Articles
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Education
Oklahoma teacher union hails private-school vouchers … for teachers’ kids
A new voucher-style benefit applies exclusively to teachers’ children, even those from high-income households. House Bill 1727 expands the Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship program to include high-income teacher families while maintaining strict income caps for all other Oklahomans.Ray Carter | June 18, 2025
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Law & Principles
Does Oklahoma need a cosmetology board?
Oklahoma should scrap its burdensome licensing requirements for cosmetologists, a barrier that limits opportunity without guaranteeing better outcomes. Market alternatives like customer reviews, voluntary certification, and inspections can protect public safety.Ryan Haynie | June 17, 2025
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Law & Principles
Keep an Oklahoma win in Congress’s One Big, Beautiful Bill: Closing the tobacco double-drawback loophole
A little-known trade loophole called “double drawback” allows foreign tobacco companies to avoid U.S. excise taxes, giving them an unfair cost advantage over domestic firms like Oklahoma-based Xcaliber LLC. Repealing this loophole would level the playing field, protect Oklahoma jobs, and restore fairness to federal tax and trade policy.Jonathan Small | June 17, 2025
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Education
Local control? Study shows voters rarely hold school boards accountable
Despite Oklahoma school-board elections being scheduled on obscure dates that average just 6 percent turnout, defenders of the system claim those elections provide valid “local control” of schools. But new research shows that academic outcomes have little impact on the results of school-board races.Ray Carter | June 16, 2025
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Health Care, Law & Principles
Taxpayers shouldn’t subsidize idleness
A new report finds that many able-bodied, childless adults on Medicaid spend much of their time playing video games and watching TV. Oklahoma taxpayers deserve better.Jonathan Small | June 16, 2025
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Law & Principles
OCPA comments on court challenges to initiative petition reforms
OCPA President Jonathan Small issued a statement regarding the court challenges filed by supporters of State Question 836 against the initiative petition reforms in Senate Bill 1027 that were passed overwhelmingly by the Oklahoma Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt.Staff | June 13, 2025
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Law & Principles
Advocates of California-style elections sue over Oklahoma petition reform
Activists working to impose a California-style election system in Oklahoma have filed lawsuits seeking to overturn our state’s newly enacted initiative-petition reforms.Ray Carter | June 13, 2025
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Law & Principles, Culture & the Family
Vermont foster-care case highlights anti-Christian discrimination
A court case in Vermont highlights why Oklahoma lawmakers acted this year to make certain that religious couples cannot be prohibited from serving as foster parents if those couples disagree with far-left views on transgenderism.Ray Carter | June 12, 2025
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Law & Principles
Unintended consequences: Oklahoma minimum-wage hike could fuel illegal-immigrant hiring
Oklahoma’s proposed minimum-wage hike could price Oklahoma teenagers and low-skilled workers out—and attract illegal immigrants willing to work under the table.Byron Schlomach, Ph.D. | June 12, 2025
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Education
School choice fuels Catholic school growth
Thanks to robust school-choice programs that are open to nearly all families, enrollment in Catholic private schools has surged in several states, including Oklahoma.Ray Carter | June 11, 2025