A bill to correct funding disparities for brick-and-mortar public schools in low property value areas while addressing charter school funding passed the House.

Senate Bill 229 creates the Redbud School Funding Act, which proposes using medical marijuana taxes and the Common School Building Equalization Fund to provide annual per-student funding grants to eligible districts and charter schools.

The measure is authored in the House by Reps. Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow; Rhonda Baker, R-Yukon; Mark McBride, R-Moore; and many others.

The bill came after the State Board of Education’s recent settlement with the Oklahoma Public Charter School Association would have granted charter schools access to local property tax dollars that at present, only traditional public schools have the ability to access. If unchanged, the decision would shift tens of millions of local property tax dollars away from traditional public schools and into public charter schools.

The decision was made in part because charter schools receive $330 less per student in non-chargeable local revenue because they do not have access to these dollars. (Non-chargeable dollars are dollars that do not count against a school district for the purposes of state aid.)  Charter schools also cannot pass bonds. 

It was also discovered, though, that students in 334 traditional Oklahoma school districts receive below average funding for their education from annual local tax revenue.

This measure would allow the State Department of Education to use grants to equalize funding for those districts as well as the charter schools.