Superintendent Walters outlines budget requests for teacher pay, literacy programs and $3M for classroom Bibles

Superintendent Walters told the House Appropriations and Budget Committee during a budget and performance hearing that the State Department of Education’s budget request emphasizes teacher recruitment and retention, statewide literacy initiatives and several targeted new asks, including $3 million to place Bibles in classrooms.

The request matters, Walters said, because Oklahoma serves a large student population and continues to recover from pandemic learning loss: “We have just under 700,000 students enrolled in Oklahoma public schools,” he told the committee. He also noted the state has about “just over 47,000 teachers” and 542 school districts.

Walters said the department used signing bonuses to fill critical shortages last year, awarding “just under $16,000,000 to 522 certified teachers in critical shortage areas,” targeted to reading, English and special education and prioritized toward low‑performing, high‑poverty and rural districts. He described a separate rural program that brought 65 certified math and science teachers into small districts and credited such efforts with helping reverse a decade‑long decline in teacher numbers.

The department highlighted retention programs as well: the Oklahoma Teacher Empowerment program — enabling districts to designate lead or master teachers and add salary supplements — is now active in multiple districts, Walters said, and a teacher induction program (mentoring for first‑year teachers) returned using ESSER funds with reported retention above 90 percent for participating teachers.

Literacy and tutoring initiatives were central to the…