James W. Utterback, Ph.D. is President of Seminole State College and Chair of the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority Board. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of OETA or any other group or business.

In his acceptance of the Republican Presidential nomination in 1880, James A. Garfield stated that, “Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.”  The Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA) plays a vital role in enhancing the public education mission of our state.

As Chairman of the Board for OETA, it has been exciting to witness over 24,000 Oklahoma families step forward to donate in excess of $2 million annually to support Oklahoma’s only statewide public television network.  An additional $1.5 million is donated annually by Oklahoma foundations and corporations. In spite of such overwhelming grassroots support, a small group of Oklahoma Legislators are calling for the elimination of funding for OETA.  As an educator and a concerned citizen who cares deeply about the future of our state, I believe this action would be reckless and irresponsible. Read the rest of this entry »

This enlightening hour-long film explores creativity in education by highlighting four Oklahoma schools: Educare Preschool in Tulsa, Flower Mound Elementary School in Lawton, Odyssey of the Mind at Piedmont Middle School, and Santa Fe South Charter High School in Oklahoma City.  The film interviews teachers, parents and national experts about the role of creativity in children’s’ development and the most effective ways to promote creativity while maintaining a rigorous academic focus.

Read the rest of this entry »

What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk is dedicated to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts.

This week at OK Policy, we posted the second blog in a three-part series on “Oklahoma’s Unemployment Gap,” examining the persistence of racial disparities in unemployment.  Oklahoma’s Unemployment Gap (Part Two): Why the labor market isn’t colorblind, explores the causes for the state’s black-white unemployment gap and suggests reasons for its persistence.  We alerted you to an upcoming event next week – UCO will host a lecture by Andrew Ross Sorkin on August 31st, New York Times journalist and author of the book, “Too Big To Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System – and Themselves.” Read the rest of this entry »

In this half-hour broadcast of OETA’s Oklahoma Forum, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett and Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett discuss the successes and challenges facing their cities with host Dick Pryor.  The Oklahoma Forum blog succinctly sums up the challenges facing each of Oklahoma’s most populated cities:

The cities have their special challenges – Tulsa is now looking at changing its form of government and is facing population migration to the suburbs.  In the last decade, while Oklahoma City was showing a 15% increase in population, Tulsa recorded a slight decline.  Meanwhile, Oklahoma City’s “Core to Shore” development that is a significant part of the MAPS 3 project is facing opposition from some on the City Council who believe the opening of the renovated Myriad Gardens makes the Core to Shore park unnecessary.

View other clips from OKPolicy’s “Watch This’ video series:

Living Through the Oklahoma Dust Bowl

Reducing Infant Mortality

What is Sharia Law?

Panic Nation

Since it’s such a busy time for Oklahoma Policy Institute, we’ve decided to dedicate a blog post to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts.

In state budget news, Tuesday’s blog reviews the latest monthly report of General Revenue (GR) collections, where for the 11th straight month revenue collections surpassed those of the same month a year ago.  Two caveats are in order: personal income tax collections remain sluggish, and revenues continue to come in far below pre-downturn levels.  Click below to watch our Director David Blatt on OETA this past week analyzing the latest budget numbers or see our newly-updated Budget Trends and Highlights for a concise overview of the state’s fiscal situation.

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For many state agencies, the first rounds of budget cuts over the past two years could be managed without greatly affecting key programs and services for the public. But as funding cuts go deeper and last longer, often a tipping point is reached where agencies are no longer able to simply tighten their belts but must abandon core aspects of their mission.

The state’s public television network, OETA, which plays a distinct role in covering public affairs and chronicling the lives of Oklahoma communities, has apparently reached such a tipping point. According to a recent article in the Journal Record (subscription only), the network will not be renewing the contracts of the studio staff of the Oklahoma News Report – anchors Gerry Bonds and George Tomek and meteorologist Ross Dixon -  for the upcoming year. All three were contract employees paid for by donations to the OETA Foundation. While the nightly news broadcast will continue to air, staffing reductions, increased workloads, and funding cuts will mean the end of new episodes of several locally-produced programs – Tulsa Times, Oklahoma City Metro and State of Creativity – that shed a spotlight on notable Oklahomans and current affairs. In addition, the agency has enacted a strict hiring freeze and will no longer offer weather broadcasts.

Over the past two years, state appropriations for OETA have been cut by 19.1 percent, from $5.2 million in FY ’09 (excluding one-time capital funding) to $4.2 million for next year. As we showed in our FY ’11 Budget Highlights, half of all appropriated agencies have seen state funding cut by 15 percent or more during this period. With one-fifth of this year’s budget being funded with non-recurring revenues, the chances for any quick or substantial improvement in the budget outlook for OETA or most any other agency are slim.

Despite the cuts, OETA will continue to operate, but with fewer staff shouldering greater workloads and responsibilities, and with fewer programs that are able to tell of the lives and deeds of the ordinary and extraordinary Oklahomans who make up the fabric of this state. Their loss of funding is our loss as well.