OKLAHOMA CITY ( KFOR ) — Several Oklahoma lawmakers say the way the state is paying out families taking part in Oklahoma’s “Parental Choice” private school tax credit is not how it was described when they voted on the program.
Those lawmakers tell News 4 they were surprised to learn private school families taking part in Oklahoma’s Parental Choice Tax Credit system were receiving their tax credit funds through checks that the state mailed to their kids’ private school, and not through a tax refund.
Parental Choice Tax Credit used to pay off debts before tuition
Some lawmakers say they do not believe the bill which created the tax credit would have passed, if legislators had been told this is how the system would work.
The path Oklahoma Republicans took to getting the Parental Choice Tax Credit Act signed into law in May 2023 was a bumpy one.
It took a lot of compromise between the state’s most powerful Republicans.
“I’m not for tax dollars going to private schools,” Oklahoma House Education Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Mark McBride (R-Moore) told News 4.
That’s why McBride says he and a number of other Republicans shot down a similar bill in 2022, which would have created a private school voucher system in Oklahoma.
Under that bill, McBride says funding for the voucher system would have come from the state’s public education general fund, and families would pay the vouchers directly to their private school of choice.