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In the Tulsa World this last weekend, OCPA’s Brandon Dutcher wrote about the fiscal impacts of educational choice programs, pointing to the cost savings happening for choice programs at the higher-ed level.

Oklahoma has become known for a number of efforts recently to implement policy with the intention of promoting freedom in the delivery and payment of health care. Oklahoma lawmakers have passed laws that protect the ability of medical providers and their patients to negotiate with each other and set up payment arrangements that benefit both parties.

Recently, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority announced another scheme to entangle Oklahoma with the Medicaid expansion proposed in the federal Affordable Care Act. The OHCA has attempted this a few times, and policymakers have wisely rejected the various proposals, refusing to repeat the mistakes of history.

University of Oklahoma President David Boren is promoting a sales tax increase to finance a $5,000 pay raise for all teachers and $125 million for higher education.

I recently sat with my son to watch a television program he had accessed through Netflix about the sport of boxing. A significant portion of the program was devoted to the sociology of the sport. It was pointed out that as you look at the best fighters over the decades, their backgrounds tell a story of which ethnicities were struggling in America at the time. Although it was not at all a focus of the program, an interesting and tragic insight into the impact of professional licensing struck me as I watched.

One of the oldest puzzles in the school choice movement is why religious communities and leaders aren’t more interested in school choice. The government school monopoly promotes a stereotype that school choice is promoted by religious fanatics, but in fact religious leaders have been underrepresented in the school choice coalition. The most likely reason is a fear of compromising the independence of religious schools—but experience doesn’t support those fears, and I hope the time has come to get past them.

A recent SoonerPoll survey asked three interesting questions about higher education in Oklahoma. The Chancellor of Higher Ed makes more than $411,000 a year. Is this too much? Eighty percent said it was. Could our public colleges and universities be run more efficiently? Eighty-two percent said they either strongly or somewhat agree they could. Should professors be paid by how much they teach, or how many hours they dedicate to non-teaching activities? Seventy-nine percent said teachers should earn their pay by teaching.

We usually reserve the title “statesman” for those who achieve elected office. But Webster provides another definition, “a wise, skillful and respected political leader.” This describes Lew Ward perfectly, and his death this week, at the wise age of 85, deprived our state of one of its truest and most loyal statesmen.

Thus far, lawmakers have failed to significantly expand educational options, especially for the most vulnerable. Recently legislative leaders announced that for now, no vote would occur by the full House or Senate to implement education savings accounts.