Quotes of the Day

“We are now cutting personnel, cutting services and trying to see where there might be alternate sources of income, which is mostly donations. We are in a very difficult and untenable position.”

-Jim McCarthy, CEO of Community Health Connection, one of over a dozen community health centers in Oklahoma that provide services regardless of ability to pay in underserved areas. These health centers are under threat because the state’s uncompensated care fund ran dry last December and will not be replenished until January (Source: http://bit.ly/XhVzn6).

“Catch a bus, then transfer and catch another bus. It’s going to be really hard because of the heat.”

-North Tulsa resident Terri Rippetoe, speaking about what she will have to do to feed her family now that the area’s only grocery store has closed and the next closest is three miles away (Source: http://bit.ly/1tqAKDo).

“To me, it’s amazing that the district and the state is really involved in the push for early childhood in the beginning. We will be singing and dancing and learning and reading. I can’t wait. I’m so ready for the first day of school.”

-Oklahoma City mother of four LaKesha Oakes, who enrolled her son in pre-K this year. The OKC school district is expecting its largest pre-K enrollment ever (Source: http://bit.ly/1rALJWJ).

“Hunger doesn’t take a summer vacation. We are seeing more people — the working poor, the homeless, families with kids because school isn’t in session. (More) people are coming because it’s summer, and money gets tighter.”

– Meghann Ray, spokeswoman for Iron Gate, a soup kitchen and food pantry in downtown Tulsa (Source: http://bit.ly/1plcoqL)

“It’s really critical, and it’s hard to put a value on it. The doctors so often in abuse and neglect cases are able to look at the physical evidence, the injuries being presented, and be able from a medical perspective to determine whether the explanation going along with those injuries are even medically possible.”

-Gayland Gieger, an Oklahoma County assistant district attorney, speaking about a team of child abuse medical experts that is being disbanded due to lack of funding. It would cost $300,000 to pay for the amount of work the child protection team provides throughout Oklahoma, but the team receives just $23,000 from state appropriations (Source: http://bit.ly/1rhCwSW)

“This is no way a solution — that’s the sad part. We will surely turn away hundreds of people on Sunday, and I hope that out there, somebody is working on a solution because this helps some folks, but it’s a drop in the bucket.”

– Tres Savage, president of Remote Area Medical Oklahoma, speaking about an upcoming event to provide free vision, dental and limited medical care to hundreds of Oklahomans over two days (Source: http://bit.ly/1x4hIAc)

“[Eliminating the subsidies] will be devastating to tens of thousands of Oklahomans who have been able to purchase health insurance through the federal exchange. [They] will be perplexed why their attorney general is going to court to prevent them from having affordable health care.”

– OK Policy Executive Director David Blatt, speaking about a federal court ruling that threatens to take away tax credits for purchasing health insurance from more than 55,000 Oklahomans. State Attorney General Scott Pruitt has filed a similar lawsuit attempting to block the tax credits (Source: http://bit.ly/1r75tB3)

“According to the Affordable Care Act’s (marketplace), I signed up and went through that process, and they said I would qualify for state Medicaid. When you go to the state Medicaid website, due to Governor Fallin’s unwillingness to expand it, I don’t qualify.”

– Joshua Kraft, a 26-year old Oklahoman with chronic depression and anxiety. Because the state has refused to accept federal funds to expand health coverage to low-income Oklahomans, Kraft’s illness largely goes untreated (Source: http://bit.ly/1n7MxD4)

“We found that our average education major will be paid $31,000 a year when they graduate to teach. They will leave with an average debt of at least $21,000. Now how long is it going to take them to pay off those debts?”

-University of Oklahoma President David Boren, on a new program being offered by the university to forgive student debt for graduates who stay in Oklahoma and enter high-need teaching areas (Source: http://bit.ly/1zWZMeW)

“Thanks to HB 3399, politicians can now not only reject English and math standards, but personally rewrite them. Careful analysis and review is unlikely at that point. Now, lawmakers who sometimes don’t bother to read the bills they vote on may soon write standards that determine how – or if – Oklahoma children will be taught to read and do arithmetic. That’s cause for alarm, not a reason to celebrate.”

– The Oklahoman Editorial Board, on the law that revokes Common Core standards in Oklahoma (Source: http://bit.ly/1mU2w7C)