Dr. Kelly Forbes, "Private Schools are a choice"
Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor candidate speaks out
- by Dr. Kelly Forbes
Gayly Extra
I went to private school, and I still don’t believe Oklahoma taxpayers should pay for my family’s choice. My opponent [has said] that Oklahoma has been a leader in school choice and that “school choice levels the playing field for so many kids.”
So let me tell you why I see this differently.
Growing up, my Papa and Keke made an enormous investment in me. My monthly child support was $271.15, and my family chose to use what they had to help send me to private school. We didn’t have a private-school tax credit. My family didn’t expect our neighbors to help pay the tuition. They believed something pretty simple: if private school was our family’s choice, it was our family’s responsibility to pay for it.
I still believe families should have choices. I attended private schools. Then I became a public-school teacher, principal, and eventually an executive district administrator responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars.
So I’ve seen this conversation from more than one side, and here’s where I land: choosing private school and asking taxpayers to subsidize private school are two different questions.
Oklahoma’s Parental Choice Tax Credit provides refundable credits of $5,000 to $7,500 per eligible student for private-school tuition and fees. For this school year, Oklahoma authorized up to $250 million for those credits. Beginning with the 2027–28 school year, that cap grows to $275 million.
Here’s the question I keep coming back to after traveling rural Oklahoma: what does “choice” mean when the choice doesn’t exist where you live?
A tax credit for private-school tuition doesn’t create a private school in a rural community that doesn’t have one. It doesn’t put another school twenty minutes down the road. It doesn’t automatically give every family transportation to an alternative.
So when someone tells me this program “levels the playing field,” I think we should ask: for whom?
That’s not opposition to parents making choices for their children. My own family made one for me. It’s a disagreement about who should pay for that choice and where Oklahoma should invest its public resources.
I’ve spent nearly two decades working in public education, and that’s why my position is clear: I support a parent’s right to choose private school. I also believe public education resources should prioritize the public schools that serve every Oklahoma child.
When hired as your next Lieutenant Governor, I’ll bring nearly two decades of public education experience to every table where this office has a responsibility involving our schools and public resources.
My opponent and I see this issue differently. That’s okay. Oklahomans deserve to see the difference.
He says this tax-credit approach helps level the playing field. I’m asking us to look at the entire field, including the Oklahoma communities where there isn’t another school to choose from, because a choice that doesn’t exist where you live isn’t much of a choice at all.
I am laser-focused on Oklahoma, and I believe our best days are ahead.
I love you, Oklahoma.
Dr. Kelly Forbes is the Democratic candidate for Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor, and he posted this information on his social media earlier this month—content used with permission.
The Gayly online. 10/28/26 @ 6:31 p.m. CST.