Lawmakers in Oklahoma today took a major step toward empowering parents and school leaders with enhanced information on how much funding a school is getting and spending per student.
Senate Bill 1199, sponsored by Senator Gary Stanislawski, builds upon the state’s existing School District Transparency Act to require the Department of Education to include district and school-level revenue and expenditure data on its website. Additionally, it requires school districts to link to this data on their websites. This ensures financial data is easily accessible for parents, school leaders and members of the community. It will also promote resource effectiveness and school empowerment as well as student opportunity and fairness.
The bill unanimously passed the Senate and now heads to the House for consideration.
“Parents and community members deserve access to transparent financial data on how much funding is being generated and spent at the school. This helps empower and inform parents, school leaders and policymakers to make decisions on how to best leverage school resources to drive student success. ExcelinEd in Action would like to thank Senator Stanislawski, Representative Chad Caldwell and the Oklahoma State Chamber for championing and supporting this issue.”
Alexandra Dominguez, ExcelinEd in Action Regional Legislative Director
For more information on financial transparency, visit ExcelinEd’s policy library.
