Attorney General Gentner Drummond issued a formal opinion Sunday directing Ryan Walters to release to school districts millions of dollars in security funds appropriated by the Oklahoma Legislature in the wake of 2022’s deadly Uvalde, Texas, school shooting.
Drummond’s formal opinion, which has the force of law, found that districts can carry over funds from one year to the next — despite Walters’ previous refusal.
“This corrects the Department’s mismanagement that prevented school districts from receiving an equal distribution of Program Fund and an error that, in (Walters’) own words, concerns and puts at risk the safety of schoolchildren,” reads the new AG opinion.
Passed in spring 2023, House Bill 2904 provided $50 million in each of the three years for public schools to improve safety, including the hiring of more police officers.
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In an accompanying letter to Walters, Drummond said he found it “deeply troubling” that the superintendent failed to administer the funds correctly. He also expressed frustration that Walters waited more than a year before seeking guidance from the Office of the Attorney General.
“Those wasted months have resulted in school districts not receiving millions of dollars in funds they could have used to bolster security and protect students” wrote Drummond. “I pray that your failure to deploy these funds does not result in deadly consequences.”
Moreover, the opinion found that the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s guidance to school districts was “inconsistent.”
“The Department also advised school districts that their funds were available for carryover throughout the three-year program period but, arbitrarily and without notice, reversed course and zeroed out the district balances,” the opinion states.
It notes three key reasons that carryover is allowed:
• House Bill 2903, which established the program and revolving fund, placed no fiscal year restrictions on use of the funds;
• The relevant statutes only use “expend” or “expenditure” when addressing the OSDE, meaning that the state agency is the only entity to have restrictions; and
• No constitutional fiscal year limitations restrict the ability to carry the funds forward into a subsequent fiscal year.
Drummond’s full opinion can be found here.
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