As tuition increases loom, some Oklahoma Higher Education funds flush with cash
Re-posting Sunday’s print story below.
- Check out the latest financial snapshots for college and university revolving funds
BY PAUL MONIES
Database Editor
pmonies(at)opubco.com
Some revolving funds for colleges and universities are flush with cash as higher education leaders warn of impending tuition increases from budget cuts.
The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center’s three revolving funds had a combined balance of $93.4 million at the end of March, according to a list of balances provided by the Office of State Finance. That’s up from $75.5 million at the end of December.
Meanwhile, the University of Central Oklahoma saw a 35 percent increase in its combined revolving funds in the first quarter. It went from $31 million in December to $41 million in March.
In March 2010, UCO’s revolving funds had a combined balance of $27 million, according the Office of State Finance.
Some higher education officials said their revolving funds are often targeted by state budget writers to make up shortfalls in other areas.
Steve Kreidler, UCO’s executive vice president, said part of its revolving fund increase came from tuition revenue from higher enrollment. The university’s enrollment grew by 1,000 students this year to more than 17,000.
“We would have collected a whole ton of tuition in January and February from students enrolling for the spring semester,” Kreidler said. “We then pay it out over the next several months because we still have salaries and overhead.”
At the other end of the scale, several colleges and universities had large drops in their revolving fund balances. Oklahoma State University’s revolving funds for its Stillwater campus fell to $6.5 million in March, down from $12.6 million in March 2010.
The state Regents for Higher Education also saw large decreases in its revolving fund balances. Its combined balance was $12.7 million in March, down from $22.2 million a year ago.
Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College saw its combined revolving fund balance drop to $1.62 million in March. That’s down from $7.38 million a year ago. Much of that decrease was from its capital expenditures fund.
Revolving funds are snapshot
Higher education budget officials said the revolving fund balances are a snapshot in time and may fluctuate during the year from tuition and fee revenue. Some of the balances are cash reserves, too.
In UCO’s case, Kreidler said the university’s governing board likes to keep about one-twelfth of its annual operating budget in reserves. That’s about $12 million, he said.
“We’ve been holding off on capital expenditures to make sure we had good reserve funds to go into next year,” Kreidler said. “But that meant we haven’t fixed up as many classrooms; we haven’t fixed sidewalks that needed to be fixed.”
Kreidler said some deans are also saving money from academic course fees over a period of several years to make classroom improvements without borrowing through the state.
“Some of the colleges are in very aggressive forms of setting money aside to be able to do that stuff for students, like building out labs,” Kreidler said.
OU Health Sciences Center
The increases in the OU Health Sciences Center balances came mostly from a $33 million repayment from the Office of State Finance, said Catherine F. Bishop, OU’s vice president of public affairs.
“In (fiscal year) 2010, the state borrowed funds from a number of agencies and schools to cover statewide cash-flow requirements,” Bishop said in an email. “ … Additionally, there were increases in cash receipts realized from tobacco tax, tuition and fees, and indirect cost (overhead) reimbursements between years.”
Jonathan Small, fiscal policy director for the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, said the size and growth of some higher education revolving funds deserves more scrutiny. He said higher education should be treated like any other state agency. That means removing some of its exemptions from legislative oversight.
“If necessary, the Legislature needs to send a measure to the vote of the people to amend the constitution to allow lawmakers to have the same appropriations oversight and direction as that of any other agency,” Small said.
Borrowing from other funds to make up shortfalls is just one of the tactics used by budget writers to balance the budget.
The $6.5 billion budget agreement for the 2012 fiscal year includes more than $93.7 million in transfers from various revolving funds. That includes $25 million from the unclaimed property fund and $5 million from a revolving fund at the Insurance Department.
Another $219 million to balance the budget came from leftover federal stimulus funds and cash reserves.
The remainder of the entire $500 million budget shortfall came from appropriations cuts. Higher education, which receives about 14 percent of the state’s appropriations, received total cuts of $58 million. That’s a 5.8 percent decrease from fiscal year 2011.
Separately, the Transportation Department saw an appropriations decrease of $8 million, or 7 percent, in exchange for additional authority to issue $70 million in bonds.
–Paul
Oklahoma agencies have spent $47 million on private attorneys since 2005
Posting today’s story:
- Scroll to the bottom for a complete list of agency expenditures on private attorneys.
BY PAUL MONIES
Database Editor
pmonies(at)opubco.com
Published: May 4, 2011
Attorney General Scott Pruitt said Tuesday he’s concerned about an exemption for higher education in a bill that would place bidding requirements on private attorney contracts with state agencies.
Private attorneys and law firms have made more than $47 million performing legal work for state agencies and boards since fiscal year 2005, according to annual reports filed with the attorney general’s office. That works out to almost $8 million each year.
Rep. Mark McCullough, R-Sapulpa, author of House Bill 1223, said it would not have passed the Senate without the higher education exemption.
“I’m hopeful the bill will pass,” McCullough said. “It is a good government reform measure. A great deal of thought, research and work has gone into this legislation.”
Among the state agencies spending the most on private attorneys since fiscal year 2005 were the Transportation Department ($11.9 million), the Grand River Dam Authority ($6.1 million) and the Department of Human Services ($5 million).
Oklahoma State University spent $2.5 million since 2005 on private attorneys and law firms, according to the annual reports.
View the annual report on private attorney contracts for 2010 (click image for report)
The state Accountancy Board went from spending about $11,000 on private attorneys in 2005 to spending more than $252,000 in 2010.
Randy Ross, executive director of the board, said administrative and disciplinary actions are now handled by outside attorneys. The board also contracts with the attorney general’s office for other legal work because it does not have an attorney on staff. It spent almost $32,000 through the attorney general’s office in fiscal year 2010.
Ross said costs increased recently because a case went to district court.
“That’s a pretty big case, and anytime you have one that goes outside the administrative process, it gets a lot more serious and lot more expensive,” said Ross, who recently became executive director.
AG part of process
Under current law, agencies and boards must apply to the attorney general’s office to contract with private attorneys. Attorneys or law firms who want to be considered for legal work also must request permission to be added to the attorney general’s list. Among the information attorneys provide are their hourly billing rates and other fees.
HB 1223 would require agencies to put out bids for private legal work on their websites. At the end of each case, private attorneys would have to detail their hours, fees and other expenses.
The bill also puts a cap on the hourly rate charged by private attorneys at $1,000.
The Legislature would continue to be exempt from restrictions in hiring private attorneys. Since fiscal year 2008, the Senate has spent $285,000 on private attorneys. The House spent $223,000 during the same period.
Opponents of HB 1223 said agencies and boards need the flexibility that exists under current law. Some lawmakers also said the measure could give the attorney general too much control over the legal affairs of agencies.
Thad Balkman, executive director of the Oklahoma Lawyers Association, said his group still has concerns with HB 1223.
Balkman said forcing outside attorneys to detail their hourly billing could give away their litigation strategy.
“Most of what is in the bill can be accomplished by the attorney general without legislation,” Balkman said. “He already has the discretion whether or not to approve those contracts. I think in the past, approval was given pretty routinely.”
Pruitt said HB 1223 is a step in the right direction. In a statement, he said the exemption for higher education “does not exist in current law and would be a step backward in the state’s effort to keep the public informed.”
The Senate amendment on the exemption for higher education was offered by Sen. Jonathan Nichols, R-Norman. The Senate approved the bill by a vote of 30-14 in April.
Separately from the legislation, Pruitt has developed stricter registration requirements for private attorneys who want to contract with agencies. Those changes will remain regardless of the fate of the bill, a spokeswoman said.
Click for larger view:
Saturday sneak peak: Oklahoma superintendent salaries
UPDATE: Here’s Sunday’s story, which is generating quite a bit of online comments.
My colleagues Megan Rolland and Tricia Pemberton will have more on this in Sunday’s edition of The Oklahoman, but you can check out the salaries and total compensation of school superintendents in your district online: (Click to use the database)
–Paul
An early look at transparency bills in the 2011 Oklahoma Legislature
The bill filing deadline for the Legislature was last week, so those who follow state government are wading through the more than 2,000 bills or resolutions filed. The session kicks off at noon Feb. 7.
As is the case every session, expect these initial bills to be changed significantly along the way. Some will die after not being heard in committee. The language in some will magically reappear later in the session under another bill number, sometimes by another member. It’s like a giant game of Whac-A-Mole.
Here’s a few I’ve got my eye on, with a hat tip to Mark Thomas at the Oklahoma Press Association. He briefed members of Freedom of Information Oklahoma Inc. over the weekend.***
If you know of any that should be added to the list, drop me a line in the comments section below.
Click on the bill number for the full text
Subject: Records of county officers
Author: Sanders
Summary: This takes some authority away from county clerks and puts each county office holder in charge of destroying records after a period of time.
Subject: Electric Utility Data Protection Act
Author: Sears
Summary: Regulates data disclosures from those new electric “Smart Meters” that are popping up all across the state.
Subject: Public bodies
Author: Murphey
Summary: Would make the Legislature subject to the Oklahoma Open Records and Open Meetings Act. It adds an exception to the law for correspondence between lawmakers and constituents (but not correspondence between lawmakers and lobbyists). See the FOI Oklahoma blog for more.
Subject: Public bodies
Author: Renegar
Summary: This is similar in scope to HB 1085 above.
Subject: School district information online
Author: Brumbaugh
Summary: This would add more information to the School District Transparency Act, which passed last year and puts certain financial information of school districts on a website. The site is supposed to be up and running by the end of this month.
Brumbaugh’s bill would expand the disclosure to “direct and indirect costs” of education, including contributions to the Teachers Retirement System. It also directs the state Department of Education to create “benchmarks” to compare the costs of private and public education.
Subject: First responders and recording devices
Author: Shelton
Summary: This would make it a crime for first responders such as police, ambulance drivers and paramedics to take video or pictures at an accident scene and post them to public websites or send them to other people. It appears this is in response to the scuffle caught on tape a few years ago between a paramedic and a trooper.
Subject: Exemption to attorney-client privilege
Author: Jordan
Summary: This would take out an exemption for attorney-client communications if they are between a public official or agency and its attorney.
Subject: Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission
Author: Fourkiller
Summary: Adds the Oklahoma Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission to a list of other law-enforcement agencies whose information or evidence are not public if used by the Oklahoma Tax Commission.
Subject: Open Books
Author: Sean Roberts
Summary: Adds to the information on the state’s Open Books website by amending the Taxpayer Transparency Act. It would require each agency to provide a “line-item expense report” of all spending.
The bill also amends state law to prohibit elected agency directors from giving raises to employees in the period from just before an election until swearing-in day. It would appear to outlaw the raises that went on in the “lame-duck” period for departing agency heads that I wrote about in December.
Subject: Lobbyists
Author: Blackwell
Summary: Requires public employees who lobby for state agencies to register as lobbyists with the state Ethics Commission. Currently, agency lobbyists are exempt from registration requirements.
Subject: Public records
Author: Jackson
Summary: Adds a section to the Open Records Act that expressly stops government entities from asking requesters to fill out forms to request records. It also prohibits government from asking the purpose of a request or requiring a name of the requester.
Subject: Public records
Author: Reynolds
Summary: Adds a time period to the Open Records Act. Currently, public bodies must provide “prompt, reasonable access” to records. This bill would set up 30-day and 60-day deadlines. It sounds good in theory, but in my experience, many agencies or governments would want to use that entire 30-day period to respond.
The bill also expands the Open Records Act to cover private contractors who do business with the state. Another section of the bill requires that “convenience fees” assessed for online services go to the state agency to recover costs before they go to the private contractor providing the online website. This would appear to hit the state’s website operator, NIC Inc.
Subject: Public records; DPS audio/video recordings
Author: Terrill
Summary: This would add public employee birth dates and employee ID numbers to the list of exempt information under the Open Records Act. Terrill tried–and failed–several times last year to get this passed. He had lots of support from employee associations such as the Oklahoma Public Employee Association and the Oklahoma State Troopers Association. This is the subject of a pending Oklahoma Supreme Court case.
The bill would also set up a fee schedule for dash-cam videos and other records from the state Department of Public Safety.
Joey Senat, associate professor of journalism at Oklahoma State University, has more on this bill over at the FOI Oklahoma Blog.
Subject: N/A
Author: Terrill
Summary: This is a shell bill called “The Oklahoma Sunshine Act of 2011.” There’s no other information in it right now other than an effective date of Nov. 1, 2011.
Subject: Oklahoma Public Events Network
Author: Jolley (Murphey in the House)
Summary: Directs the state’s public television network, OETA, to develop a C-SPAN-like network called the Oklahoma Public Events Network. The bill does not provide a funding source.
Subject: County assessor fees
Author: Justice
Summary: Would allow the state Board of Equalization to set up a fee schedule for copies of Geographic Information System files or other electronic records prepared and maintained by county assessors. This has been a subject of several lawsuits in the last few years. The charges for such data vary widely among county assessors in Oklahoma.
Property owners would not be charged for records relating to their own property. The revenue from the fees would go back to each county assessor.
Subject: District Attorney records
Author: Justice
Summary: Would give district attorneys the authority to destroy files and evidence of investigations after a certain period of time. Current law allows DAs to destroy records on actual cases after a set period of time. This bill would expand that to records of an investigation.
Subject: Economic development
Author: Burrage
Summary: Adds the State Regents for Higher Education and state colleges and universities to an expanding list of agencies that are allowed to keep records confidential that pertain to “economic development.” Among the agencies already enjoying this exemption are the Commerce Department, CareerTech and the Oklahoma Film and Music Office.
Subject: Open records
Author: Anderson
Summary: This is similar to HB 1941 described above in that it prevents government from requiring the public to fill out specific forms or identify themselves in records requests.
Subject: Open Meetings
Author: Ford
Summary: Adds a new category to the Open Meetings Act called a “limited-support body.” It defines that as a unit that receives less than 15 percent of its funding from public funds. It exempts such “limited-support bodies” from the Open Meetings Act under certain circumstances and also allows them to conduct meetings via teleconference.
Subject: Court records
Author: Sykes
Summary: Prevents courts from sealing divorce records or other marriage and family records under Title 43, including child custody records. Those records could remain sealed if they are required by the Oklahoma Constitution or another statute.
Subject: Attorneys
Author: Sykes
Summary: Creates the “Private Attorney Retention Sunshine Act.” It would require state agencies to put out bid notices on their websites if they want to hire private attorneys for legal work that costs more than $5,000. For legal work expected to cost more than $500,000, more information has to filed with the governor’s office.
My former colleague Julie Bisbee and I wrote about this issue in 2009. Previous bills on the subject have not survived.
Subject: DPS records
Author: Nichols
Summary: Allows the Department of Public Safety to destroy records that have already been copied onto microfilm or scanned into a computer system.
–Paul
***Full disclosure: I am a board member of FOI Oklahoma Inc.
| Electric Utility Data Protection Act |
| Electric Utility Data Protection Act |
2010 Oklahoma Legislature: Open records/FOI wrap-up
UPDATE, 6/2/10: Oklahomans for Responsible Government points out that another version of the school district transparency bill, Senate Bill 1633, did in fact pass. (Hat tip: Peter J. Rudy)
—–
In case you missed it, my Watchdog colleague John Estus had an update of some of the major open records, transparency and freedom of information developments in the 2010 legislative session that ended last week.
———————————————————————————————————————————-
Open records draw action
By John Estus
Staff Writer
jestus@opubco.com
The Legislature dealt with several issues affecting freedom of information this session:
DATES OF BIRTH
THE BILL: Senate Bill 1753 exempted public employee birth dates from the Open Records Act.
AUTHORS: Sen. Debbe Leftwich, D-Oklahoma City, and Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore.
RESULT: Failed. The bill did not receive a vote on the House floor after Rep. Lucky Lamons, D-Tulsa, added an amendment requiring the Legislature operate under the Open Records and Open Meeting acts. Terrill later put the birth date exemption in other bills he controlled, but those bills weren’t voted on until the birth date exemption was removed.
HIGHWAY PATROL VIDEOS
THE BILL: House Bill 3382 made audio and video recordings taken from Oklahoma Highway Patrol cruisers public records in certain situations.
AUTHORS: Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, and Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Moore.
RESULT: Failed. It did not receive a vote on the House floor after Terrill added language to it exempting public employee birth dates from the Open Records Act.
AUTOPSY REPORTS
THE BILL: House Bill 3155 let district attorneys decide whether autopsy reports should be made public.
AUTHORS: Rep. Leslie Osborn, R-Tuttle, and Sen. Ron Justice, R-Chickasha.
RESULT: Failed. The bill stalled in the House after members raised concerns that keeping autopsy reports secret could harm oversight of the medical examiner and law enforcement.
OPEN BOOKS 2.0
THE BILL: House Bill 3422 improved the state’s Open Books website by requiring all purchases made with state funds be disclosed there as individual expenses.
AUTHORS: Rep. Ken Miller, R-Edmond, and Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond.
RESULT: Passed; awaiting governor’s signature.
FILM, MUSIC RECORDS
THE BILL: Senate Bill 1351 exempted certain aspects of film proposals submitted to the Oklahoma Film and Music Office from the Open Records Act.
AUTHORS: Rep. Dale DeWitt, R-Braman, and Sen. David Myers, R-Ponca City.
RESULT: Passed; signed by governor.
MUNICIPAL COURT RECORDS
THE BILL: House Bill 2541 exempted Social Security numbers, credit card numbers and bank account numbers from public municipal court records.
AUTHORS: Rep. Marian Cooksey, R-Edmond, and Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond.
RESULT: Passed; signed by governor.
SCHOOL SPORTS
THE BILL: Senate Bill 1729 would make the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association subject to the Open Records Act.
AUTHORS: Sen. Charlie Laster, D-Shawnee, and Rep. Shane Jett, R-Tecumseh.
RESULT: Failed. The bill did not receive a vote on the House floor.
SCHOOL DISTRICT TRANSPARENCY
THE BILL: House Bill 3253 opens school district spending data for inclusion on a public website administered by the state Education Department.
AUTHORS: Rep. Gus Blackwell, R-Goodwell, and Sen. Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso.
STATUS: Failed. The bill did not receive a vote on the Senate floor.
SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY
THE BILL: Senate Bill 2968 required sex offenders register with an address that can be mapped and includes a ZIP code.
AUTHORS: Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, and Rep. Mike Sanders, R-Kingfisher.
RESULT: Passed; signed by governor.
Transparency bills on state spending and school districts move forward
UPDATE: The Senate on Tuesday afternoon passed HB 3422 by a vote of 44-0. It now goes to the governor.
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It’s already been a busy last week of session at the Oklahoma Legislature, but a couple of transparency bills have moved one step closer to being law.
On Monday, the House approved House Bill 3422 by Rep. Ken Miller, R-Edmond, and Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond. It adds more features and transparency to the state’s Open Books website for financial information. Capitol reporter Michael McNutt has more in today’s paper. HB 3422 now goes back to the Senate for final approval.
From the bill summary:
HB3422 amends existing law by requiring the Office of State Finance (OSF) to update the state’s Open Books website with “Open Books 2.0” by January 1, 2011.
Open Books 2.0 will be a more expansive, searchable online database that lists individual expenditures – regardless of amount – separate from aggregated amounts. The website must present the data in a standardized exportable format. Within 18 months of Open Books 2.0 being online, OSF must create an online archive for each fiscal year beginning with FY-11. The archive must be accessible and searchable to online users.
HB 3422 also peels back some of the secrecy surrounding the state’s tax credits. It expands the information collected on the claimants and brokers of income tax credits:
HB3422 also adds a new law that requires the Oklahoma Tax Commission to prepare and maintain a list of all taxpayers who have claimed any tax credit authorized by any provisions of state law and related to a tax administered by the Tax Commission. It then requires the Office of State Finance to make this list available on the Internet. The list must include the name of each taxpayer who claimed a credit, the amount of such credit and the specific statutory provision under which the credit was claimed. The list must be updated on at least a monthly basis.
However, it does not require the same disclosure information on claimants of the insurance premium tax credits, which are administered by the state Insurance Department. Almost $58 million in insurance premium tax credits were claimed in tax year 2008, according to the department. That’s up from $54 million in 2007 and $39 million in 2006.
That increase in insurance premium tax credits claimed came despite collections on that tax remaining fairly steady in those three years. Almost $166 million in premium taxes was collected in 2006, while $159 million was collected in 2008, according to the department.
Marc Young, Insurance Department spokesman, said information about the insurance premium tax credits is available from the department, but it is not required to post the information on Open Books. Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie, who worked on the tax credit language in HB 3422, said adding insurance premium tax credits to Open Books might come in a future legislative session.
School district spending transparency
This morning, the House approved Senate Bill 1633, the School District Transparency Act. The bill, by Sen. Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso, and Rep. Gus Blackwell, R-Goodwell, directs the state Department of Education to create a website for searching school district financial data such as credit card payments, instructional costs and administrative overhead.
Some of that data is already available on the department’s website, but it’s contained in hundreds of separate PDF files. That makes it hard to get a complete picture of school district spending over time and makes it difficult to compare school districts against each other. Here’s an example of one of the reports in the Oklahoma Cost Accounting System at the department:
–Paul
Sunshine Week legislative wrap-up
We’re almost halfway finished with this year’s state legislative session, so here’s the latest on pending bills that concern open records and freedom of information:
DATES OF BIRTH
AT STAKE: Senate Bill 1753 exempts public employee dates of birth from the Open Records Act; dates of birth of public workers are now presumed open.
WHERE IT STANDS: Passed the Senate, 44-0.
WHAT’S NEXT: Awaiting hearing in House Appropriations and Budget Committee.
AUTHORS: Sen. Debbe Leftwich, D-Oklahoma City, and Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore.
HIGHWAY PATROL VIDEOS
AT STAKE: House Bill 3382 makes audio and video recordings taken from Oklahoma Highway Patrol cruisers public records in certain situations.
WHERE IT STANDS: Passed the House, 96-0.
WHAT’S NEXT: Awaiting hearing in Senate Appropriations Committee.
AUTHORS: Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, and Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Moore.
AUTOPSY REPORTS
AT STAKE: House Bill 3155 lets district attorneys decide whether autopsy reports should be made public; autopsy reports are now open records.
WHERE IT STANDS: Passed the House, 86-7.
WHAT’S NEXT: Awaiting hearing in Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
AUTHORS: Rep. Leslie Osborn, R-Tuttle, and Sen. Ron Justice, R-Chickasha.
OPEN BOOKS 2.0
AT STAKE: House Bill 3422 improves the state’s Open Books Web site by requiring all purchases made with state funds be disclosed there as individual expenses rather than lump sums.
WHERE IT STANDS: Passed the House, 94-0.
WHAT’S NEXT: Awaiting hearing in Senate general government and transportation subcommittee.
AUTHORS: Rep. Ken Miller, R-Edmond, and Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond.
FILM, MUSIC RECORDS
AT STAKE: Senate Bill 1351 exempts certain aspects of film proposals submitted to the Oklahoma Film and Music Office from the Open Records Act; the records are now open.
WHERE IT STANDS: Passed the Senate, 41-3.
WHAT’S NEXT: Awaiting hearing in House International Relations and Tourism Committee.
AUTHORS: Rep. Dale DeWitt, R-Braman, and Sen. David Myers, R-Ponca City.
FELON RECORDS
AT STAKE: Senate Bill 2200 expunges nonviolent felonies from a person’s criminal record if the person does not commit a crime for 10 years.
WHERE IT STANDS: Passed the Senate, 25-20.
WHAT’S NEXT: Awaiting hearing in House Judiciary Committee.
AUTHORS: Sen. Joe Sweeden, D-Pawhuska, and Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Tulsa.
MUNICIPAL COURT RECORDS
AT STAKE: House Bill 2541 exempts Social Security numbers, credit card numbers and bank account numbers from public municipal court records.
WHERE IT STANDS: Passed the House, 95-1.
WHAT’S NEXT: Awaiting hearing in Senate Judiciary Committee.
AUTHORS: Rep. Marian Cooksey, R-Edmond, and Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond.
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
AT STAKE: Senate Bill 1729 would make the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association subject to the Open Records Act.
WHERE IT STANDS: Passed the Senate, 41-0.
WHAT’S NEXT: Awaiting hearing in House General Government Committee.
AUTHORS: Sen. Charlie Laster, D-Shawnee, and Rep. Shane Jett, R-Tecumseh.
SCHOOL DISTRICT TRANSPARENCY
AT STAKE: House Bill 3253 opens school district spending data for inclusion on a public Web site administered by the state Department of Education.
WHERE IT STANDS: Passed the House, 96-0.
WHAT’S NEXT: Awaiting action in Senate Appropriations Committee.
AUTHORS: Rep. Gus Blackwell, R-Goodwell, and Sen. Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso.
–COMPILED BY STAFF WRITERS JOHN ESTUS AND PAUL MONIES
Obama’s school speech visualized
President Obama’s school speech has been big news for the last week or so, and today’s the day. The White House released the text of Obama’s speech, so I ran it through Wordle to get a text cloud.
–Paul
Auditing school district transparency
If you’re interested in how much information is out there online about your local school district, take a look at this report released today by Oklahomans For Responsible Government. Overall, it’s not a flattering portrait of online transparency among the state’s school districts. From the report:
There are districts that have good websites, but lack information
taxpayers need. If the football schedule can be posted, surely the
board meeting schedule can, too. We found districts that have
Twitter accounts, but nothing about a budget or how to contact
board members.
OFRG earlier took a look at county Web sites, an area that also was part of the state and local government focus of this year’s Sunshine Week in Oklahoma. (Read the national report here; Check out the Oklahoma survey data here.)
Here’s what Oklahoma State University journalism professor Joey Senat said back in March on local transparency and technology:
“I don’t know of anyone still using a typewriter,” said Senat, who organized the Oklahoma Sunshine Week surveys. “All of this information is being created electronically, which is the first big step to getting it online.
“We need to expect our public officials to learn how to provide us access online. Taxpayers already pay for the records; putting it online certainly seems to be a minimal cost. There are enough counties and cities and school districts who are already doing it to show that it is doable.”
Of course, sunshine and open records are year-round issues, so it’s nice to see groups like OFRG taking a look at online transparency.
–Paul
State aid and stimulus money to schools
The state Department of Education has released its initial projections of how much money each school district can expect from state coffers in the upcoming school year. You can read my colleague Dawn Marks’ story here.
We’ve compiled the projections into a searchable database on our Right to Know page. You can search for your school district by either county or district name, or both. You can also download the spreadsheet and do your own analysis.
Included in the state aid this year is about $167 million in federal stimulus money that lawmakers added to the state Education Department budget to avoid cuts. Districts can expect more stimulus money from the state later in the year.
Those figures don’t include other stimulus money each district is eligible for in special education funding and what they call Title I help for math and reading programs in districts with higher proportions of low-income students. (For more on that chunk of stimulus money, read Dawn’s earlier story here.)
Looking at the figures, aid to most schools is down this fiscal year as compared to the final amounts they received in FY 2009. And financial officials in the districts expect this year’s amounts to decline as the state revenue picture becomes clearer:
Because revenue collections for the state have been lower than expected, allocations could change, said James White, assistant state superintendent for finance. “It may get worse. We may have to reduce those later,” White said. “Right now we’re telling school districts not to do anything drastic but to plan for cuts.”
Without stimulus money, the picture could have been bleaker, state officials said. It’s also important to remember that the state aid allocation is just one part of the funding for public schools. Other money comes from local property taxes and regular, non-stimulus, federal funding.
Here’s a quick look at the top 20 districts and their FY 2010 projected state aid amounts compared to last year:
Source: Oklahoma State Department of Education
–Paul
