City Of Tulsa Wants Communities To Have More Say In Funding Their Own Schools

The City of Tulsa supports a possible change in the law to let school districts use property taxes for school operations – something that’s not allowed now.

Both last session and this session, the City urged lawmakers to let local districts and communities decide if they want to increase school funding on their own.

Right now, if communities put extra money into education, the state cuts funding by the same amount.

A bill in the legislature would change that and give districts the option to use property taxes for operations, instead of just buildings and equipment.

If voters wanted to increase taxes to boost education funding, they could do that.

“This is not going to solve all the funding woes we have with education,” said Mayor G.T. Bynum.  This does not let the state off the hook for the need the state has to be funding schools in a world class way, but it would give local communities much more flexibility in determining their funding priorities than they have today.”

The bill has passed the state Senate and is awaiting action in the House.