Education

Poll: Oklahoma voters underestimate how much is spent on education

August 9, 2022

Brandon Dutcher, Curtis Shelton

A new SoonerPoll survey of likely Republican voters in Oklahoma shows that they woefully underestimate what percentage of the state budget is devoted to public education:

• “Advocates for public education have consistently argued that education is underfunded. Historically, how much of the state’s budget percentage-wise do you believe is spent on education?”

  • 5-10% …………………. 13.8%

  • 11-20% ………….…….. 25.9%

  • 21-30% ……….……….. 24.1%

  • 31-40% ………..……….. 8.8 %

  • 41-50% ……………..….. 5.2%

  • 51-60% ……………….... 1.9%

  • 61-70% ……………….... 0.5%

  • 71% or higher ..….…..… 1.0%

  • Don’t know …….…..… 19.0%

The correct answer is 36 percent, meaning that roughly one in 10 voters got it right. More than 6 in 10 voters came in too low.

According to the state’s annual financial report, common education receives 36 percent of state appropriations. Since 2018, the share of spending on education has hovered between 36 percent and 39 percent.

If one includes higher education and CareerTech, the share jumps to 47 percent of the appropriated budget. That share has ranged from 47 percent to 52 percent over the last five years.

After common education, the agency with the next-highest share is the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, with only 14 percent. No other agency has a double-digit share of state appropriations.

“When I was a senator, I asked teachers and administrators this question,” says former state Sen. Kyle Loveless, SoonerPoll’s chief operating officer. “Remarkably, more times than not, they got it wrong. In our survey, I don’t think GOP primary voters are any more or less educated than the public at large. We will ask this question in the fall to see if it changes.”

The SoonerPoll survey (383 likely Republican voters in Oklahoma; margin of error plus/minus 5.01 percent) isn’t the only one showing that Oklahomans lack accurate knowledge of education spending. Monthly tracking polls conducted by Morning Consult find that most Oklahomans believe public school funding is too low—until they are told how much we actually spend.