Recent Articles

It’s the revenue, stupid! (Guest post: Ken Miller)

Ken Miller, PhD, is the Oklahoma State Treasurer and an economics professor at Oklahoma Christian University.  This post originally appeared as an article in the April 2016 Oklahoma Economic Report and is reprinted with permission. This month’s Gross Receipts to… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma’s costly lack of foresight in not funding mental health care (Guest post: Tiara Blue)

Tiara Blue is an instructor at Murray State College in Tishomingo and a contributing writer for NonDoc. Foresight. I underlined this word twice in my notes for the late Professor J. Rufus Fears’ “Ancient Rome” course. I was just a… Read more [More...]

Cuts to education spending hurt more than just our children (Guest post: Christiaan Mitchell)

Christiaan Mitchell is a lawyer who holds masters degrees in philosophy and education. He lives and works in Bartlesville. A couple of weeks ago Williams announced that it was cutting approximately 100 jobs in Tulsa. This announcement was front-page news… Read more [More...]

Worker benefit denials are keeping Oklahoma’s unemployment rate artificially low (Guest post: Jimmy Curry)

Jimmy Curry is President of the Oklahoma AFL-CIO (www.okaflcio.org). Believe it or not, sometimes the State of Oklahoma gets it right.  The Oklahoma Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund is one of the healthiest funds in the Country with over $1 billion… Read more [More...]

Why charter schools get an outsize share of mid-year State Aid funding (Guest Post: Shannon Meeks)

Shannon Meeks is the Chief Financial Officer for Putnam City Schools. Each year in late December, state aid payments to public schools are adjusted based on changes in student enrollment and local tax revenues during the first part of the… Read more [More...]

What I didn’t get from my tax cut (Guest post: Erin Taylor, PhD)

Erin Taylor, PhD, is a mother to five children and a disability advocate. This year I will receive my lavish savings from Oklahoma’s latest tax cut.  It’s likely in the vicinity of $90. What I did not receive, thanks to… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma’s Proposed Medicaid Cut Won’t Pass Federal Muster (Guest Post: Jesse Cross-Call)

Jesse Cross-Call is a Policy Analyst in the Health Policy division of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. This post previously appeared on the Center’s Off the Charts blog. Oklahoma’s Senate is considering legislation, which its House passed last… Read more [More...]

Private charity is no replacement for the public safety net (Guest post: Chris Moore)

Chris Moore is the senior minister at Fellowship Congregational United Church of Christ in Tulsa. Chris serves on the boards of JustHope, a non-profit that works to combat extreme poverty, and the Tulsa Sponsoring Committee, a community organizing effort. Having… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma student leaders propose a realistic minimum wage (Guest Post: Andrew T. Hocutt)

Andrew T. Hocutt is a junior at Rogers State University studying Political Science and Public Administration. He was a 2015 participant in OK Policy’s Summer Policy Institute, and he serves as Chairman for the Rogers State University delegation of the… Read more [More...]

To improve Oklahoma’s health, we must reduce inequality (Guest Post: Candace Smith)

Candace Smith is an OK Policy Research Fellow and a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma’s (OU) Norman Campus. She is also a research assistant at the Oklahoma Department of Human Services’… Read more [More...]