Articles

Although Oklahoma may have suffered an ESA setback in 2016, the fight is far from over.

Oklahoma can’t afford to lose more homegrown talent to other states, whether in teaching or other professions. With SQ 779’s defeat, Oklahomans have given the Legislature the opportunity to address this urgency without further burdening working Oklahomans.

Both in Oklahoma and nationally, the labor force participation rate has modestly improved since a steep decline caused by the Great Recession, but that recovery from a cyclical decline has likely peaked.

When voters passed State Questions 780 and 781, they spoke loudly and clearly to legislators, district attorneys, and other policymakers.

No federal judges were on the ballot in 2016. Of course, federal judges are never on the ballot, and yet they are routinely an important subject in campaigns for President and U.S. Senate.

Due to the issue of global warming, or climate change, or catastrophic weather—that is, the claim this real-or-not phenomenon has resulted from mankind’s production of carbon dioxide and the resultant increase in that trace gas’s concentration in the atmosphere—the federal government and many states have encouraged investment in wind-powered electricity generation.

The Oklahoma State Department of Education has issued 1,082 emergency teaching certificates so far this fiscal year. Some use this data as a way to bang the drum on an alleged teacher shortage. However, a study published in October by the 1889 Institute found that the evidence of a shortage is scant.

Shortly following the December 1 meeting of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, the OU Board of Regents met in Norman and voted to approve President David Boren’s appointment of former Oklahoma state Sen. Jonathan Nichols as vice president of governmental relations.

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.

Agricultural regulation is an important issue for rural America. The Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are the primary regulators affecting the food supply chain from farm to fork. For row crop and cattle producers that dominate the landscape of the Great Plains, the EPA’s rules have the biggest direct effects. While these regulations are designed to provide many benefits, they come at a cost. Individual regulations are evaluated on cost/benefit grounds prior to implementation, but the costs of the overall regulatory burden on agriculture are not well understood.