Articles
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Health Care, Good Government
Oklahoma lawmakers advance measures allowing voters to revisit Medicaid expansion
Oklahoma lawmakers have advanced two measures that would give voters a chance to revisit the Obamacare Medicaid expansion as surging program costs threaten to squeeze out funding for other services. Opponents argue lawmakers should instead raise taxes.Ray Carter | March 26, 2026
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Education
Third-grade reading reform clears both chambers of Oklahoma Legislature
Oklahoma lawmakers have overwhelmingly advanced two sweeping literacy reform bills that would require struggling third-grade students to repeat the grade unless they score above “below basic” on the statewide reading test and would mandate intensive early interventions for younger grades.Ray Carter | March 25, 2026
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Education, Law & Principles
Oklahoma House advances bill requiring schools to show instructional spending before bond elections
Oklahoma lawmakers have advanced legislation requiring school districts to tell voters exactly how much of their funding goes to classroom instruction before asking for approval of new bond projects.Ray Carter | March 24, 2026
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Education
House votes to lock in Oklahoma’s participation in federal school-choice tax credit
Oklahoma lawmakers have taken the next step toward securing the state’s place in a new federal tax-credit program designed to expand private-school scholarships for low- and middle-income families.Ray Carter | March 24, 2026
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Economy
IRS data suggest Oklahoma’s real growth engine isn’t subsidy schemes—it’s economic freedom
For years, Oklahoma politicians chased mega-projects with giant subsidy offers—and mostly lost. But newly released IRS data show that the state did far better by cutting taxes and expanding economic freedom.Ray Carter | March 23, 2026
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Education
In Oklahoma, rich kids perform poorly in school
Even in Oklahoma districts with relatively low poverty rates, students who should be advantaged still perform far worse than their peers nationwide. The data show Oklahoma’s poor education outcomes are widespread and not limited to high-poverty schools.Ray Carter | March 19, 2026
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Education
As demand nears cap, parents praise school-choice program
As debate continues over raising the cap on the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program, parents say one thing is not debatable: The program is changing their children’s lives for the better.Ray Carter | March 17, 2026
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Economy
Credit upgrade defies prior doomsday predictions
In 2019, an economist claimed Oklahoma government faced ongoing deficits unless income, sales, and oil-and-gas taxes were increased. Policymakers did the opposite—and credit rating agencies now say Oklahoma is more financially stable than ever.Ray Carter | March 17, 2026
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Health Care
Medicaid-expansion follies show need for initiative-petition reform
Approved by a razor-thin margin in 2020 through the initiative-petition process, Medicaid expansion added hundreds of thousands of able-bodied adults to Oklahoma’s welfare rolls and helped trigger a roughly half-billion-dollar budget shortfall.Jonathan Small | March 16, 2026
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Culture & the Family
Oklahoma remains a top 10 state for movers
A new report from the moving company Hire a Helper shows that Oklahoma remains one of the nation’s strongest magnets for domestic migration, ranking ninth in the country in 2025 with 10,534 more people moving in than out.Ray Carter | March 13, 2026