By Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY — Dozens of teachers laid off. Every administrator gone. Major cuts to high school programs.
That’s what it would theoretically take for Deer Creek Public Schools to comply with a recent order that all Oklahoma public schools provide free meals to every student this school year, the district’s superintendent, Jason Perez, said.
“It’s not within the realm of possibility, not unless we are willing to make such drastic changes to our basic tenets of how we educate students in this district,” Perez said.
State Superintendent Ryan Walters on Monday ordered all public schools in the state to offer universal free meals starting in the 2025-26 academic year, claiming districts could afford it by cutting administrator salaries.
“Parents already pay for lunches when the federal and local government tax them,” Walters said in a statement. “They shouldn’t be taxed again with a lunch invoice.”
Walters’ order, which caught many in the state’s public education system by surprise a month before the next school year begins, has been met with significant doubts of whether such a mandate is legally, financially or logistically viable.
Perez, along with other district leaders and education experts, noted that no Oklahoma law requires public schools to fund cafeteria meals for every student, particularly those whose household income is high enough that they don’t qualify for federally supported free or reduced-price meals.
The Oklahoma State School Boards Association pointed out that no state law permits Walters to sanction districts, as he has threatened to do, for not providing free meals to all enrolled. The association’s executive director, Shawn Hime, said the choice to offer free breakfasts and lunches is “strictly a local decision.”
Districts also would need to update their kitchens for scratch cooking, train their staff and have access to local ingredient sources to comply with Walters’ demand that school meals eliminate “ultra-processed” foods, certain artificial dyes, seed oils and produce grown with pesticides, the School Nutrition Association of Oklahoma wrote in a letter to the state superintendent.
“Mandating these changes without supporting infrastructure or funding risks overburdening already strained schools and child nutrition departments and potentially reduces access to meals altogether if programs cannot remain compliant,” the association wrote.
Some states have implemented universal free meals in all of their public schools, but each has done so by increasing funding for this initiative, according to Hunger Free Oklahoma, an organization that advocates for expanding access to affordable, nutritious food.
The most recent available state records show Oklahoma public schools spent $440.6 million on child nutrition in the 2024 fiscal year. The vast majority of funding for school food services, almost $311 million, came from the federal government. About $3 million came from the state.
Schools generated another $42.4 million in revenue from meal sales, adult meal purchases, summer food service, gifts and donations, and other food service income.
Walters said Oklahoma schools already receive enough state and federal funding that they could stop charging families for meals, but instead they spend too much money on administrators.
Oklahoma districts collectively spent $670 million on general administration and school administration in the 2022-23 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
State law already places a limit on administrative spending in public schools. Districts with more than 1,500 students can spend no more than 5% of their annual expenditures on administrative costs.
Even if Deer Creek eliminated all administrator salaries, the district still would fall $4.5 million short of the cost to provide free meals for each of its 8,100 students, Perez said. That means the rest would have to come out of the district’s general fund, the vast majority of which goes to personnel salaries and benefits.
This would put the district’s most attractive qualities, small class sizes and high-quality teachers, on the chopping block, he said. Federal aid is limited for Deer Creek, a more affluent district where less than a quarter of students qualify for free and reduced-price school meals.
Perez said he believes “wholeheartedly” in the idea of no-cost meals for all students. Doing so, he said, is what’s best for children and would lead to better educational outcomes.
“I don’t think there’s anybody that would be against it, but there’s a right way to do this that is thoughtful and that’s actually going to lead to a sustainable end result that we can carry on for years to come,” Perez said. “And then, there are forced mandates that come out overnight, that have no bearing and have had no opportunity for feedback from educators, from legislators, from community members as to the feasibility of it. And that’s what we’re dealing with right now.”
For now, Perez said his district will prepare as usual for the school year, which starts Aug. 14 in Deer Creek.
The Oklahoma State Department of Education has not sent formal guidance to districts about Walters’ mandate, Edmond Public Schools spokesperson Jeff Bardach said.
The state agency so far has issued a news release, a letter to public school families and a petition collecting signatures from supporters of the policy.
About a third of Edmond’s 25,700 students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, Bardach said. Another third pay to eat at their cafeteria, collectively spending $3.5 million on breakfasts and lunches.
A final third seemingly brings packed lunches from home, he said, because they don’t qualify for federal aid nor set up an account to pay for school meals.
District administrators could only guess how many more students would start eating school-provided meals once the food is free for everyone, Bardach said, but the added expense is sure to be in the millions.
“The only real way to know how much it would cost is to do it for a year and see how much it costs,” Bardach said. “If you do that, you can’t preemptively make the cuts to cover it because you don’t know what you’re cutting for, what number you’re trying to get to.”
The financial impact would be “significant” in Norman Public Schools, as well, chief communications officer Courtney Scott said.
The district’s $6.5 million child nutrition program relies, in part, on payments from families who don’t qualify for free or reduced-price meals. The district would have to raise $1.7 million a year to make up the difference of that lost revenue.
“Covering this gap would likely require cuts to other parts of the budget, which could impact student programs and services,” Scott said.
The timing of Walters’ announcement indicates he’s “trying to score political points” rather than help children, said Rick Cobb, superintendent of Midwest City-Del City Public Schools.
Every district in the state already built its budget for the 2025-26 school year, as they are required to do by June 30, he said. Now, a month before the next school year, Walters is demanding districts submit budgets with the cost of free meals factored in.
The order also came a week after a deadline to apply for a federal program that could help cover some of the cost of student meals.
The program, known as the Community Eligibility Provision, helps districts that choose to offer free meals schoolwide or districtwide. Participating districts must have at least 25% of their students on Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or other federal benefits to qualify.
Midwest City-Del City schools is one of 256 districts in Oklahoma that provide free meals to all students through the Community Eligibility Provision. Another 264 districts qualify but don’t participate, often because of financial challenges, according to a June report from Hunger Free Oklahoma.
Cobb said districts with a lower poverty rate “are going to be out millions” if they’re forced to cover universal free meals without more financial support.
“The timing of it is bad,” Cobb said. “The motive behind it seems iffy. Even though it’s not really going to affect us here in Mid-Del, I don’t like the idea of the state superintendent coming out with a mandate in July that can totally upend school districts’ budgets.”
