Among the major issues facing the 2026 session of the Oklahoma Legislature, the effort to improve reading outcomes in state schools is expected to be one of the most high-profile, with growing momentum for adopting the Mississippi model.

Mississippi law requires early assessment of gradeschool reading skills, aggressive intervention for those falling behind, and retention for third-grade students who remain far below grade level, rather than allowing social promotion of students based on age.

When Oklahoma had a similar law in place from 2011 to 2014, the state experienced a major improvement in reading outcomes, but the law was largely gutted starting in 2014, and results in Oklahoma have since fallen off a cliff and are now among the nation’s worst.

Mississippi, in contrast, adopted its law about the same time as Oklahoma and stuck with it, and included a strong emphasis on phonics-based instruction. Today, Mississippi’s fourthgrade reading outcomes rank in the top 10 states nationally. Experts have urged Oklahoma lawmakers to reinstate the Mississippi model in Oklahoma.

New Spending Required?

But some critics argue the Mississippi model requires a massive amount of new spending in Oklahoma public schools.

For example, John Thompson, a retired teacher in Oklahoma, recently rattled off a list of new expenses that Oklahoma will supposedly have to begin if a Mississippi system is adopted here.

“What are the chances that Oklahoma would adequately fund such programs?” Thompson wrote.

But experts say Mississippi’s additional expenses were relatively minor, especially given that Oklahoma schools have more than $9.6 billion in revenue annually.

“The Mississippi model does not require massive amounts of new funding,” said Casey Sullivan Taylor, senior policy director in literacy for ExcelinEd. “In some states, reallocation of existing funds is possible.”

In the 2013-2014 school year, Taylor said the Mississippi State Legislature provided $9 million in funding to support the first year of implementation of the Mississippi Literacy-Based Promotion Act (LBPA). In subsequent years, the annual allocation increased to $15 million.

Of that $15 million in funding, 61 percent pays for literacy coaches to work with teachers across Mississippi and train them in the science of reading, which refers to the practices proven to generate the best results, including phonics-based instruction.

Another 17 percent of the $15 million pays for professional development for teachers, while 4 percent goes to instructional materials. Another 15 percent pays for the K-3 assessment support system, and 3 percent goes to K-3 literacy support salaries.

Notably, revenue in Oklahoma schools has skyrocketed in recent years, but reading outcomes have continued to decline, as have other measures of academic achievement.

Return on Investment?

According to financial data reported by schools to the state’s Oklahoma Cost Accounting System (OCAS), new revenue in Oklahoma public schools reached $9,600,703,488 in the 2023-2024 school year. Since student enrollment was 698,923 that year, that comes out to an average of $13,736 per pupil.

That means per-pupil revenue has increased by 51 percent since the 2017-2018 school year, when Oklahoma public schools reported having $6,300,400,107 in new revenue and statewide enrollment of 694,816 for an average of $9,067 per student.

The average per-pupil revenue in Oklahoma public schools is now significantly more than the average private- school tuition in Oklahoma, according to figures compiled by Private School Review.

And other calculations indicate Oklahoma’s public- school revenue may be even higher.

A report released in April, “Rankings of the States 2024 and Estimates of School Statistics 2025,” by NEA Research, found that Oklahoma public schools had $14,066 in revenue receipts per student in the 2023-2024 school year when calculated based on average daily attendance.

“Oklahoma’s reading 4thgrade scores fell throughout the decade and continue to decline even as spending increased.”

Edunomics Lab

When Edunomics Lab analyzed return-on-investment (ROI) data from 2013 to 2024, tracking National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test results in fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math alongside per-pupil spending, researchers found Oklahoma’s per-pupil spending far outpaced inflation, but Oklahoma’s NAEP scores were far lower today than in 2013.