Articles
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Culture & the Family
Workers, employers win with vax-mandate ruling
Oklahoma’s workers and their employers alike won an important victory when the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down the Biden administration’s COVID-vaccine mandate for private businesses. That mandate clearly exceeded the government’s authority, opened the door for further abuses of power, and would have had a significant negative impact on the labor supply.Jonathan Small | February 2, 2022
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Education
School choice makes homeschoolers and private schools more safe from government—not less
Homeschoolers and private schools must be vigilant whether a state has vouchers, empowerment accounts, or tax credits—or no school choice programs at all.Greg Forster, Ph.D. | February 1, 2022
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Education
‘Sick out’ at Putnam City schools?
Amidst increasing COVID cases, some Oklahoma schools have temporarily closed for in-person learning in recent weeks, citing insufficient staffing due to illness.Ray Carter | January 31, 2022
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Education
Tahlequah kids quizzed on CRT, transgender stances
Seventh-grade students in Tahlequah were quizzed during the first semester of school about their views on Critical Race Theory, transgenderism, abortion, and other political issues … in a middle-school geography course.Ray Carter | January 29, 2022
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Health Care
St. Anthony says ‘race and gender criteria are no longer used’ to determine who gets COVID treatment
A major health care network with an Oklahoma affiliate has withdrawn a controversial medical rating system that appeared to give bonus points in receiving crucial COVID-19 care to “non-white or Hispanic” patients based solely on skin color.Mike Brake | January 28, 2022
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Education
Hofmeister seeks dramatic increase in agency budget
While State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister’s budget request includes a modest percentage increase in funding for school districts, it includes a much larger increase of 27 percent for her agency’s budget.Ray Carter | January 28, 2022
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Education
Oklahoma elementary reading scores plunge despite increased spending
State school spending on reading has increased by a triple-digit percentage since 2017, yet far more Oklahoma public-school students are considered at risk today than just five years ago, according to data from the Oklahoma State Department of Education.Ray Carter | January 27, 2022
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Education
$1.4 billion in Oklahoma school COVID funds remain unspent
Since 2020, Congress has approved three rounds of federal COVID-bailout funding, providing more than $2 billion combined to Oklahoma school districts to mitigate viral spread, address challenges created by the pandemic, and reverse learning loss tied to COVID shutdowns.Ray Carter | January 27, 2022
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Good Government
Time for a politician’s job review
Just as workers in the private sector undergo routine job reviews, it’s important that citizens take time to review the records of officeholders.Jonathan Small | January 26, 2022
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Law & Principles, Good Government
With 2,300 bills introduced, which ones should you watch?
How is an interested citizen to know which bills actually have a chance—and which ones are dead on arrival? The answer is much simpler than you might think.Rick Farmer, Ph.D. | January 26, 2022