Articles
-
Higher Education
Lawmakers Respond to Regents’ Budget Request
On December 1, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education voted to seek $957.9 million for fiscal year 2018—an increase of 18.3 percent over the current year’s budget.Staff Reports | December 19, 2016
-
Education
Coach’s Alleged Acts Raise Questions in Clinton
CLINTON—Phillip Koons has coached football in Oklahoma for more than 20 years. The majority of his time was spent at Tuttle High School where he led the Tigers to two state championships and produced a blue-chip quarterback named Jason White, who would later become a Heisman Trophy winner as an Oklahoma Sooner in 2003.Jay Chilton | November 17, 2016
-
Education
Survey: Most Oklahomans See Educational Choice as a Moral Right
Should parents be allowed to use the tax dollars intended for the education of their child to subsidize the cost of an education at a privately operated school? Most Oklahoma voters say yes, according to a new SoonerPoll Quarterly Poll, with regular church attenders and evangelicals expressing even stronger support.Jay Chilton | November 11, 2016
-
Higher Education
Longtime Purchasing Executive Says Education System Is Fraught with Waste
OKLAHOMA CITY—Alan Neitzel served for nearly 30 years at Rose State College before retiring in December of 2015 as the director of grants and contracts. During his time, Neitzel said he was witness to innumerable instances of fraud and waste at the college, sometimes by his own office. He said that public education at all levels in Oklahoma is fraught with rampant waste, and taxpayers should not give any more money to state-funded education until the dollars they currently receive are handled responsibly and transparently.Jay Chilton | November 4, 2016
-
Education
With a Boost from a School Choice Program, Life-Changing School Coming to Oklahoma
One of the nation’s most effective college prep and work experience programs will come to Oklahoma in one year, thanks to existing state policy providing a steady model for financing. Students from economically challenged backgrounds will be able to access the high-quality high school education model and job program beginning in fall 2017.Patrick B. McGuigan | October 14, 2016
-
Education
Survey: Most Oklahomans See Educational Choice as a Moral Right
Should parents be allowed to use the tax dollars intended for the education of their child to subsidize the cost of an education at a privately operated school? Most Oklahoma voters say yes, according to a new SoonerPoll Quarterly Poll, with regular church attenders and evangelicals expressing even stronger support.Jay Chilton | October 11, 2016
-
Education
Some School Districts Resistant to Posting Credit Card Statements Online
One portion of an Oklahoma law dealing with financial disclosure requires local school districts to publish credit card statements online. And though some districts have expressed a willingness to comply with the law, other districts refuse to post the information on their websites.Jay Chilton | September 29, 2016
-
Education
School Districts Express Willingness to Comply with Law
Overwhelming majorities of public school websites reviewed by OCPA’s Center for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) during a recent analysis were out of compliance with the state’s School District Transparency Act.Jay Chilton | August 31, 2016
-
Education
In Districts with Recent Misconduct, Transparency Compliance Is Mixed
Most Oklahoma school districts are not in compliance with the statutory requirement to publish credit-card statements on the school district’s website—including some districts with recent high-profile instances of financial misconduct.Jay Chilton | August 29, 2016
-
Education
School Districts Fail to Comply With Transparency Law
One portion of an Oklahoma law dealing with financial disclosure requires Oklahoma school districts to publish district credit card statements for public review on the district’s website. Though some schools are in full compliance, a sampling of 10 percent of the school district websites suggests that the overwhelming majority are not.Jay Chilton | August 23, 2016