State Auditor Cindy Byrd
“Taxpayers deserve a functional system that monitors spending.”
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (February 18, 2026) Oklahoma State Auditor & Inspector [SA&I] Cindy Byrd today released her special audit of the Oklahoma State Department of Education [SDE]. Governor Stitt requested the audit.
The SDE audit period covered July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021.
“We found no evidence of wrongdoing, but we did identify issues that should concern both taxpayers and lawmakers,” Auditor Cindy Byrd said. “Of the $7.6 billion spent annually on public education, just 0.21% is available for discretionary spending at SDE. The vast majority of the money is controlled by local school districts, which is where any significant fraud, waste, and abuse would likely occur. SDE primarily functions as a clearinghouse for distributing funds.”
Among the issues discussed:
- Oklahoma Cost Accounting System [OCAS]
- OCAS is a coding system designed to categorize and track expenditures, not to detect improper spending or monitor compliance with the statutory 5% cap on administrative expenses (or 8% for small districts).
- Operating as a self-reporting system, OCAS depends on district submitted data, submitted through the honor system, which limits its effectiveness as a mechanism for oversight.
- Local school boards, not SDE, bear primary responsibility for financial transparency, oversight, and accountability within their districts. Accountability should be a priority for all school boards, including the oversight of OCAS reporting. Strong local control and oversight are key in ensuring that funds are used effectively to maximize education outcomes.
- Secretary of Education/OEQA
- The Secretary of Education, appointed by the Governor, is responsible for analyzing education spending. The Secretary is required by law to oversee meetings of the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability [OEQA]. OEQA, via the School Finance Review Commission, is also directed by law to review school finance, including administrative spending.
- During the auditing period, OEQA failed to meet regularly and failed to fully comply with these requirements.
- OEQA had authority to review expenditures in districts that exceeded the OCAS administrative cost limits but none of the 23 school districts that exceeded the 5% administrative expense cap were reviewed during the audit period.
- Line-Item Appropriations
- School districts were encouraged to utilize a specific vendor to help students with reading and math. Legislators line-itemed appropriations directly to the vendor so purchases did not go through a competitive bidding process.
- The vendor’s curriculum was not formally reviewed against Oklahoma standards. Contracts between the vendor and school districts during the audit period totaled approximately $13 Million.
- Reading Sufficiency Act
- The Legislature allocated $11 Million for the Reading Sufficiency Act during the audit period. The stated purpose of the act is “to ensure each child attains … necessary reading skills by completion of the third grade.”
- Funds were awarded on a per-pupil basis with eleven school districts receiving less than $370.
- Four school districts received less than $100.
- One school district received $12.
“Legislators never built a framework to measure the success of these programs,” said Auditor Byrd. “Did taxpayers get an appropriate return-on-investment for their $11 Million? Did more kids learn how to read? No one knows — and that’s the problem. Taxpayers deserve a functional system that monitors spending and provides adequate oversight to catch any problems. Responsible money management is a prerequisite for good outcomes in education.”
Auditor Byrd believes all of these problems are fixable. She said her office is standing by to help lawmakers build the financial guardrails that taxpayers deserve.
This is the 197th audit released by Cindy Byrd this fiscal year.
The full audit report is posted here on the Oklahoma State Auditor & Inspector’s official website.
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