OK Policy Blog

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2024 Census data: Oklahoma ranks as 8th poorest state

By: Dave Hamby
September 11, 2025 // Updated: September 12, 2025
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey, released Sept. 11, show that Oklahoma’s poverty rate was 14.9 percent, which means that more than 1 in 7 state residents live in poverty. While the state’s overall poverty rate… Read more More...

Recent Posts

The Weekly Wonk: Debunking a false claim on SQ 779, what cuts to alternative education mean, and more

By: Carly Putnam
November 6, 2016 // Updated: November 9, 2016
What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk shares our most recent publications and other resources to help you stay informed about Oklahoma. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In… Read more [More...]

State Questions give Oklahomans a chance to govern ourselves (Capitol Updates)

By: Steve Lewis
November 4, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1991. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol. For a state with a well-deserved reputation for loathing government, we Oklahomans sure spend a… Read more [More...]

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

By: Guest
November 3, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
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...]

Fact Check: The claim that less than half of SQ 779 revenues will go to teachers is false

By: David Blatt
November 1, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
A central claim being made by opponents of State Question 779, the ballot measure that would increase the sales tax by one percentage point to boost funding for education, is that less than half the money will go to raise… Read more [More...]

When K-12 schools are underfunded… (Guest post: Elizabeth Smith)

By: Guest
October 31, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Elizabeth Smith 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.  She recently completed a Ph.D. in Public Policy,… Read more [More...]

The Weekly Wonk: State Questions, who’s not voting, and more

By: Carly Putnam
October 30, 2016 // Updated: October 28, 2016
What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk shares our most recent publications and other resources to help you stay informed about Oklahoma. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma’s $1.3 billion school funding gap (Capitol Updates)

By: Steve Lewis
October 28, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1991. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol. There was more bad news this week that Oklahoma, for the third straight year, had… Read more [More...]

Enmienda Estatal 780 y 781: Reforma de la Justicia Penal

By: Gene Perry
October 26, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Descargue esta hoja informativa en formato PDF. El punto importante La enmienda estatal 780 cambia la clasificación de los delitos de posesión simple de drogas de delito grave a delito menor. También eleva el monto en dólares al determinar si… Read more [More...]

The dangerous hidden agenda behind State Question 776 (Guest Post: Sen. Connie Johnson)

By: Guest
// Updated: May 2, 2019
Connie Johnson serves as Chair of the Say NO to SQ776 Campaign Committee. She was a State Senator representing District 48 in northeastern Oklahoma County from 2002-2014. I’ve worked throughout Oklahoma these past few months to defeat State Question 776… Read more [More...]

Claims that SQ 777 will boost food security are hard to swallow

By: David Blatt
October 25, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Note: This is an expanded and revised version of a column that appeared in the Journal Record. Vote Yes on State Question 777 or else more Oklahoma children and seniors will go hungry? That’s the highly misleading message that supporters… Read more [More...]

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