OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s higher education officials announced Thursday a $1.12 billion budget request for fiscal year 2026 and the board’s legislative agenda for the upcoming session.
The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education voted to approve the request which is a 9.3%, or $95 million, increase from the board’s previous allocation from the Oklahoma Legislature. The Legislature approved an appropriation of $1.02 billion for the current 2025 fiscal year.
Regents said the increase would fund legislative initiatives and programs, workforce development and “institutional excellence and student success.”
About $9.3 million would continue programs to waive tuition for concurrent enrollment students and to improve reading comprehension and literacy. Concurrent enrollment refers to high school students who are enrolled in some college courses while completing their high school education.
Another $42 million would fund initiatives to meet Oklahoma’s workforce needs in nursing, health care and STEM fields as well as programs encouraging adults in the state with “some college, no degree” to complete their degrees later in life.
Making up the rest of the increased request, $43.7 million would go to “institutional excellence and student success.” This includes campus safety and cybersecurity, student success and support services, initiatives to incentivize sharing services and resources between institutions, and performance-based allocations for operating costs like salaries or insurance costs.
Legislative agenda
The governing board also approved its legislative agenda for February’s legislative session that outlines six priorities for the upcoming session of the Oklahoma Legislature.
The first proposes creating a scholarship program to aid adults who are advancing their education and completing workforce training later in life.
The board also proposed expanding the existing Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Scholarship Act, which gives businesses and individuals tax credits for donating to support tuition assistance for K-12 education. Expanding the program would also offer tax credits to those donating to support post-secondary students.
Jarrett Jobe, legislative liaison for the regents, said similar legislation moved through the House last session but was “caught up with some changes in the Senate.” He recommended it be run again this session.
The regents also want to extend deadlines for applying for the Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship program and to develop an appeal process for applicants. Oklahoma’s Promise is a scholarship program offering qualified Oklahoma students an opportunity to earn a scholarship for college tuition.
“We really like the appeals process so that students can reach out to be able to tell their story, if appropriate, to receive that scholarship,” Jobe said. “We also would like to look at the deadline for enrollment in the program and move it to a December deadline versus June of their junior year … We know we have a significant student population that hasn’t determined whether or not they’re going to college until their fall semester of their senior year.”
Enhancing campus safety and security was another item on the agenda. This would mean equipping institutions with more personnel and financial resources to “proactively mitigate risks,” whether they are physical or cybersecurity threats.
Finally, the agenda addressed strengthening concurrent enrollment and stabilizing property insurance rates to help colleges and universities with operating costs.
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