State Lawmakers Approve Plan Sending Medical Marijuana Tax Revenue To Low-Income Schools

When voters approved medical marijuana in 2018, supporters of the measure said a portion of their tax revenue would be used for education. Now lawmakers believe they have focused on the best way to spend the multi-million dollar tax revenue.

The Oklahoma House of Representatives unanimously approved a plan Wednesday that would channel medical marijuana tax revenue to the state’s low-income counties as well as to the brick and mortar public charter schools. The bill also overturns the State Department of Education’s decision to allow in-person and virtual charter schools to use local taxpayers’ money to fund school construction funds.

An estimated $ 38 million would be shared among the schools with the lowest local tax revenues. This year there are around 300 districts. Lawton Public Schools would get the most benefit with around $ 1.9 million in medical marijuana funding.

“We’re one of only four states in the whole country that don’t have a compensation mechanism to create low-property areas of the state because school districts just don’t get that much money because there isn’t that much wealth in their area,” said Rep Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow.

“The Redbud School Funding Act provides a much-needed funding resource for hundreds of districts and charter schools in Oklahoma who have struggled to erect and maintain local school buildings because of little or no access to ad valorem dollars,” the said state superintendent Joy Hofmeister in a statement.

For schools that have good local property tax collections, Hilbert says he saves the loss of money due to the SDE scheme, which leads to traditional schools giving up local taxpayers’ money to charter schools.

“If we don’t take action and the State Board of Education ruling goes into effect July 1, the Oklahoma City Public Schools, Tulsa Public Schools, and many other non-grant schools will lose millions of dollars they own I send to charter schools every year, ”said Hilbert.

The bill is supported by both the State School Boards Association and the Charter School Association. Hilbert said it was a rare agreement between what appeared to be an ongoing battle to fund education.

The bill can now be heard in the Senate.