Oklahoma schools allocate more than $224 million in Title 1 Part A funding
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - The numbers are out for state funding in Title 1 Part A grants for schools in Oklahoma. State Superintendent Ryan Walters says the money is given to schools based on the population of those students who come from low-income families.
The money then follows the child through the district and their academic career.
"We know academics can lift students out of poverty. We know that getting a workforce skill in a young person is something that even in the economy if struggling, they can be successful if they have an employable skill," said Ryan Walters, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Oklahoma schools are getting than $224,661,041 in Title 1 Part A funding. That's a $12 million increase from last year's numbers.
"This money flows directly to the student, whether they are in the most rural area of the state in poverty or whether they're in the most urban area in poverty," said Walters.
Walters says the goal is to bridge the gap between school populations in the state.
Though representative Andy Fugate says the high amount of funds isn't necessarily a good thing.
"It is a sad reality that we have received record funding in this area, but that's because we have more kids living in poverty and that's a trajectory that we need to fix as a state. In my ideal world, we would be receiving $0 in Title 1 funding because that means all of our kids are out of poverty," said Andy Fugate, the State Rep. District 94 (D).
With the new funds, Walters says the Department of Education is launching a $10 million reading initiative this fall.
"So what we have continued to encourage districts to do is emphasize reading. Make sure that any student that's behind in reading, we're using as many dollars as we can towards getting that child up to speed," said Walters.
Walters released the full funding numbers for Oklahoma schools after his conversation with News 4. Those numbers topped $2.8 billion. Which is up nearly $435 million from last year.
His office tells News 4 he'll release numbers on special education funding later this week.