'Unreasonable': $250,000 for Okla. public schools inhaler funds stalled in OSDE

TULSA, Okla. — With thousands of kids headed back to class some state lawmakers are frustrated that every school won’t have emergency inhalers as those funds stalled in the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

The lawmakers said they approved the money to cover the cost of emergency inhalers for all Oklahoma public schools. It was sent to Governor Stitt’s office where he signed it into law.

But since then it’s struggled to actually go anywhere. For one Oklahoma family, it’s personal.

“Brendon was just an overall awesome kid. He grew up in Perry Oklahoma a small town. Loved sports, loved his faith and his family, but he tragically passed away at the age of 16 years old of an asthma attack,” said Brendon McLarty’s aunt Jennifer Blair.

She is also the executive director of the Brendon McLarty Memorial Foundation which helped sponsor the legislation.

“The lives and the hearts that have been affected as a result of something that we can fix. That we have funded that we have the ability to make these inhalers available so when these episodes happen,” said State Senator Chuck Hall.

He is one of the Oklahoma lawmakers trying to put inhalers in public schools with the help of the Brendon McLarty Memorial Foundation.

But the $250,000 allocated to the foundation stalled in the state Department of Education.

2 News talked to one of the bill’s authors Representative Mickey Dollens (D-Oklahoma City).

“Unreasonable for the Department of Education to hold up this money. Especially now that schools are going back into the classroom and that kids need this medicine without notice it needs to be on hand,” said Dollens.

After the bill was drafted it gained bipartisan support.

That approved the appropriation of a quarter of a million dollars to be given to the Brendon McLarty Foundation through OSDE.
However, that money was never distributed. Blair is not sure why the funds are being held.

“I honestly don’t know. We’ve been doing this for five years now. Providing inhalers, providing education, and out program really works. I mean last school year our inhalers were used 2,800 times in one school year,” said Blair.

In a letter to Attorney General Genter Drummond, State Superintendent Ryan Walters said he wants some clarity on distributing the funds.

Including whether to give the money all at once or in installments.

Walters also questions whether the legislature is favoring the Brendon McLarty Memorial Foundation over that of others.

Because he said the state can’t give any vendor preferential treatment.

LETTER TO AG DRUMMOND:

Oklahoma State Department of Education

Representative Dollens wasn’t surprised by the delay.

“They’ve had nine months, but this is a pattern of repeated behavior. Slow-playing elected officials not fulfilling grants. Not appropriating dollars where they should go. And it’s just an ongoing dysfunction that we’ve experienced unfortunately with the department of education,” said Rep. Dollens.

Blair hopes they get everything sorted out quickly and that no family has to lose their kid like they lost Brendon.

“I mean it’s been an honor to carry on Brendon’s legacy and to raise awareness about asthma,” said Blair.

2 News will continue to follow this story as it develops.

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