Articles
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Budget & Tax, Health Care
OCPA: Time to send Medicaid expansion to voters
With the cost of Medicaid expansion exploding, lawmakers should send two state questions to voters that would allow for financial adjustment when needed.Staff | April 8, 2026
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Education
Oklahoma literacy bill clears committee with unanimous support
Oklahoma lawmakers have advanced a sweeping literacy reform package that strengthens the Strong Readers Act and aims to ensure all students read proficiently by third grade.Ray Carter | April 8, 2026
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Education
Bill to add seven days to Oklahoma school year clears Senate committee
With Oklahoma operating one of the shortest school years in the country at just 166 days, lawmakers are advancing a bill to add seven more instructional days beginning in the 2027–2028 school year.Ray Carter | April 7, 2026
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Budget & Tax
OCPA: Voters should get a chance to reset TSET
After a quarter-century and billions of dollars with virtually no elected accountability, the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET), and the special interests that created it and agitate for it, have not produced any meaningful impact on smoking or health outcomes in Oklahoma.Staff | April 7, 2026
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Law & Principles
U.S. Supreme Court declines tribal income-tax case, leaving Oklahoma ruling intact
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge to the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s 2025 ruling that all Oklahomans—including tribal citizens living on lands considered “reservation” after the McGirt decision—must pay state income tax.Ray Carter | April 7, 2026
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Budget & Tax
TSET’s expanding budget spurs debate on accountability, mission creep
Oklahoma’s Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust has quietly grown into a $2.09 billion public fund. As TSET’s budget and ambitions expand, lawmakers warn the trust has drifted far beyond its original mission.Curtis Shelton | April 7, 2026
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Budget & Tax, Health Care
Reform bills advance as Medicaid expansion threatens Oklahoma budget
With Medicaid expansion costs ballooning and warnings that a future shift in the federal match could saddle Oklahoma with an extra $1 billion a year, a state Senate committee has overwhelmingly approved two measures that would let voters reconsider the 2020 expansion.Ray Carter | April 7, 2026
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Budget & Tax, Health Care
Oklahoma budget leaders say Medicaid expansion threatens school funding
Oklahoma lawmakers say the soaring price tag of Medicaid expansion for able-bodied adults has become a budgetary time bomb. Two proposed ballot measures would give lawmakers room to reform the program.Ray Carter | April 6, 2026
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Budget & Tax
Oklahoma’s TSET under scrutiny as reports question effectiveness, administrative costs
With Oklahoma lawmakers advancing measures to repurpose TSET earnings, the state is now openly debating whether the trust’s mission still makes sense a quarter-century after its creation.Ray Carter | April 6, 2026
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Education
New Oklahoma social studies standards restore patriotism, civic foundations
Oklahoma officials have finalized a substantially strengthened set of social studies standards that restore significant content removed in earlier drafts.David Randall, Ph.D. | April 6, 2026