatively small, but the district most affected would lose $40,000 -- that's the cost of a teacher.

So, this is now a bill that would have a substantial impact on nearly every district in the state. Perhaps we should go back to first principles -- why was this bill written? It was written for a good reason -- to provide a good alternative education program in a rural area.

You know, there's gotta be an easier way to solve that problem....