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• Ryan Haynie

  Vice President for Legal Affairs

Showing 441 to 460 of 573 article results for “supreme court”

• Law & Principles

  Voters' Guide to Ballot Measures

  A product of the populist era, the Oklahoma Constitution establishes processes for direct democracy. On the November 2016 general election ballot, Oklahoma voters will decide whether to adopt four constitutional amendments and three changes to state statutes. Some of these measures are as simple as restating current law. Others would make complex regulatory changes or change legal standards in future lawsuits. The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs does not support or oppose ballot measures. To help voters, we are providing accurate descriptions and analysis of what these ballot measures say and will do if adopted by voters.

  Trent England  |  September 14, 2016

• Law & Principles

  Voters' Guide to Ballot Measures

  A product of the populist era, the Oklahoma Constitution establishes processes for direct democracy. On the November 2016 general election ballot, Oklahoma voters will decide whether to adopt four constitutional amendments and three changes to state statutes.

  Trent England  |  September 1, 2016

• Education

  Commode Core Shows Why We Need School Choice

  The Obama administration is bullying the nation’s public schools into allowing students who claim they are transgender to use the bathroom and locker room facilities of the opposite sex. This should be an object lesson to naive education reformers who want greater federal power over schools in order to push higher standards. But it is also something much bigger—it is helping people see that a government school monopoly is unsustainable in a pluralistic society.

  Greg Forster, Ph.D.  |  July 22, 2016

• Education, Law & Principles

  OCPA Impact Challenges Gist of Boren Penny Tax, SQ 779 Supporters Respond

  OKLAHOMA CITY – OCPA Impact, an advocacy organization associated with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, filed a challenge to the gist of State Question 779, commonly known as the Boren Penny Tax.

  Jay Chilton  |  July 8, 2016

• Higher Education

  Higher education serves as jobs program for former elected officials

  What becomes of former elected officials who voters have decided their time in office should end? In the case of those officials who funneled taxpayer dollars into the coffers of public universities and colleges – many are hired to superfluous positions with exorbitant salaries within the same system that benefited from their train of taxpayer funds, higher education.

  June 20, 2016

• Education

  Let Families Grade Schools

  Want to hurt kids? Put state bureaucrats in charge of evaluating the schools in school choice programs.

  Greg Forster, Ph.D.  |  May 1, 2016

• Education

  A Mosaic of Options

  We hear a lot of talk these days about popular anger at elites. This rage has surprised not a few of our leaders. They, including the members of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, were especially shocked by the popular revulsion at the Court’s Ten Commandments decision. We witnessed a genuine “pitchfork” moment, where ordinary people are outraged by policies imposed on them by elites and moved to loudly say so.

  Andrew C. Spiropoulos  |  May 1, 2016

• Education

  Free Market Friday: Echo chamber

  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.

  Jonathan Small  |  March 18, 2016

• Education

  Free Market Friday: Desegregation through choice

  Efforts to help the most vulnerable through school choice have received quite the boost.

  Jonathan Small  |  February 27, 2016

• Education

  Oklahoma Supreme Court upholds Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship

  Last week on The Thoughtful Patriot, OCPA's Trent England talked with distinguished fellow Andrew Spiropoulos about the Oklahoma Supreme Court's decision to uphold the constitutionality of the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship program.

  February 22, 2016

• Judicial Reform

  Real independence and accountability for Oklahoma judges

  "Never let a crisis go to waste.” A group of attorneys put that maxim into practice in the late 1960s when, following a corruption scandal, they convinced Oklahomans to surrender their power to select state judges. The result is an unaccountable judiciary. Any of the judicial selection methods used by other states would be an improvement.

  Trent England  |  January 29, 2016

• Education

  ESAs: Easy to Use, Fiscally Responsible, Constitutional

  Though all ESAs operate similarly, each state’s program is unique—from which students are eligible, to funding levels, to certain mechanics. These elements are detailed in the Summary Appendix Table at ocpathink.org/esa. In general, parents of eligible students who do not prefer a public school education for their child simply inform their state education agency. They sign a contract promising not to enroll their child in a public school as long as they are using an ESA, and the state deposits 90 percent of what it would have spent into a designated ESA for that child instead. ESA programs in Tennessee and Nevada stand out for depositing 100 percent of that funding into students’ ESAs. Under ESA programs in Arizona, Tennessee, and Nevada quarterly deposits are made, and parents make education-related purchases with dedicated-use debit cards.

  Vicki Alger  |  January 27, 2016

• Education

  Education Savings Accounts: A Blueprint for 21st Century Parental Choice

  Sixty years ago the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman published a radical idea: just because we fund schools through government doesn’t mean politicians know how to run schools or what education is best for other people’s children.

  Vicki Alger  |  January 1, 2016

• Education, Law & Principles

  Teacher’s stand against union reaches high court

  Trent England  |  December 17, 2015

• Education

  Free Market Friday: Oklahomans like school choice

  If we truly care about the most vulnerable, then we will seek to expand choices in K-12 education. Doing so would put our common education system on parity with mental health, higher education, childcare and Medicaid programs which all offer robust public and private options to those who need the service.

  December 4, 2015

• Education

  ESA Overview

  ESA Overview

  November 23, 2015

• Education

  ESA Overview Chart

  ESA Overview Chart

  November 18, 2015

• Law & Principles

  Free Market Friday: Solving the Blaine problem

  The Oklahoma Supreme Court got it wrong when it said putting the monument on public property is unconstitutional. After all, our state constitution begins with the words: “Invoking the guidance of Almighty God, in order to secure and perpetuate the blessings of liberty.” Are we to believe that the constitution itself is unconstitutional?

  Michael Carnuccio  |  October 9, 2015

• Law & Principles

  Blaine Amendment, Oklahoma Supreme Court threaten more than monuments

  The Oklahoma Constitution does not ban religious ideas or symbols from public spaces. Neither does the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court's Ten Commandment decision therefore threatens much more than a single monument.

  Trent England  |  October 7, 2015

• Judicial Reform

  Judging Oklahoma’s Judicial Nominating Commission

  The Judicial Nominating Commission empowers a small special interest group, hides the politics inherent in judicial selection, and renders the people almost powerless when it comes to one of the three branches of our state government. After nearly fifty years, it is time to reconsider how we appoint judges in Oklahoma.

  Trent England  |  August 31, 2015