Quotes of the Day

“If you want a car that will just get you from A to B and that’s it, you get a cheap car. Right now, that’s what we are doing in (education) and … we owe our kids more than that.”

– David Baskin, parent of a pre-K student in Lawton [NewsOK]

“The [Department of Corrections] has one electrician and one plumber for the entire system. That’s a problem when our oldest prison was built in 1908, and only eight of 24 facilities were built as prisons. The same goes for medical professionals and food service workers, too. Our front-line professionals have been neglected so much the state incurs great risk by continuing to pay them in pennies.”

-Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh [NewsOK]

“That is a huge return on investment for the money we initially received, and now you can add that to the new federal funding. (Using the original grant) with the junior investigators, we launched many careers. That’s a major, exciting accomplishment.”

-OU College of Medicine Professor Dr. Judith James, whose project investigating chronic diseases that disproportionately affect poor, rural, and racial minorities just won a new $20 million federal grant [Journal Record]

“Oklahoma schools are in a much better place. But we are still not where we need to be. We won’t be until we have teachers in every classroom and have students with the resources they need in every school. I think no single stroke of a governor’s pen can reverse the eroded funding to public education that’s occurred over the last decade.”

-State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister

“The very least we can do is change the language that is so confusing.”

-Rep. Regina Goodwin, who is trying again to clarify Oklahoma’s law that says people with felonies are eligible to vote again after completing their full sentence, including any probation or parole. Previous attempts to rewrite the language have not passed the Legislature. [Tulsa World]

“When I started at the Department of Justice in 2003, one of the first statistics I learned was that Native Americans are victims of violent crime at a rate more than double of any other racial or ethnic group in the United States. I am sad to report that we can still use that same statistic today.”

-U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma Trent Shores, who is chairing a Department of Justice meeting to talk about new ways to reduce crime in Indian Country [Public Radio Tulsa]

“A lot of these are 20-, sometimes 30-year sentences on a crime that if charged now would be a misdemeanor.”

-Corbin Brewster, Tulsa County’s chief public defender, speaking about inmates sentenced before Oklahoma’s SQ 780 criminal justice reforms. Advocates are now fighting to have these sentences commuted [Tulsa World].

“My older brother had to take a remedial math course at OU. He graduated in the top 10% at OU Law. He’s now a District Judge.”

-Rep. Emily Virgin (D-Norman), responding to University of Oklahoma Regent Frank Keating calling for OU to refuse admission to students who need remedial classes [Twitter]

“The average life expectancy in Oklahoma is the fourth-lowest in the country … and then when it comes to heart disease, cancer, stroke, heart disease incidence, they all tend to be a little bit higher in Oklahoma. I don’t think it helps that Oklahoma has the second-highest uninsured rate for adults in the country.”

-WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez, speaking about their new report that ranks Oklahoma 45th in the country for its health care system [Public Radio Tulsa]

“She’s stuck in a position where if she says OK to that extra shift, even if she only works 86 hours that month, then she’s going to be considered too wealthy and would lose her health care coverage.”

-Variety Care Chief Medical Officer Dr. Nathan Valentine, speaking about the Catch-22 created by Oklahoma stingy Medicaid income eligibility and the proposal to kick parents off the program if they don’t meet strict job and reporting requirements [Public Radio Tulsa]