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More and more frequently, defenders of the status quo in public education assert that public charter schools need to be made more “accountable.” Further, many assert that private schools, if their students are allowed to participate in emerging educational choice options, should meet the same “accountability” requirements as public schools. But let’s think about this for a moment. In what sense are public schools truly “accountable”?

The question is often asked, “How do we fix public schools?” Dr. Jay Greene, an education professor at the University of Arkansas, has an innovative answer: “We can fix schools by going around them.”

“Education is the key to freedom and opportunity,” Mr. King said. “We basically have one supplier, the public education system, and it has become a huge bureaucracy. This bureaucracy has to be challenged. Fairness demands that every child, not just the rich, has access to an education that will help them achieve their dreams.”

At a legislative panel hosted by the State Chamber of Oklahoma on December 3, Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman, House Speaker Jeff Hickman, and Democratic Minority Leader Scott Inman were asked what could be done to address the problem of "uncompensated care," which is allegedly putting a financial squeeze on Oklahoma hospitals.

49th in per-pupil spending may or may not be OK. But widespread school-produced illiteracy is most certainly not OK.

Of course, politics can also be dishonest, dirty, and, to say the least, discouraging. State history (some very recent) is littered with examples. Will this year be any different? It can be. Here are five key leadership traits that, if embraced by state leaders, would benefit all Oklahomans.

States are competent to enact their own wage policies. Indeed most states already set their own minimum wages above the federal level. Congress should repeal the federal wage floor and leave states entirely free to enact, and to learn from, different policy choices.

Government, at any level, is a kind of monopoly and therefore prone to inefficiency. Yet the federal government, so massive and so distant, is especially unlikely to manage western lands well.

A division cuts across the continental United States. In the 11 western states, the federal government owns nearly half the land (47.3%). In the 37 states to their east, just 4% of the land is federal. In five states, including New York, the federal government owns less than 1% of the land.

Most federal lands were originally open to use by local people and industries. Yet in classic colonial fashion, distant politicians and bureaucrats now routinely dictate restrictive policies that degrade or destroy local communities.