Why the Oklahoma's Promise scholarship program will cost more than ever next year – The Oklahoman
LANGSTON – The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education say the Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship program will cost a record $88.1 million next year.
Oklahoma’s Promise allows students from families meeting certain income and academic requirements to earn a college or technology center tuition scholarship. State regents estimate 17,107 students are receiving an Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship this school year, and expect 18,355 students to be part of the program in 2026-27.
The record cost will be in good part because of a new law that opened the program to children of classroom teachers who have at least 10 years of experience. The cost is expected to increase by 5.8% from the current year.
State regents will vote on whether to approve the cost estimate when the board meets Thursday, Oct. 23 at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. The board, which oversees 25 public colleges and universities, also met Wednesday at Langston University.
Once approved by the board, the cost of Oklahoma’s Promise will be reported to the state Board of Equalization, which determines how much money the state has available to be appropriated by the Legislature.
The Legislature used to fund Oklahoma’s Promise before allocating funding to other state agencies and programs, but after a change made in 2024, lawmakers now include the funding for the program as part of the general appropriation to the state agency.
State regents will publicly discuss their budget request during Thursday’s meeting at UCO. According to the Oklahoma House’s online Budget Transparency Portal, regents have asked for $1.098 billion in funding for the entire agency for the next fiscal year, matching what they were appropriated for the current fiscal year.
Students are eligible to enroll in Oklahoma’s Promise if the adjusted gross income of the student’s parents does not exceed $60,000 per year for parents who have one or two dependent children, $70,000 per year for parents who have three or four dependent children, or $80,000 per year for parents who have five or more dependent children.
The program will expand to cover the children of certain teachers under House Bill 1727, which passed earlier in 2025. School administrators and teachers with emergency certification weren’t included in the legislation, which was authored by Oklahoma House Speaker Pro Tempore Anthony Moore, R-Clinton, and state Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond.
The increase in scholarship expenditures for the program comes after a steady drop in costs from the 2017-18 school year through the 2022-23 school year, from $72.2 million to $62.5 million — about 13%. Regents’ staff said two primary factors contributed to those savings — the implementation of financial reforms approved by the Legislature in 2017, and an increase in the number of state-system colleges and universities that did not raise tuition.
But the program’s scholarship expenditures crept up to $66.6 million for the 2023-24 school year and leapt to an estimated $83.2 million for the current school year.
Formerly known as the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program, Oklahoma’s Promise was created in 1992 by the Legislature. In 2007, lawmakers passed a bill to provide a dedicated funding process to ensure stable financial support for the program. By law, state regents have to provide the funding estimate for the upcoming year to the State Board of Equalization by Nov. 1.
