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Oklahoma is set to spend $600 million in the first three years of a new tax credit program to cover private school tuition and fees. But the state agency running the program says how many of those dollars each private school ultimately receives must be kept secret under current state law. A Tulsa World examination of the State of Oklahoma’s Parental Choice Tax Credit website found dozens of out-of-state schools registered for the program — from as far away as California, Idaho, Ohio, Florida and even Japan.
But the Oklahoma Tax Commission won’t say how much of the $150 million allocated for tax year 2024 have ended up in out-of-state school coffers either. “We have no payment information for either Spring 2024 or Fall 2024 for checks mailed to each school or amounts paid to individual taxpayers. That information is confidential under (Oklahoma Statute Title 68-205, paragraph A).
We also do not have any electronic spreadsheets that track this information,” responded Lorena Massey, assistant general counsel at the Oklahoma Tax Commission, to the Tulsa World’s request for public records under the Oklahoma Open Records Act. People are also reading..
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“We of course want the data but in a way that is not personally identifiable, which could be an issue with a school with only five students,” Hilbert said. “At the end of the day, the money is going to parents. I would have to look at it and talk to the Tax Commission.
We want the data, but what does it mean for the taxpayer? I think we will continue to have tweaks as the program gets up and running, but that’s to be said for any policy lift of this size at the Legislature.” One Tulsa lawmaker said she thinks any reasonable person would expect information about where students are being educated with the new tax credits to be a matter of public record. Rep.
Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, said she herself inquired about a foreign school previously listed on the state’s registry of participating schools, called UWC ISAK located in Nagano, Japan. “OTC told me no money went to Japan — and they were very uncomfortable when I asked,” she said. One large Tulsa private school had no qualms about sharing information about the impact of the new tax credit on its bottom line.
"For the 2024 spring semester, tax credit funds accounted for 11.8 percent of gross tuition," said school officials at the nonprofit Holland Hall School, located near East 81st Street and South Yale Avenue. "When the tax credit was enacted, we already had waiting pools for most grade levels, so we didn’t have the openings to take in a lot of new students.
But it was help to many of our families." When asked, the superintendent's office of the Catholic Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma, which has a dozen or so private schools enrolling at least 4,500 students each year, said it is "still in the process of collecting that information." In May 2023, Gov.
Kevin Stitt signed into law the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Act, providing Oklahoma state income tax credits of $5,000-$7,500 per child to parents whose children attend private schools that register for the program with the state, beginning in January 2024. Parental Tax Credit Act amended According to OTC, Parental Choice Tax Credit checks are mailed directly to the participating private school and the taxpayer whose name is on each check can either pick up the check or sign the check over to the school for payment of tuition and fees. But OTC declined the Tulsa World’s request under the Oklahoma Open Records Act for school-by-school information about where tax credit checks were mailed for the spring and fall semesters of the 2024 calendar, saying it is confidential.
To the World's request for any electronic spreadsheets tracking payment information by private school and the school's mailing address, OTC said none exist. House Bill 3388 was signed into law during the 2024 legislative session, amending several of the program’s original rules, including aligning the program with the academic year calendar, exempting the credit from Oklahoma taxable income, and specifying that participating schools must be physically located in Oklahoma. The new tax credits prompted many private schools across the state to hike their tuition , according to recent reporting by Oklahoma Watch.
Asked whether it is possible that out-of-state schools are receiving payments from 2024 tax credits because of the original rules established by House Bill 1934, the OTC said yes, “as long as the eligible students were residents of Oklahoma and were eligible to enroll in a public school in Oklahoma.” “These students (taxpayers) who are enrolled in out-of-state private schools will receive the tax credit for tax year 2024 but not Spring 2025. At the time that HB 3388 became effective in May 2024 they had already been approved for the credit for tax year 2024.
They will not be grandfathered in for Spring 2025 since the change to not allow out-of-state private schools to participate is now effective going forward,” said Emily Haxton, an OTC spokeswoman. The taxpayer-funded program is set to expand. After the $150 million initial state allocation for tax year 2024, lawmakers have pledged to increase the annual budget to $200 million in 2025 and $250 million in 2026.
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