Quotes of the Day

“My reasoning is simple: 90 percent of brain development occurs in the first five years, impacting cognitive and emotional skills and making children far more likely to start school ready to learn so they don’t fall behind, drop out and get involved in crime. If we invest in children early, the effects are lifelong, lowering dropout rates and involvement in crime.”

– Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel, on why he is working with a nonprofit that advocates investment in early childhood education (Source)

“I would argue that this is not good for kids — I think it’s going to cause students to lose momentum. There is clearly a saturation point by lengthening the school day, where you are going to exhaust students, and then they have three days before they come back and revisit what is being taught.”

-State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, arguing against the 4-day school week being considered by a growing number of Oklahoma school districts to deal with budget cuts (Source)

“We try to go as statewide as possible, so we’ve got ice storms going on, we’ve got earthquakes going on, we’ve got severe weather. You know, a typical day in Oklahoma.”

– Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management Director Albert Norwood, on last week’s annual disaster drill for state agencies and state emergency officials. For the first time, this year’s drill included earthquakes (Source)

“More than 90 percent of adults who develop a substance use disorder began using before they were 18. Achieving any major reduction in substance misuse will require a reboot in our approach – starting with a greater emphasis on preventing use before it starts, intervening and providing support earlier and viewing treatment and recovery as a long-term commitment.”

– Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health, which recently released a report that found Oklahoma’s youth drug overdose rate had tripled over the last decade (Source)

“I don’t think the tribes would be surprised if the state asked for more money, particularly under the current economic climate… Education is where they want the money spent. They’ve committed to it, the state’s committed to it in the compact. So, if anything, there might be room for discussion about defining and having some accountability for where those funds go — maybe returning some of those to a more local level.”

-William Norman, an attorney who represents multiple tribes, speaking about potential renegotiation of Oklahoma’s compacts with Native Nations over gaming revenue (Source)

“This crisis has been coming for a long time. Forget about replacing them with someone of the same quality. I’m just worried about replacing them. Period.”

-David Pennington, superintendent of Ponca City public schools, who is facing a severe shortage of special education teachers as many of his current teachers are nearing retirement (Source).

“Oklahoma can stand as a model for the terrible thing about triggers. Our experience shows that it is very hard to get them right and very easy to get them wrong.”

-OK Policy Executive Director David Blatt, speaking about Oklahoma’s latest tax cut that is being triggered based on faulty revenue estimates amid a huge budget shortfall (Source)

“Oklahoma isn’t unique to that – it is all over the country, where jails and prisons are become the default mental institutions of our time. I think people all over the country and here in Oklahoma, we are waking up to that.”

– Michael Brose, Executive Director of Mental Health Association Oklahoma, discussing measures jails and prisons are taking to handle increasing numbers of inmates with mental illnesses (Source)

“It is a moral imperative to get the men and women who have served in the military into housing. The chronically homeless use the most resources in our community. If we get them housed, you will see less hospitalization, less incarcerations and a healthier community overall.”

– Mack Haltom, associate director at Tulsa’s Day Center for the Homeless, on Tulsa’s participation in  Zero: 2016, an initiative aimed making homelessness rare, brief and non-reoccurring with a focus on veterans and the chronically homeless. Officials say Tulsa is on track to meet its goal of housing 290 veterans by the end of this year and 89 chronically homeless by the end of the next year (Source)

“The effect is that the press and public don’t know how and why their leaders are making these decisions until well after the decision is already made, and the consequences are already realized.”

-Joe Wertz, a reporter for StateImpact Oklahoma, speaking about how Oklahomans often wait longer than six months for routine open records requests to be filled by the governor and Attorney General’s office (Source).