By:
Carly Putnam
February 28, 2019 // Updated: September 22, 2023
Before 2018, federal regulators had not allowed any state make Medicaid coverage contingent on meeting a work requirement. Most people on Medicaid who can work already do work, and those who don't work have good reasons for not working. However, reversing decades of precedent, the Trump administration is encouraging states to submit proposals to cut coverage for members who don't meet a work reporting requirement.
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By:
Rebecca Fine
February 27, 2019 // Updated: September 22, 2023
Correction 4/1/19: This post has been updated to correct information about the income eligibility for scholarship recipients.
In 2011, the Legislature passed the Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Act, which grants tax credits to individuals or corporations who make a…
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By:
Ryan Gentzler
February 26, 2019 // Updated: February 26, 2019
Oklahomans who are arrested for nonviolent offenses often spend several weeks in local and county jails because they're unable to afford to post money bond, incurring steep costs with little benefit to public safety. A new study of court records by Open Justice Oklahoma finds that the harmful effects of money bail are felt across the state, though differing policies across counties create deep disparities in the likelihood and length of pretrial detentions.
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This episode of OKPolicyCast was hosted by Gene Perry and produced by Gene Perry and Jessica Vazquez, with additional production assistance from Lindsay Myers. You can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or RSS. The podcast theme music is by Zébre. If you have any questions…
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By:
Steve Lewis
February 25, 2019 // Updated: February 25, 2019
The firehose effect of early session continued last week with members scrambling to get their bills heard in committee before this Thursday's deadline. By this Friday, the number of active bills will be reduced considerably. One of the big items that got the spotlight was a $1,200 teacher pay raise passed in the House and sent to the Senate.
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In our Bill Watch series, Rebecca Fine gave us an overview of bills that could have a significant impact on Oklahoma schools, and Economic Opportunity Policy Analyst Courtney Cullison highlighted the many opportunities legislators have to make Oklahomans better off economically. An op-ed by Policy Director Carly Putnam in The Oklahoman explained why federal support for health coverage expansion is a funding promise we can count on.
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This session, the Legislature will have several opportunities to improve the lives of hard-working Oklahomans and their families. Legislators have filed bills to create second chances for the justice-involved, make sure workers have paid time off to care for their own health and the health of their loved ones, and restore the full value of the Earned Income Tax Credit. All of these would be great steps toward creating an Oklahoma that appropriately values and fairly rewards the labor of its citizens.
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By:
Damion Shade
February 20, 2019 // Updated: March 29, 2019
This legislative session, leaders of both parties, the governor, the Oklahoma business community and the public at large have expressed a clear desire to work towards ending Oklahoma’s incarceration crisis. Some of these legislative initiatives build on the progress of Gov. Fallin’s Criminal Justice Task Force, but many proposals represent new attempts to lower Oklahoma’s highest-in-the-world incarceration rate.
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By:
Rebecca Fine
February 19, 2019 // Updated: February 27, 2019
Legislators filed approximately 2,800 bills this session, and about 250 of those dealt with education. This list below only touches the surface of those headed through the Legislature, but they could have considerable impact on Oklahoma's schools.
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By:
Steve Lewis
February 18, 2019 // Updated: February 18, 2019
This year's crop of bills reflects the priorities of an unusually large group of new and almost new legislators. The priorities include a willingness to work on social issues that in the past may have been overlooked.
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