Articles
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Health Care
What's really behind rising hospital prices and insurance premiums?
Oklahoma families are feeling the pinch of ever-rising health care costs and insurance premiums.Kaitlyn Finley | January 20, 2021
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Education
Oklahoma school district says diploma is no indicator of learning
In a court filing, an Oklahoma school district has declared the issuance of either a passing grade or a high school diploma is not—“and never has been”—an indicator that a student mastered state-mandated core courses.Ray Carter | January 20, 2021
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Budget & Tax, Education
Experts warn school ‘equity’ mandate will fuel lawsuits
State Sen. Mary Boren has filed legislation to alter language in the Oklahoma Constitution that currently requires “a system of free public schools” so it instead requires maintenance of “an efficient and equitable system of free public schools."Ray Carter | January 19, 2021
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Education
State agency seeks COVID data on at-home learners
State data on COVID-19 infections among K-12 students will reportedly include cases that occurred among children who never attended school in-person and conducted their learning entirely online this year.Ray Carter | January 18, 2021
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Education
Despite pay raises, officials warn of teacher shortage
State officials continue to inform lawmakers that large tax increases and teacher pay raises enacted in 2018 appear to have had relatively little impact on teacher shortages.Ray Carter | January 15, 2021
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Budget & Tax, Higher Education
Colleges seek more state borrowing for professors
Last May, Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed legislation authorizing $314.4 million in state debt to fund endowed chairs for college professors in Oklahoma, but members of the Legislature overrode Stitt’s veto.Ray Carter | January 15, 2021
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Higher Education
A strategic plan for OU
As I pointed out in a previous article, the strategic plan collates OU’s bureaucratic ambitions, hopes that the Oklahoma taxpayers will foot the bill, and betrays that its real ambition is to impose an expensive, coercive diversity bureaucracy on the university. The plan subordinates all other goals—including liberty and education—to enforcing and propagandizing for race and sex preferences.David Randall, Ph.D. | January 15, 2021
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Education
CDC declares schools should be ‘the last settings to close’
Newly released data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that COVID-19 infections in areas with in-person instruction at K-12 schools are comparable to the rate in areas where students are limited to virtual options.Ray Carter | January 14, 2021
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Education, Health Care
Medicaid diverting money from education
A top state official told lawmakers one reason Oklahoma spends less on education today is because the state’s Medicaid program is consuming more and more taxpayer resources.Ray Carter | January 14, 2021
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Budget & Tax, Good Government
OKC Mayor Holt ducks reparations questions from citizens
More than six months after touting his leadership role in the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt remains silent on whether he agrees with that group’s support for potential reparation payments for slavery and racial discrimination, a proposal that could cost up to $6.2 quadrillion.Ray Carter | January 14, 2021