Oklahoma Lawmakers Take A Second Look At School Choice Tax Credits

Leaders in both the House and Senate have filed a handful of bills that would just clean up some of the language in the private and homeschool tax credit laws.

But lawmakers have introduced legislation that could make some bigger changes, like providing more government oversight for schools that participate.

House Bill 3585 would require any students receiving the private or homeschool tax credit to take the same standardized testing that public school students take.

House Speaker Charles McCall filed legislation that changes the application timeline to follow the school year - instead of a calendar year.

Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat filed a bill that would allow the credit to include children who are planning to enroll in private school.

Lawmakers say they are still working out some of these logistics with the Tax Commission, “It should not be a taxable event because that's counterproductive to the opportunity we're trying to offer to families, and so there is some disagreement there between us, and the tax commission,” said Senator Adam Pugh, (R) Senate Education Chair.

Oklahoma has seen at least two democratic bills filed one would require any schools that are participating in the tax credit program to have government oversight and the other would restrict private schools from raising their tuition rates as a result of the program.