Well, it happened again. This month Leadership OK (LOK) was in McAlester instead of in Muskogee, but there was something familiar about what we heard and how the class reacted.

Last month, after a presentation by Neal McCaleb, President of “Transportation Revenues Used Strictly for Transportation” (TRUST) Coalition,  several members of my Leadership OK class expressed outrage at how poorly funded our transportation system is in Oklahoma. They were enthusiastic that we have designated money to this problem. It caused me to start thinking about the larger implications of this reaction. Read the rest of this entry »

Most people in this country today agree that indigenous tribes, who lived in the Americas before Europeans arrived, were treated less than fairly by their new neighbors. Unfortunately, the inequitable and inconsistent policies with regard to Native tribes are not strictly a thing of colonial or even early American history. Even into the second half of the 20^th century, the federal government implemented new versions of its on-again/off-again assimilation policies. These policies, often implemented without a full understanding of the differences between the tribes’ cultures and ways of self governance, proved to be hugely detrimental to the various tribal ways of life. Luckily, there has been a tremendous amount of resiliency shown in response.

Last week, as representatives from every Oklahoma tribe gathered in Washington DC for a Native American Summit, I gathered with the rest of my Leadership Oklahoma class in Tahlequah to learn more about Native American issues in Oklahoma. Read the rest of this entry »

On September 30^th, I attended a Leadership OK conference with an emphasis on health. Oklahoma and the United States have some disturbing statistics related to our health, specifically the obesity rates. The surprising part is how far reaching the implications are.

Along with presentations from Oklahoma state leaders, the conference had Chef Ann Cooper, the “Renegade Lunch Lady” as one of the speakers. She  is a classically trained chef who works to expose the problems of and solutions to the high fat and low nutrition school lunches that are provided in most districts around the country.  Those of you with school aged children should spend some time looking at the information on thelunchbox.org.  Even if you don’t have children, the rest of this post will explain why you need to be aware of this and concerned about the implications of this policy. She emphasized how important it is to start good habits while children are young.

The next speaker was even more sobering, but had some of the same themes related to the obesity epidemic in the U.S. Dr. Michael Rozien is the Chief Wellness officer for the Cleveland Clinic. Among other themes, he shared a focus on youth with Chef Ann; by the time we, as employers, hire someone, their eating and wellness habits are largely set. This means that bad eating or exercising or smoking habits learned at an early age need to be broken in order to bring down the cost of health insurance. So saving money now on school lunch or physical education programs may cost us all more in the future. You can see more about his work on his website.

The disturbing piece related to Dr. Rozien’s presentation was this interactive map. There is no way to get the changes over time to show up in the blog post, so please click the link to see it on the CDC’s website. It is sobering. The policy implications of the increase in obesity rates across the U.S. since 1990 are multifaceted. One point that Dr. Rozien emphasized, aside from the staggering amount of money spent on obesity and other lifestyle related illnesses in the U.S., was that the real medical costs associated with obesity are not immediately felt. In fact, he estimates that the costs lag by 15-20 years. That information, combined with the timeline established by the CDC of an obesity epidemic starting in the early 1990’s, means that we may have a balloon payment coming due in health care in this country.

Surprisingly, the policy implications related to obesity carried on to my Leadership OK visit to Fort Sill the following day. I was not expecting public health and childhood obesity to be such a strong part of the Ft. Sill experience, but it was a recurring theme. In conversations with officers from Major General Halverson to Colonel Rave (Commander, MEDDAC), it was stressed that only 3 in 10 (actually a little over 27%) of eligible age people in the U.S. qualify to be in the armed forces. This percentage is down over the last decade, primarily due to health issues related to obesity. Officer after officer expressed the concern that the continuation of the trend toward an increasingly obese population is a matter of national security.

When we think about the staggering 30.3% of Oklahomans who are considered obese, it is not only clear that the causes for that are multifaceted, but that the implications of that extend beyond what we may even be realizing at this point. The decisions we make, even at the local level, regarding how we fund government programs and services reflect our priorities and shape our future as a state and a nation. Is minimizing the cost for school lunch really a savings to the tax payers in the long run?

The real take away here is bigger than just school lunch. It is on the interconnectedness of the different aspects of our society and the way policy decisions shape outcomes. We all need to keep the long-term costs and consequences of our short term policy decisions in mind.

Individuals and the community share responsibility for health outcomes. We expect people to take care of themselves, but policy decisions play a role in health and wellness also. If Oklahoma is to prosper within any national health framework, we must encourage healthier lifestyles and support healthy outcomes. Public policy should encourage community and individual choices that make Oklahomans healthier.

Shakespeare wrote: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Maybe Juliet had only Romeo in her mind when she fictitiously spoke these words, but I can’t help but think of them as I consider U.S. personal financial data. Recently we recognized national poverty day. The U.S. Census Bureau released the latest numbers regarding U.S. households. But what do those numbers mean? Read the rest of this entry »

A story  in USA Today, “Oklahoma City defies recession,” focuses on OKC as the city with the 2nd lowest unemployment rate in the country. In response to questions about OKC’s secret to success, Roy Williams of the OKC Chamber said it is

Luck, as much as anything. We’re doing the right things, in the right place, at the right time.

At least one of the “right things” that Williams refers to includes investing in the community. The story focuses on what happened in OKC when a 4-million square foot GM plant closed. The closure of an auto plant hardly makes OKC unique. What the people of OKC did next is what distinguishes us.

Voters agreed to pay $55 million for the GM property and lease it to the military. The military is investing about $100 million over five years to convert the plant. “We’re hiring right now,” [Air Force Col. Randall] Burke says.

This was just one in a long string of projects which voters in OKC agreed to fund to improve the community. Starting with the Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS), which was narrowly approved by voters in 1993, the city has been able to invest in improving quality of life, schools, and even the economic landscape of OKC..

All of this makes me think as I read a quote from Mayor Cornett in the article which has the same humble sentiment as Roy Williams’.

Oklahoma City tried to become a hub for manufacturing airplanes, expanding on the aerospace industry that surrounds the Air Force base. Then comes the recession. People don’t buy new planes. They repair what they’ve got. Oklahoma City does repair and overhaul. Voilà! Better be lucky than smart.

I can’t help but think that this humbleness displayed by Mayor Cornett and by Roy Williams may be misplaced. I am not saying that there was no luck involved, but sometimes you create your own luck. The voters of OKC gave Williams and Mayor Cornett the ammunition they needed to make good things happen in OKC and the ability to capitalize on “opportunities” (isn’t that what consultants tell us to call challenges now?). The voters of OKC deserve credit for being forward thinking enough to invest in our community, which is smart. I hope we keep the progress going when it comes time for the next MAPS initiative.

So, is it better to be lucky than smart? Who knows? It looks as if the people of OKC have made some smart decisions and had a little luck on our side too. Would it be too boastful to think that we are both lucky and smart?

Some people might be surprised at the amount of psychology used in our lives. Advertisers have been using the research of psychologists for years. In fact, John Watson, one of the first known successful marketers, actually began his life as a psychologist.

This NPR story is about using the study and findings of psychology and applying them to policy decisions. Rather than using psychology to try and make us buy Fruit of the Loom rather  than BVD, or Pepsi rather than Coke, the research is being used to try and help people save money for the future. Think of the possibilities, psychology used to help make people more financially secure and build net worth instead of used to increase the likelihood of making an impulse buy in the supermarket.

You can listen to or read the complete story through NPR‘s website.

All hail the interns

Over the course of the last several months, the Spring semester. OK Policy has had the honor of having two interns from OSU. Kai Mann and Austin Linton were our first two interns to come to us through the Political Science department at OSU. Both were extremely helpful on a variety of assignments during this legislative session, including spending some time at the capitol and working on our Numbers You Need releases. We hope that they both gained as much from this experience as we did from having them.

Below is an opinion blog post written by Kai Mann and inspired by one of his assignments for OK Policy.
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Retrofit, Baby, Retrofit!

In rough economic times, it is often helpful to turn an eye towards more positive aspects of the state’s economy. One piece of good news is the fact that natural gas production is increasing. Since 2003, significant gains have been made in the production of natural gas, and that is good news for the state, especially as crude oil production continues a decline.

The United States is the world leader in natural gas production and Oklahoma, being one of the leaders in natural gas production nationwide, the number five producer out of all the states, should take a more active role in utilizing this resource. Cheaper and cleaner burning than oil and gasoline, the state should make a concerted effort to tap the full potential of this fuel source. Retrofitting of state vehicles to run off of CNG (compressed natural gas) would be a great place to start. This would allow the state’s vehicles to run off of a product that is in abundance in the state as well as lessen some of the uncertainty of dealing with wildly fluctuating gas prices that were common last summer and always a threat.

Efforts to effectively utilize the natural gas produced here in Oklahoma would be a great step for the Oklahoma to take to support one the state’s largest industries, become more energy independent, as well as help out the environment.

As the national and even our state economy continues to tighten, people are apprehensive about spending and even more so about giving. It is during times like this that challenge grants become increasingly valuable to the non-profit sector. When a foundation awards a challenge grant or a generous donor makes a challenge donation to an organization, they are creating an incentive for other potential donors to give. If there is nothing else that has come out of the economic downturn, people are now looking for value. We all want to make sure we are getting the most for our dollar these days. What better way to do that than for your dollar to really be turned into two dollars.

OK Policy is thankful to the Kerr Foundation for awarding us a challenge grant. The foundation will match the first $500 of individuals’ donations to OK Policy, dollar for dollar. Challenge grants can work in many different ways. Sometimes they will match 50 percent of a donation, or pledge an amount of money for every volunteer hour worked for the organization. There is really no limit to the creativity that can be used when designing a good challenge gift. Boone Pickens is reported to have made very sizable gifts to two business schools in Texas with the challenge that each school had to double the gift within a specified amount of time or the entire gift and the additional money generated by the two schools from the gifts would all go to OSU. Now that is a challenge.

If you are interested in helping OK Policy meet our challenge from the Kerr Foundation, please click here. All donations are tax deductible.

Recently, Louisville, KY negotiated a deal with Kentucky Fried Chicken to have KFC pay to fill in pot holes in exchange for the right to advertise on those potholes. Upon hearing this, the first thought I had was about the ugliness of the advertising that accompanies the over commercialization in our society. However, a few days later, I heard an NPR story about another creative advertising scheme.

“In a cash-strapped Idaho high school, where signs taped near every light switch remind the staff to save electricity, an enterprising teacher has struck a sponsorship deal with a local pizza shop: Every test, handout and work sheet he passes out to his students reads MOLTO’S PIZZA 14″ 1 TOPPING JUST $5 in bright red, inch-high letters printed along the bottom of each page.”

Is it really that bad? Is that really how we want to finance education in this country? We should all be thankful that, in Oklahoma, we haven’t pitted properly funding such a critical public service as education against selling advertising and endorsing something that may not be healthy for our children. Could you imagine if the schools were so underfunded that they relied on the revenue from Coca-Cola or Pepsi to make their budgets? Could you imagine if we, as a community, were so unwilling to pay the necessary amount required to ensure that our next generation was properly educated and healthy that we were willing to allow them to fill their maturing bodies with caffeine and corn syrup and potato chips just so that the school districts could get the revenue from soda companies and vending machines? Let’s be thankful that we have not become that off base in our priorities…or have we?

Recently, I had the opportunity to volunteer with an institution that is a true asset for our state. This is my first year serving as part of the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics (OSSM) admissions committee. It certainly will not be my last.

What is OSSM? In short, it is one of the economic engines that is helping build Oklahoma’s future. It is a statewide public school for students in the 11th and 12th grade who are gifted in Math and Science…really gifted! You should have seen some of their test scores.

According to the OSSM website:

The Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics (OSSM) was created through legislative action in 1983 and graduated its first class of 44 seniors from across the state in 1992. It is designed as a two-year residential public high school for the academically gifted students in mathematics and science.
The school currently has 71 juniors, 63 seniors and an ultimate enrollment estimated at 300.

The late Dr. Julian Stanley of Johns Hopkins University, a nationally known expert on gifted education, called the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, “the most rigorous academic program of its kind in the nation.” here.

Read the rest of this entry »

It seems that with each passing day we hear news reports of companies cutting jobs, closing branches or plants, or slashing wages of the workers in order to prevent having to lay anyone off. Maybe that is why the recent news out of Oklahoma City drew national attention. Hobby Lobby is opening new stores in the middle of this downturn. Maybe that says something about people buying more crafts supplies in a recession, but it likely says something much more about the strength of the company. What was the real newsmaker though was the fact that they have raised their minimum wage for all workers to $10.00 an hour. Maybe this says something about David Green’s business savvy, but it says much more about the strength of his character.

I applaud the move to make the financial situations of his employees a little more manageable. The federal minimum wage is $6.65 an hour, which is $266 a week if you work full time. That is before taxes or any withholdings. The move to $10 means $400 a week, a 50 percent increase. It still represents only $20,800 a year before taxes…if you work 52 weeks a year with no time off. Making ends meet is getting harder and harder for families. However, many companies are cutting workers’ salaries or hours or even their jobs while rewarding executives. It is refreshing to see Hobby Lobby making their priorities and their ethics known. Maybe that example will inspire others. In the long run, they will probably benefit financially from treating their people well. They can have better retention and recruitment efforts, to say nothing about the good press. However, here in Oklahoma we know it is about more than that. We know that it is about treating people with respect and dignity…the way you would have them do onto you.

Over the course of the last several years, employers have begun to take a more active interest in their employees’ physical fitness. You hear more and more about companies, such as Chesapeake, that will even go as far as giving financial incentives for living healthy lifestyles. Companies will offer seminars or host lunch-and-learns about how to become more healthy. They may even pay for or subsidize gym memberships. Companies are doing this because they realized that their employees were getting increasingly unhealthy, which was leading to loss of productivity due to sick days taken and to increases in insurance premiums for the companies. However, the physical health of their employees is not the only health in which companies may want to take an interest.

According to USA Today, the number one cause of stress in the workplace is personal finances. In fact, a study conducted by Virginia Tech found that the average worker spends 21 hours per month handling personal financial issues while on the job. As the recent economic situation unfolds around the globe, the stress levels of employees is likely to be increasing as well. Employers may see a mutual benefit to initiating some sort of financial wellness program, the way some companies have done with physical wellness. In fact, some local companies have done just that and provide great examples for others.
Read the rest of this entry »