Articles
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Education
Obscure election dates undermine parents’ influence
With voter turnout averaging only 4 percent for Oklahoma’s local school-board elections, school officials pay no penalty for being indifferent to the needs of the families they are supposed to serve.Jonathan Small | March 25, 2024
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Education
Public schools serve all children? Oklahoma parents find that’s not so
Horror stories abound of Oklahoma public school employees discriminating against special-needs students. Adding insult to injury, parents see their tax dollars used to hire lobbyists to oppose them.Ray Carter | March 25, 2024
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Culture & the Family
Despite lack of evidence, 2STGNC+ activists call for prosecutions
The death of Dagny Benedict, a 16-year-old Owasso girl who identified as “nonbinary,” was ruled a suicide and found to be unrelated to a school fight the preceding day. But transgender activists insist that other students involved in the fight, which was instigated by Benedict, should be prosecuted anyway.Ray Carter | March 22, 2024
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Law & Principles
Stop criminalizing speech
Using criminal penalties for protected speech should never be the default for lawmakers—even for speech we don’t like. Here are two bills that would criminalize speech.Ryan Haynie | March 21, 2024
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Culture & the Family
Effort to bar child access to porn overcomes critic pushback
Oklahoma could soon join the list of states with age-verification laws for porn content, despite the objections of some lawmakers who raise First Amendment concerns and worry that the bill could “make it harder for adults to access adult content.”Ray Carter | March 21, 2024
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Higher Education
OU, state mental-health agency tout ‘pregnant people’
Oklahoma’s “mental health” department went to great lengths to avoid referencing the existence of “women” or “mothers”—instead touting “pregnant people,” “individuals who are pregnant,” and “pregnant and parenting people.”Ray Carter | March 20, 2024
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Judicial Reform
‘It’s not the most transparent process’: McCall notes problems with JNC
Members of the Oklahoma Senate have approved legislation that would allow voters to reform Oklahoma’s judicial-selection process. The proposed state constitutional amendment would eliminate the secretive Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) and instead adopt the model established in the U.S. Constitution that allows the executive to nominate any qualified person to serve as judge, subject to legislative approval.Ray Carter | March 19, 2024
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Budget & Tax
Economic growth allows tax cuts, not just spending
In the last six years, Oklahoma’s economy has grown dramatically, allowing state lawmakers to dramatically increase state government spending. House Speaker Charles McCall said that revenue growth also highlights the need for lawmakers to pass income-tax cuts this year.Ray Carter | March 18, 2024
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Culture & the Family
Activists tout Owasso student’s death even as story unravels
Even as the left-wing narrative unravels—and it becomes clear that an Owasso girl’s tragic death was not the result of any state law or politician’s rhetoric—2SLGBTQ+ activists, President Joe Biden, and some Oklahoma Republicans persist.Ray Carter | March 18, 2024
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Culture & the Family
Age-verification bill merits Oklahoma lawmakers’ support
Oklahoma state lawmakers are considering bills to better prevent child exposure to pornography. Those bills deserve legislators’ support.Jonathan Small | March 18, 2024