“We have a very serious problem when we continue to rank last among all the 50 states in the union on what we spend to educate our students. We cannot allow this result to stand. We cannot be last in the nation on what we spend on our children and education. We cannot secure our future by ignorance.”

-University of Oklahoma President David Boren, who led the campaign to pass SQ 779, the sales tax for education (Source). Read our statement on the failure of SQ 779 here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ryan Gentzler worked at OK Policy from January 2016 until November 2022. He last served as the organization's Reserach Director and oversaw Open Justice Oklahoma. He began at OK Policy as an analyst focusing on criminal justice issues, including sentencing, incarceration, court fines and fees, and pretrial detention. Open Justice Oklahoma grew out of Ryan’s groundbreaking analysis of court records, which was used to inform critical policy debates. A native Nebraskan, he holds a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Oklahoma and a BA in Institutions and Policy from William Jewell College. He served as an OK Policy Research Fellow in 2014-2015.

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