Chicken-Fried News: Cheating kids

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Kids know that cheating is wrong.

After all, how often is the phrase “Keep your eyes on your own paper” said in classrooms around the country? We at Chicken-Fried News estimate about a gazillion.

Oklahoma Tax Commission (OTC) didn’t intentionally cheat kids out of state funding or cause an imbalance in funding. However, schoolchildren felt cheated when it was discovered a misinterpreted law led to more than $14 million in motor vehicle collections incorrectly distributed to public schools.

According to Tulsa World, tax officials misconceived a 2015 law, which led to incorrect distributions impacting 419 school districts.

School leaders at Sand Springs, Muskogee, Altus, Canton, Lone Wolf, Mid-Del, Ponca City and Quapaw noticed something was off and pushed a lawsuit against OTC.

The 2015 law, passed by the Legislature, was intended to cap the amount of motor vehicle tax money schools received.

“In months when there were not enough collections to give all school districts the amount of money they received the previous year, OTC made distributions based on each district’s student population, but the plaintiff school districts contended the Tax Commission should have decreased each district’s portion equally,” Tulsa World reported Oct. 18.

In mid-October, a judge sided with the plaintiffs, aka the school districts, the Tulsa newspaper reported.

Next month, the problem will be corrected.

Print headline: Cheating kids

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