Quotes of the Day

Oklahoma and the nation need the labor and talent immigration reform can bring. We can’t let this issue be captured by extremists on either side. Our congressmen and women need to know those working on the front line of job creation recognize the need for immigration reform.

-Wes Stucky, president of Development-Management Inc. in Ardmore (Source: http://bit.ly/18TYogo)

You know, it’s just pretty basic. Something had to give. We don’t have the funding to do a salary increase. … We haven’t abandoned those objectives. We’re going to ask for full funding of our plan.

-Oklahoma Department of Human Services Director Ed Lake, on the Pinnacle Plan to reform the state’s child welfare system failing to meet targets and seeing high turnover among staff after it was not fully funded by the Legislature (Source: http://bit.ly/18OTzVF)

Until now the line from the governor’s office and from the speaker is that we will not expand coverage. But I think that as we move ahead over the coming months, the pressure will grow as other states fall into line or go join the line.

-OK Policy Director David Blatt, on the likelihood that Oklahoma will join a growing number states with Republican governors who are accepting federal dollars to extend health coverage to citizens below the poverty line (Source: http://bit.ly/18KoHWb)

I was really expecting a big no. I thought we’re on our way to Iowa, but I called the tribe and they said, ‘Yeah come on down, it’s twenty bucks.’

-Jason Pickel, whose legal marriage to Darren Black Bear was recognized by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma (Source: http://bit.ly/18FYQP8)

[Producers and farmers] have deadlines and payments and they are trying to recover after a three-year drought. We have had a little rain, but you don’t recover overnight from a drought, and any little hiccup like this government shutdown doesn’t help. They are our friends and we are going to do our best for them.

Francie Tolle, Executive Director of Oklahoma’s Farm Service Agency on the government shutdown (Source: http://bit.ly/19o7xwQ).

We’re just chasing in circles. The bottom line is, the system just doesn’t work. It’s not an indication of whether students are successful academically.

-Broken Arrow Assistant Superintendent Janet Dunlop, who said her district has decided not to look at Oklahoma’s A-F grades for schools, which have already been change 5 or 6 times since they were released Wednesday (Source: http://bit.ly/18siIVG)

Consistently across the three subject areas (reading, math, and science), minority and poor children tested highest in “D” and “F” schools and lowest in “A” and “B” schools. Put differently, according to the State’s own effectiveness grades, “A” and “B” schools are the least effective for poor and minority children; high scoring, affluent students in those schools produce averages that give the appearance of school effectiveness for all, essentially masking the especially low performance of poor and minority children.

-A report by researchers at OU and OSU showing that Oklahoma’s A-F grades for schools conceal achievement gaps and do not provide meaningful information about school quality (Source: http://bit.ly/18oXaJE)

If you positively affect a woman, you positively affect the next three generations. And we have done totally the opposite. Those poor kids that have gotten separated from their mothers and put into foster care … That’s what motivates me, the injustices.

-Norma Sapp, an activist who has worked for decades to reform Oklahoma’s marijuana laws that contribute to the state having the highest female incarceration rate in the world (Source: http://bit.ly/196SPKJ).

I think politically that’s an extremely dangerous thing to do. And I don’t think it will work … I think it will only damage the economy and hurt a lot of innocent people.

-Congressman Tom Cole, speaking in August about a proposal to shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act. In late September, he joined every other House Republican in voting to do just that (Source: http://bit.ly/194olJg).

Private schools are not accountable to taxpayers for the use of public dollars. They do not have public meetings, open records, or publicly elected school boards. They are not required to participate in the state testing program, nor do they receive an A-F letter grade from the state Board of Education. State law requires all of this of public schools in order to account for the use of taxpayer funds.

-Melissa Abdo and Amy Vargus, who both have children in Jenks public schools, explaining why parents sued to prevent taxpayer money going to vouchers for special needs children to attend private schools (Source: http://bit.ly/18dQIoE)