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In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.
Today you should know that State Superintendent Janet Barresi is seeking $37.7 million in supplemental appropriations, mostly to help students prepare for new testing requirements. Many students who fall behind in reading will be required by law to repeat the third grade next year. The Daily Elk Citian reports that in 2011, the Oklahoma Department of Education eliminated a Safe Call service that was hailed by educators as one of the strongest tools they had to fight school violence and crime.
The state Public Safety Department is seeking to increase the pay of Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers whose pay ranks 15th among law enforcement agencies in the state. A state workers group is seeking a one-time bonus of $1,000 for state employees who haven’t had an across-the-board pay increase in more than six years. Wayne Greene reports that Oklahoma’s state debt is not nearly as much as most other states and a lot less than the experts say we can handle.
Oklahoma Watch examined Oklahoma’s free clinics trying to provide some health care to the uninsured. Oklahoma Watch also shared excerpts from remarks by Gov. Mary Fallin and OK Policy Director David Blatt on whether Oklahoma should join the Medicaid expansion. Two Oklahoma lawmakers have proposed bills to nullify Obamacare, while two others have proposed that Oklahoma create a state health-insurance exchange and join the Medicaid expansion.
The Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth found that a lack of substance abuse treatment programs is contributing to the number of newborns exposed to drugs or alcohol in the womb. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s office is conducting a criminal investigation into the state’s veterans system. Nearly 370,000 criminal background checks were requested by Oklahoma gun store owners in 2012, the highest total in state history. Following the murder of 20 children and several adults at Sand Hook Elementary School, the AR-15 rifle used in the attack has surged in popularity at Oklahoma gun stores.
The Number of the Day is the number of American Indian veterans in Oklahoma. In today’s Policy Note, a new report from Good Jobs First shows that state and local governments waste billions of dollars annually on economic development subsidies given to companies for moving existing jobs from one state to another—or on “job blackmail” paid to prevent possible relocations.
In The News
Barresi to seek $37.7 million in supplemental school funding
State Superintendent Janet Barresi announced Thursday that she will be seeking $37.7 million in supplemental appropriations from the Legislature. Nearly half of the funds – $15 million – would be dedicated for remedial services for high-school students who now have to pass four of seven state-mandated tests to earn a diploma. Other funds from the supplemental request would be dedicated as follows: $8.5 million to cover the costs of state-mandated health insurance for educators. $6.5 million to help meet the requirements of the Reading Sufficiency Act. $5.9 million to be distributed through the state aid formula for public schools. This would reportedly bring per-student funding back up to the level it was at the end of 2011-12. $1.8 million in additional funding for the state’s student longitudinal data system and other technology needs in the state Department of Education.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Retention law looms for Oklahoma elementary students
More than 1 in 3 Oklahoma third-graders aren’t reading as well as they should be, and more than 1 in 10 are at least two years behind. Next year, many students who fall into that bottom group will be required by law to repeat the third grade. State schools Superintendent Janet Barresi announced this week she plans to ask state lawmakers for an extra $37.7 million for education that could be spent immediately. That request includes $6.5 million to help school districts meet the Reading Sufficiency Act, the 2011 state law that requires school districts to identify children who are significantly behind, contact their parents and work to fix the problem. Children who can’t catch up have to spend another year in third grade.
Records show Barresi cancelled toll-free Safe Call service, citing cost
Less than six months after State Superintendent Janet Barresi took office in 2011, the Oklahoma Department of Education let expire a contract with a reporting service that is hailed by educators as one of the strongest tools they had to fight school violence and crime. For more than a decade a toll-free number was plastered throughout Oklahoma schools on posters, urging students to call if they see or hear about dangerous activity. The state department reported in 2005 that the company even handed out more than 600,000 refrigerator magnets to each student, each stamped with the number. Despite the state’s long relationship with Safe Call, there wasn’t any fanfare when the state went another way.
Read more from The Daily Elk Citian.
Pay raise sought for Oklahoma highway patrol troopers
The state Public Safety Department is seeking to increase the pay of Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers whose pay ranks 15th in the state. Fourteen law enforcement agencies in the state, mostly police departments in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metropolitan areas, pay their beginning officers more than rookie troopers earn, Public Safety Commissioner Michael Thompson said Thursday. “You’ve got all these agencies that make so much more money than we do, but when the state of Oklahoma needs us, we’re 911 for the state of Oklahoma,” Thompson told members of the Senate appropriations subcommittee on public safety and judiciary. Starting pay for troopers is $33,000 a year, he said. Some metro-area police departments pay their rookie officers $44,200 annually.
$1,000 bonus sought for state employees
A state workers group is seeking a one-time bonus of $1,000 for state employees who haven’t had an across-the-board pay increase in more than six years. Zearley said he expects about 90 percent of the state’s approximately 34,000 state employees would qualify for the bonus. The estimated cost is between $25 million and $35 million; the bonus would not be for those who work for higher education or public schools. The bonus would help employees deal with cost-of-living increases that have occurred since their last raise, he said, and would serve as an incentive for workers while legislative leaders move away from granting across-the-board raises to pay increases based on job performance.
State in debt, but it’s highly manageable
Some Oklahoma legislators treat debt like a four-letter word – something you never utter in public. Whether it’s been for the half-built Native American cultural center in Oklahoma City, the not-yet-built popular culture museum in Tulsa or the state Capitol – apparently unbuilding itself one falling chunk of limestone at a time – the Legislature has been more than skeptical about bond deals. It has been debt phobic. But that may be changing. Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, is a legitimate fiscal conservative but says the state needs to form a better relationship with the idea of public borrowing. “There are people wanting to make it sound like we’re in the same situation as Washington, D.C., and we’re not,” Jolley told me. “Our debt is incredibly low.”
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma clinics provide some health care for state’s uninsured
Inside a cramped clinic office, Dorthea Copeland prepares for the weekly pilgrimage of poor people seeking free health care. They’re already lining the hallway, trading tales of sore throats and bum tickers. “Some of these people just lost their insurance. Some of them work, but don’t make very much. Some of them are self-employed,” said Copeland, a feisty 85-year-old who’s been running Pottawatomie County’s free clinic since it opened 14 years ago. “You can usually tell by looking at them that most of them really need the help.” Copeland is in charge of recruiting doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other helpers who donate their time on Thursday evenings to help Pottawatomie County residents who don’t have health insurance and don’t qualify for government aid.
Two sides to the question of expanding Medicaid in Oklahoma
Excerpts of comments by Gov. Mary Fallin and by David Blatt, director of Oklahoma Policy Institute: Oklahoma has a long tradition of investing in the health needs of our citizens. In Fiscal Year 2013 alone, the state spent $2 billion on Health and Human Services, supporting programs like Medicaid, Medicare, health clinics, mental health treatment and other health initiatives. Together that spending accounted for almost one third of our total state budget. As governor, supporting our health care and mental health programs is a priority of mine, which is why I will propose a substantial increase in funding to health-related initiatives in my next executive budget.
Opposite Oklahoma bills seek nullification of Obamacare, mandated participation in Medicaid expansion
The Affordable Care Act may be a hot debating point in the Oklahoma Legislature again this year. Two lawmakers have proposed bills to nullify the bill, known as Obamacare, and make it a felony for any federal official to try to enforce it. Two others legislators have proposed bills mandating state participation in two of the federal law’s most controversial elements – a state health-insurance exchange and expansion of the Medicaid program to include thousands of uninsured poor Oklahomans.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Recommendations adopted for dealing with Oklahoma’s drug babies
Rocked by a series of preventable infant deaths, the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth has adopted new recommendations for doctors and child welfare workers to follow in dealing with newborns exposed to drugs or alcohol in the womb. “It’s a big problem,” said Dr. John Stuemky, a member of the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth and chief child abuse examiner for the state. OU Medical Center sees three or four drug-positive babies and/or mothers a week, Stuemky said, adding that it is difficult to estimate how big the overall problem is because of underreporting. Wanda Felty, chairwoman of the subcommittee that issued the report, said when subcommittee members delved into the situation they discovered a number of problems, including a lack of availability of both outpatient and residential services for substance abuse treatment.
Oklahoma attorney general’s office confirms criminal investigation of state veterans system
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s office is conducting a criminal investigation into the state’s veterans system, his spokeswoman confirmed Thursday. Diane Clay, Pruitt’s spokeswoman, said the investigation would focus on the entire system, and not just a single veterans center. “The attorney general’s office is conducting a criminal investigation and has the option of bringing the issue before the multicounty grand jury,” Clay said. Pruitt’s investigation comes on the heels of published reports of abuse, neglect, rapes and deaths at several of the state’s veterans centers, including the scalding death of World War II veteran Jay Minter in May.
Read more from the Associated Press.
Record number of background checks requested by Oklahoma gun store owners in 2012
Nearly 370,000 criminal background checks were requested by Oklahoma gun store owners in 2012, the highest total in state history. According to records kept by the FBI, the 367,976 background checks requested by store owners last year topped the previous record — set in 2011 — by nearly 100,000. Gun shop owners say background check statistics don’t necessarily reflect actual sales as much as they gauge public interest in purchasing a firearm. “Some people have their application rejected or may change their mind or whatever, but those numbers show you how many people are at least considering buying a gun,” said Darren Burger, co-owner of Choctaw gun store Locked and Loaded.
AR-15 rifles surge in popularity among Oklahoma gun buyers
Just a few months ago, Oklahoma gun-buyers still were purchasing firearms in typical fashion. Handguns, particularly those made by Glock, were the hottest sellers. But then a mentally unstable 20-year-old man walked into an elementary school in Connecticut and gunned down 20 children and several adults, sparking a national conversation about gun control. Adam Lanza, who also killed his mother before the Dec. 14 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School, reportedly used an AR-15 rifle during the shooting rampage. Since the Connecticut shootings, weapons commonly referred to as assault rifles have been flying off the shelves in Oklahoma gun stores.
Quote of the Day
Oklahoma doesn’t need to create a sub-class of young people who have met all other graduation requirements but can’t pass the required exams and thus are denied the diploma needed to get a job or join the military. If we are going to have a law that requires students to prove their test-taking ability, the state ought to provide the remedial help that was promised when the law was passed.
Number of the Day
14,348
Number of American Indian veterans in Oklahoma, the 2nd largest population of Native veterans outside California
Source: Department of Veterans Affairs
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
The job-creation shell game
State and local governments waste billions of dollars annually on economic development subsidies given to companies for moving existing jobs from one state to another—or on “job blackmail” paid to prevent possible relocations. That’s the main conclusion of The Job-Creation Shell Game, Good Jobs First’s new study released today. What was long ago dubbed a Second War Between the States is, unfortunately, raging again in many parts of the country. The result is a vast waste of taxpayer funds, paying for the geographic reshuffling of existing jobs. By pretending that existing jobs that are relocated are “new” (or perhaps technically “new to the state”)—and thereby qualifying them for eight- and nine-figure subsidy packages—public officials and the recipient companies engage in what the report calls “interstate job fraud.”
Read more from Good Jobs First.
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