Devaney received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.  She is a nationally recognized expert in maternal and child health, nutrition and risk-reduction programs for youth.  She is co-director of Mathematica’s Building Strong Families study and has served as principal investigator for the firm’s evaluation of abstinence education programs, which received the 2009 Outstanding Evaluation Award from the American Evaluation Association.

Devaney has played a leading role in many of Mathematica’s studies of family formation, children’s nutrition and public health programs.  She has served on scientific committees convened by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She publishes widely in peer-reviewed journals and presents findings at conferences of researchers, policymakers and practitioners.

The Building Strong Families project is an initiative to develop and evaluate programs designed to help interested unwed parents strengthen and stabilize their relationships.

Related information:

• Guest blog post by Scott Stanley on Family Expectation, one component of this initiative in Oklahoma.
• OK Policy roundtable: Should Oklahoma be promoting marriage?

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Here are some excerpts from our section on Health and Social Services:

Human, health and social services provide the safety net that is essential to our society. Most Oklahomans agree that government should insure that vulnerable individuals and families can meet their basic needs. It also should promote healthy lifestyles that reduce public and private costs.

Our measures of success in this area suggest we have work to do.

• 15.9 percent of Oklahomans are poor, according to the federal definition, compared to 11 percent nationwide.
• Oklahoma ranked 43rd in overall health in 2007, according to the United Health Foundation.
• 18.7 percent of Oklahomans did not have health insurance in 2006, making Oklahoma 5th highest in uninsured population.

We think Oklahomans should dedicate ourselves to improving our standing in each of these measures. It will take new, better, and–yes–more expensive public health and social investments. It also will require we demand more effective and strategic spending. Along those lines, here are some highlights from the other four functional areas covered in the Online Guide:

• Education:Oklahoma ranks 1st in access to preschool for 4-year olds, but 37th in percentage of 8th graders proficient in reading.
• General government: Our high bond ratings indicate we are fiscally sound and worthy of credit, but state government management practices are substandard.
• Transportation: In spite of receiving more federal highway money than most states, we rank near the top of states for the number of deficient roads and bridges.
• Public safety: Violent crime rates are better than average for our part of the country, but above the national average. More people die in fires and highway accidents in Oklahoma than in most other states.
• Natural resources: We are a high energy use state and we lag behind the rest of the country in farm income.

By focusing on both what we spend and what we’re buying, we hope the Online Guide will help Oklahomans expect, and get, more.

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What does all this federal money do? Our upcoming Online Guide to Oklahoma Budget and Taxes has some answers. The guide is unique among the available sources of information on government finance in Oklahoma. It is broader than any other source, covering both state and local government and describing all sources of revenue and spending, not just taxes and appropriations. Here’s an extract that provides an overview of federal funding and what it helps us accomplish.

Oklahoma received approximately $5.5 billion in federal funds in 2007. This section discusses the federal funding by functional area, beginning with the largest revenue source and continuing through the smallest. Grant amounts are for 2007.

Human services is the largest grant category, totaling $3.12 billion. Most of these grants go to state agencies, which then distribute funding to human services agencies and eligible Oklahomans.

The Medicaid health program for low-income and senior populations is the largest grant ($2.455 billion, or nearly half of all grant funding). This program is operated by the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. Most of the money goes to doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care providers. Other large human services grants are:

• Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, which serves qualifying low-income families ($135 million).
• Headstart preschool programs for low-income children ($131 million).
• Affordable child care for low-income families ($95 million).

Education grants are the second largest category, totaling $612 million in 2007. Major education grants in Oklahoma are:

• Title I funding for local school districts with high percentages of low-income students ($217 million).
• Grants to school districts for special education and disability services ($207 million).

Transportation grants are the third largest source of federal funding for Oklahoma, just under $600 million. At $501 million, spending from the Highway Trust Fund is the second largest single grant program.This source, financed by the federal gas tax, provides funding to build and maintain highways, public transit, and bicycles and pedestrian facilities. Other transportation grants are for airports and public transit.

Agriculture grants total approximately $400 million and provide funding directly to farmers and to purchase food and thus increase farm demand and prices. The major grants to Oklahoma are:

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly food stamps), a 100-percent federally funded program that provides assistance for low-income families. The federal government paid $498 million in benefits to Oklahomans in 2007.
• Child nutrition programs, which provide both cash and food to the state for school lunches. The grants are passed on to local school districts that provide the lunches and other meals ($211 million).

Other significant federal funding sources are:

• Housing and community development ($392 million) grants programs that subsidize housing for low-income households, Native American Block Grants for tribes to improve housing and community infrastructure, and Community Development Block Grants, which help cities and counties provide new facilities and services in low- and moderate-income areas.
• Energy and environment grants, totaling $143 million, to regulate air, water, and ground pollution, to provide financial assistance for local government water and sewer projects and to help tribes manage their operations.
• Grants for disaster relief, unemployment compensation and job training, caring for veterans and a wide range of other activities.

The stimulus has gotten a lot of attention and will stay in the news while it is spent over the next two or three years. When it is finished, though, Oklahomans and their state and local governments will still depend on a wide range of federal funding to maintain our health, infrastructure, environment, and security.

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