By Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY — A growing Oklahoma tax credit program will spend at least $255 million in the coming year to support private school students, including an increasing number of children coming from higher-income homes.
The Parental Choice Tax Credit Program, which uses state funds to offset families’ cost of private schooling, so far has had a slight decline in participation from lower-income “priority” recipients in the 2026-27 school year, despite the overall number of applicants increasing, a monthly Oklahoma Tax Commission report shows.
The program has seen growth, though, in students experiencing homelessness or who attend private schools primarily serving “financially disadvantaged” families, the report indicates.
The Tax Commission’s monthly report is dated June 8, a week before the final application deadline of June 15 for the 2026-27 school year. Its next report with updated numbers will come out in July, a commission spokesperson said.
With a budget raised to $275 million for the 2027 fiscal year, the program issues a check of $5,000 to $7,500 to a child’s private school based on the student’s household income.
The report shows 21,359 “priority” students, whose households earn $150,000 or less per year, were approved to receive tax credits in 2026-27. These families, who are placed first in line for approval, will receive nearly $152 million, or about 59%, of the $255 million total when factoring in homeless and financially disadvantaged students, according to an Oklahoma Voice analysis.
That’s a tick lower than in 2025-26, when 22,152 priority students collectively received $153.36 million. The priority group was awarded just under 62% of the total $250 million distributed that year.
Meanwhile, households earning more than $150,000 are taking up an increasing share of the program’s funds. In 2025-26, they received $97 million in tax credits. In the coming school year, they’ll represent nearly $104.2 million, or 40.8%, of the total distributed, compared to 38.8% the year before.
Legislative Democrats, who have long opposed the parental choice program, contended this trend is a sign the tax credits are primarily a boon for the wealthy rather than a vehicle for poorer households to access their school of choice.
A series of statements from Oklahoma Senate Democrats also scrutinized the fact that only a small fraction of receiving students — 3,112 out of 39,637 — had been enrolled in a public school the semester prior to the 2026-27 academic year. This number doesn’t account for how many students have left public schools since the program’s creation in 2023.
“The latest data from the Oklahoma Tax Commission confirms what many Oklahomans already suspected: Oklahoma’s tax credit voucher scheme is overwhelmingly benefiting families who were already paying for private school, while middle- and lower-income families are being left behind,” Sen. Mark Mann, D-Oklahoma City, said in a statement.
Factoring in the final week of applicants could create a different picture, but the current numbers alone show the program is a “resounding success,” said Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid. Caldwell has been an advocate for the program and filed legislation to increase its budget limit.
Complaints about wealthier families accessing the tax credit are “disingenuous,” he said. If those families sent their children to public schools, Caldwell said, the taxpayer cost to educate those students would be far greater than the value of a tax credit.
“Every one of these individuals in these families are taxpayers,” he said. “This is simply allowing them to use those tax dollars to send their child to the school and the school system that they feel best fits their kids.”
Applications for children experiencing more extreme levels of poverty have ticked up. That’s another positive sign, Caldwell said, that Oklahomans of all walks of life are accessing the program.
The number of financially disadvantaged or homeless students receiving the tax credit has increased from 345 in the 2025-26 school year to 418 in 2026-27, the Tax Commission reported.
These recipients must attend a private school that specifically serves families experiencing homelessness or 90% of whose enrollment is made up of “financially disadvantaged” students from households earning no more than 250% of the federal poverty level, according to Tax Commission rules.
The Tax Commission reported 32 students experiencing homelessness were approved for the program in both 2025-26 and 2026-27. Each attends Positive Tomorrows, an Oklahoma City private school supporting families who lack stable income and housing, said the school’s president and CEO, Margaret Creighton.
Nine more students were approved for tax credits in the week between the report’s release and the final application deadline of June 15, Creighton said.
That would bring the total number to 41 recipients experiencing homelessness in the coming school year.
The cost to educate a child at Positive Tomorrows is about $22,000, but the school doesn’t charge tuition, she said. Its top sources of funding are grants and contributions, the school’s financial records show.
Creighton said the tax credit program provides additional revenue that could help Positive Tomorrows expand.
“Essentially every child is on scholarship here,” Creighton said. “So, whether that’s a scholarship from the community through a donor or through a United Way campaign or through a program like the Parental Choice Tax Credit, all of those dollars coming together for the betterment of our community allows us to serve more kids.”
