Recent Articles

Attempts to repeal Affordable Care Act put Oklahoma patients in jeopardy (Guest post: Teresa Huggins)

Teresa Huggins is CEO of Stigler Health and Wellness Center in eastern Oklahoma. Being raised in small town, rural Oklahoma comes with its benefits.  Among those benefits are the close friendships, supports and cohesiveness of knowing everyone; however, many communities… Read more [More...]

Interested in disability advocacy? Apply for Partners in Policymaking (Guest post: Amy Smith)

Amy Smith is a graduate student in Disability Studies, a proud graduate of both Partners in Policymaking and the OK Policy Summer Policy Institute, and is currently a research intern at the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy.  She lives in… Read more [More...]

Kansas experiment yields valuable lessons (Guest post: Heidi Holliday)

Heidi Holliday is Executive Director of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth. You’re welcome, America. Our state, Kansas, just wrapped up a 5-year long experiment in governance from which the other 49 states can now glean some important lessons. The… Read more [More...]

Arts and Culture: A public-private partnership that’s good for education, the economy, and Oklahoma’s future (Guest Post: Brenda Granger)

Brenda Granger is Executive Director of the Oklahoma Museums Association. Today is Oklahoma Arts Day at the State Capitol. Arts and culture promote civility and transcend all boundaries. Arts and culture bring people together. Arts and culture are rooted in… Read more [More...]

Using lawsuits to fund our schools: Is it time to try again? (Guest post: Elizabeth Smith)

Elizabeth Smith, Ph.D., is the planning director for the Yale National Initiative at the University of Tulsa, a partnership between TU, Tulsa Public Schools, and Yale University to strengthen teaching in Tulsa schools. “The Legislature shall establish and maintain a… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma’s budget crisis requires new revenue (Guest post: Joe Dorman)

Joe Dorman is CEO of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA). He previously served for 12 years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and has been actively involved in numerous civic, leadership, and youth-development organizations, including Leadership Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Academy. In the… Read more [More...]

Even doctors depend on the Affordable Care Act (Guest post: Sabine Brown)

Sabine Brown is a political activist, physician assistant, and mother of two. One in three Oklahomans have a pre-existing condition that could have been used to deny them health insurance coverage prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). My… Read more [More...]

Across core services, Oklahoma underspends (Guest post: State Treasurer Ken Miller)

Ken Miller, Ph.D., is the State Treasurer of Oklahoma. A Republican, Miller was first elected to a four-year term in 2010 and was unopposed for re-election in 2014. Miller earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Oklahoma, an… Read more [More...]

Answering the Call: Food Security among Military Service Members and Veterans (Guest post: Effie Craven)

Effie Craven serves as the State Advocacy and Public Policy Director for the Oklahoma Food Banks — the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma — where she advocates for programs and policies that promote… Read more [More...]

What cuts to alternative education mean for individual lives. Lives such as mine. (Guest Post)

The author of this post, a Tulsa-born social worker and parent of three children in the  public school system, asked to remain anonymous We hear a lot about the cuts to public programs that have been made in recent years as a result of… Read more [More...]