Governor Mary Fallin signed the Fiscal Year 2019 budget bill into law Monday.
Fallin said the $7.6 billion budget includes teacher pay raises, increases for public schools and criminal justice reform.
“The budget includes a 19.8 percent increase for common education, the largest appropriation for public schools in state history," Fallin said. "The appropriation includes $353 million to fund teacher pay raises that average $6,100 per teacher, which move Oklahoma teacher from last in the seven-state region to second for average annual pay, and from 49th in the nation to 29th. When taking into account the cost of living, Oklahoma teachers will be the 12th-highest-paid in the country. It also has $52 million for support personnel pay raises, $24 million for flex health benefits; $33 million for textbooks, and $17 in new funding for the school funding formula."
Fallin said the budget includes $11 million for criminal justice reform measures, which includes:
- $5 million to the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services - $4 million to fund risk/needs assessments, and $1 million to drug and mental health treatment courts.
- $4.8 million to the Department of Corrections to fund a new system that will allow the agency to track and monitor offenders on probation in one system, and will allow for shared data regarding offenders to be shared in one database statewide.
- $500,000 for the Pay for Success program, which reduces the number of women sent to prison and the resulting impact incarceration has on their children.
The budget includes $23 million from the Department of Human Services to help Oklahoma's most vulnerable citizens, Fallin said.
