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Governor Mary Fallin signed HB 3052 at a public ceremony in 2012 with a great deal of fanfare. The bill created the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, or JRI. The event was supposed to signal the end of one era—a “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” philosophy on criminal justice—and the beginning of a smarter approach that emphasized rehabilitation for nonviolent offenders, especially those with mental health or addiction issues.

At a private school in a secluded, somewhat upscale backstreet in northwest Oklahoma City, children are arriving to begin their day. Class sizes are small; there are about 16 children in each class. This school is exclusive; its daily capacity is 58 students. It has turned away hundreds more in the last few years.

Conservatives, as the readers of this magazine well know, emphasize the principles of individual liberty and personal responsibility over those of collective well-being and communal responsibility. Where there is a problem or a societal ill, we do not reflexively look first to government agencies for a solution.

Great levels of scrutiny have been placed on the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust’s recent attempt to hire an additional administrator at a salary of $250,000 a year. At a time when nearly 20,000 Oklahomans have lost their jobs due to the price declines in the oil and gas industry and state spending is being cut, TSET’s decision has been met with outrage. But Oklahoman’s should be aware that TSET’s recent decision is by no means the most egregious and TSET is not the only governmental entity in Oklahoma that creates positions for the politically connected.

Oklahoma’s education blob—school unions, education schools, and their allies—is becoming unusually shameless in its determination to vote itself another taxpayer bailout. Of course the blob is always on the lookout for another hustle. But in Oklahoma this year, things are getting to a point that might make even Donald Trump blush.

Critics of school choice policies – such as vouchers, tax credits and education savings accounts – love to claim that school choice is for the rich. But what about an ordinary child for whom changing schools could literally mean the difference between life and death? That’s the case with some parents in Oklahoma City who have chosen to enroll their children at Mission Academy High School, operated by the nonprofit Teen Recovery Solutions.

Writing in the Enid News & Eagle, OCPA's Trent England explains why four measures passed this legislative session are important steps in reforming Oklahoma’s criminal justice system.

We all have opinions about how to make public schools better. Some want to spend more money, even to the point of increasing taxes. Others favor reforms like school choice. We are entitled to our own opinions, but not our own facts. Unfortunately, some important facts have been hard to find – until now.

Illinois offers a contrast with Oklahoma this year. In President Obama’s home state, liberal Democrats have supermajorities in both the House and Senate. Here in Oklahoma, Obama never won a single county and Republicans hold significant majorities in both legislative chambers. Yet we have one thing in common: state budget troubles.

The Sooner State suffers less from eco-apocalypticism than most, but it isn’t immune to environmental groupthink. Look no further than the college campus, where ill-conceived ideologies flourish under the innocent-sounding label of “sustainability.”