Articles
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Education, Culture & the Family
Bible class ‘released time’ a good idea for Oklahoma
Let’s allow Oklahoma students to be excused from school to attend a course in religious instruction.Tom Newell | April 9, 2024
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Judicial Reform
Judicial-nomination transparency bill clears committee
Legislation that would end the closed-door, secretive process currently used to select Oklahoma judges has received strong support from a House committee.Ray Carter | April 9, 2024
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Budget & Tax, Economy
Oklahoma drawing Millennials, data show
Critics often claim that Oklahoma’s conservative policies will cause a mass exodus of people. But the facts keep proving these critics wrong.Ray Carter | April 9, 2024
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Education
Trust the science (of reading)
Senate Bill 1906, by state Sen. Adam Pugh and state Rep. Rhonda Baker, creates a revolving fund to train future Oklahoma teachers in the science of reading.Jonathan Small | April 8, 2024
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Health Care, Culture & the Family
Oklahoma hospitals sign ‘equity’ pledge
The Oklahoma Hospital Association and 13 Oklahoma hospitals have signed an “equity” pledge that suggests hospital leadership hires may be based on race or ethnicity as much as, or more than, job qualifications and expertise.Ray Carter | April 8, 2024
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Education
State Board of Education tackles teacher misconduct
The Oklahoma State Board of Education (OSBE) is working aggressively to address new reports of educator misconduct while also reaching into the past to ensure teachers who violate children lose their certifications through the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE).Catherine Smith | April 4, 2024
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Education
Local voters can choose president but not school board?
As Oklahoma state lawmakers discuss legislation to shift school-board elections to November general-election ballots, opponents have raised an unconventional argument: while local voters may be qualified to cast a vote for president of the United States, they are not qualified to select school-board members in their own community.Ray Carter | April 4, 2024
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Education
Parents rally for school-board election change
Voter turnout in this week’s local school board elections was (again) so low as to almost defy belief. Many Oklahomans are ready to move these elections to November.Ray Carter | April 3, 2024
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Education
Oklahoma senators target special-needs discrimination
Parents of special-needs students in districts such as Yukon, Muskogee, Millwood, Medford, Pawnee, and Wynona report satisfaction with their involvement in the process—unlike districts such as Deer Creek, Edmond, Piedmont, Jenks, Lawton, Norman, and Moore.Ray Carter | April 2, 2024
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Judicial Reform
Another dubious Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling points up the need for reform
The court’s threadbare ruling on the minimum-wage issue highlights, once again, the importance of overhauling the judicial-selection process in Oklahoma. We need a system that produces judges whose rulings and opinions are grounded in law, not random political whims.Jonathan Small | April 1, 2024