By Emma Murphy, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma higher education officials are projecting an increase in enrollment to a state scholarship program and an estimated 21.6% related jump in costs in the coming years amid shifting eligibility and application requirements.
Lawmakers, meanwhile, are eyeing nearly 20 bills that could dramatically expand eligibility for the Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship program and balloon the program’s price tag to as much as $500 million a year, higher education officials said.
The program, which provides qualifying children from lower-income families with free tuition, had over 15,000 participants during the 2024-25 school year, according to a report from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. Over 4,400 degrees were conferred to scholarship recipients during the same school year.
The number of recipients is projected to increase in the coming years as eligibility parameters changed during the last legislative session that included changes to income limits and expanding the program to some public school teachers’ children.
The report estimates that the program will have over 17,000 participants in the 2025-26 school year and over 18,300 in the 2026-27 school year.
Officials also projected the scholarship program’s expenditures would also grow to over $88 million by the 2026-27 school year, up from $72.4 million in 2024-25.
Chancellor Sean Burrage said Oklahoma’s Promise is continuing to deliver strong results, with students enrolling in college and persisting in their education at higher rates than peers who are not involved in the program.
Almost 93% of Oklahoma Promise graduates are employed in the state one year after graduation and nearly 85% are still in Oklahoma after five years, he said.
“That tells us this program is not only expanding opportunity, but it is also strong workforce investment delivers long term value to stay,” Burrage said. “We appreciate the Legislature’s continued support of this program and look forward to continuing conversations about strengthening it during the current legislative session.”
Lawmakers last session expanded the program to the children of eligible Oklahoma teachers, but only allocated enough funding for 15 students. Officials said the demand for the program far outweighed the available funding.
Jarrett Jobe, vice chancellor for government relations for the State Regents, said the program’s expansion to include educators’ children was very popular. Now there are around 19 other bills that state lawmakers have filed seeking to further expand the program.
The price tags on some of the bills can reach up to $300 million and $500 million, he said.
“We’re encouraging legislators, as they look at these Promise bills, to recognize that expansion to postsecondary opportunities for the Promise is a great program, but we also have to be cognizant of the cost that would occur with some of these bills,” Jobe said.
