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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 federal assistance for Creek County wildfire victims has been approved . A speaker at an Oklahoma City Chamber event said Oklahoma is struggling to produce enough educated workers to keep up with demand. The OK Policy Blog discusses multiple polls which show that Oklahoma voters aren’t happy about the Legislature’s lack of support for education.
The state’s top two electricity utilities voiced different reactions to a court decision striking down EPA regulations on power-plant emissions that cross state lines. The severe drought covering Oklahoma and large areas of the South and Midwest shows few signs of easing, despite recent rainfall. Student health insurance at the University of Oklahoma will now cover birth control and other preventative health care measures at no cost to students. David Blatt writes in the Journal Record about seeing up close and personal what it means to need medical care and not have health insurance.
Sen. Patrick Anderson, R-Enid, is asking an Oklahoma County court to block the sale of $25 million in state bonds to finance improvements to Tulsa’s Zink Lake dam. Attorneys representing the city of Shawnee filed documents in court accusing the local chamber of commerce of illegally listing itself as an owner on a real estate deed and misusing taxpayer dollars in other ways. A lawsuit claims Chesapeake Energy violated contracts by letting Aubrey McClendon profit from lucrative Texas oil and gas wells while denying the same chance to leaseholders on the properties.
The Number of the Day is Oklahoma’s rank nationally for the percentage of children receiving basic early childhood immunizations. In today’s Policy Note, Mother Jones busts myths about the performance of public schools since the 1970s.
In The News
Federal aid for Creek County fire victims OK’d
An announcement that federal assistance has been approved for Creek County wildfire victims came late Wednesday, a day displaced residents had spent anguishing over whether they would be able to return to their burned-out properties. Mannford Town Administrator Mike Nunnelly said that when 85 percent of the people whose homes were destroyed by the fires didn’t have insurance, any kind of recovery is very difficult. Oklahomans who suffered uninsured fire damage in Creek County are eligible for assistance for housing repairs or temporary housing, U.S. Small Business Administration low-interest loans for individuals and businesses to repair or replace damaged property, disaster unemployment assistance and grants for serious needs and necessary disaster expenses not met by other programs, Gov. Mary Fallin’s office announced.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma likely to struggle to produce enough educated workers to meet demand, expert says
One of Oklahoma’s main challenges in the coming decades will be how it handles its own economic growth, a higher education and business expert said Wednesday. Richard Petrick, director of the Ohio-based Business Alliance for Higher Education and the Economy, spoke Wednesday at the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber’s State of the Schools luncheon. The issue, Petrick said, is that Oklahoma is facing major growth in its knowledge-based economic sector. While economic growth is an important goal, he said, the state is struggling to produce enough educated workers to keep up with demand.
For Oklahoma voters, education funding cuts are a major concern
As students head back to school this month, they will encounter an education system facing a crisis in funding. Over the past four years, state support for public schools has been slashed by $220 million, or 11 percent, while school enrollment has increased by some 25,000 students. This equals a 14 percent decline in state support per person. In schools across the state, class sizes are larger, course offerings are fewer, and many school services have been reduced or eliminated. At the same time, schools are wrestling with new mandates for student testing, teacher evaluations, and reading proficiency that must be implemented with reduced resources. Meanwhile, Oklahoma voters this fall will vote on two state questions that would reduce local property tax revenues for schools, while federal education support could be cut by roughly one-tenth to one-fifth under various deficit reduction plans. Oklahoma voters are paying attention and expressing their discontent.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
OG&E, AEP-PSO differ on EPA ruling
The state’s top two electricity utilities voiced different reactions Wednesday to a federal appeals court decision striking down the EPA’s attempt to regulate power-plant emissions that cross state lines. Oklahoma’s largest utility, Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co., applauded the appellate relief. OG&E, which serves close to 800,000 customers statewide, previously said the rules would cost it about $1.2 billion. The utility, joined by state Attorney General Scott Pruitt, also sued the EPA over its regional haze rulings that impact coal-fired generation emissions. Oklahoma’s second-largest electricity provider, Tulsa-based AEP-PSO, opted not to fight the EPA but join it in a tentative settlement that will help meet federal mandates on regional haze, mercury and other air toxins. The agreement calls for American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma to retire one of its Oologah coal-fired units by 2016 and the other 10 years later. “It doesn’t change our plans going forward,” AEP-PSO spokesman Stan White-ford said.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Drought continues, despite Oklahoma’s water ‘surplus’
The severe drought that parched large areas of the South and Midwest shows few signs of easing, despite recent rainfall. Oklahoma is actually in a relatively good situation with its water supply, but still, most of the state’s water isn’t where most of the state’s people and agricultural operations are. The Oklahoma Water Resources Board estimates Oklahoma sits atop more than 300 million acre-feet of groundwater. And no other state has more man-made lakes. With all that water, is it possible Oklahoma has a water surplus, even during this drought? Predictions of a Drier Future Spark Water Battles Prospects for selling water to north Texas fade and American Indian tribes fight for control of Oklahoma’s water wealth. Download For J.D. Strong, Director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, “it depends on how you define ‘surplus.’”
Read more from StateImpact Oklahoma.
Birth control to be covered by University of Oklahoma health insurance
University-provided student health insurance will now cover birth control and other preventative health care measures at no cost to students, according to Human Resources officials. “The OU student health plan is covering most preventive services and increasing maximum available benefits on surgery, pharmacy and mental health services,” said Nick Kelly, vice-president of Human Resources, in an email. These new measures are mandated by the federal Affordable Care Act, which was upheld by the Supreme Court on June 28. Although all private insurers are required to implement the health care reform, self-insured institutions are exempt from the changes, according to the government health care website. OU is one of seven universities in the Big 12 that is self-insured and therefore not required by law to cover preventative health care, such as birth control. Although not mandatory, Kelly said the decision to implement preventative health care coverage was made in an effort to remain competitive with other universities.
Preventable pain
I’ll never forget the first time I saw, up close and personal, what it means to need medical care and not have health insurance. One late night while I was in graduate school, a group of us were out swimming when a friend, Troy, cut her foot badly on a rock. Troy, who was in her early 20’s, worked part-time as a waitress, and wasn’t a student like the rest of us, didn’t have health insurance and was worried she couldn’t afford the cost of an ER visit. My friends and I offered to help pay, but she refused. Instead, she slapped iodine and a Band-Aid on her foot and carried on. Unfortunately, the cut was more serious than Troy thought and the pain kept up. When she finally went to the doctor, her foot was severely infected. She ended up in the hospital for IV antibiotics and needed follow-up care. Her medical bills came to over $2,500, setting back her goal of returning to school. Across the United States, there are close to 50 million Troys – Americans without health insurance. Study after study shows they get less medical care, are in worse health and are worse off financially.
Read more from The Journal Record.
Legislator sues to stop Zink Lake dam bonds
A state senator is asking an Oklahoma County court to block the sale of $25 million in state bonds to finance improvements to Tulsa’s Zink Lake dam. “We have developed a spending problem at the state Capitol and as a result we have abandoned and ignored the requirements of our constitution,” said Sen. Patrick Anderson, R-Enid. Proposed state financing for a series of low-water dams along the Arkansas River has a lengthy, complex history involving multiple legislative bills, suits before the Oklahoma Supreme Court and a variety of plans for matching federal and local money. The most recent scenario was passed by the Legislature in 2009, calling for $25 million in state bonds to finance improvements to the Zink Lake dam and construction of dams in Sand Springs and Jenks. But in his suit, Anderson argues that the change in how the money is to be used is so significant that it violates the legislative intent of the 2009 bill.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Shawnee accuses its Chamber of misusing taxpayer funds
Attorneys representing the city of Shawnee filed documents in Pottawatomie County District Court on Wednesday accusing the local chamber of commerce of illegally listing itself as an owner on a real estate deed and misusing taxpayer dollars in other ways. The Greater Shawnee Area Chamber of Commerce took out a mortgage on a $500,000 property in 2009 and named itself as the owner, something the city’s attorneys say is illegal and violates the Oklahoma constitution. Other lesser misuses of taxpayer dollars are alleged in the court filing. The chamber is suing the city of Shawnee in district court, asking a judge to stop the city from cutting ties with it so abruptly. City commissioners terminated the contract between the city and the chamber during a recent meeting.
Chesapeake favored CEO over leaseholders, suit claims
Chesapeake Energy Corp. let Aubrey McClendon, its chief executive officer, profit from lucrative Texas oil and gas wells while denying the same chance to leaseholders on the properties, according to a lawsuit. According to a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Houston, McClendon was allowed to purchase a 1 percent to 2 percent interest in wells drilled by Chesapeake, using his stake in the wells as collateral. The company was contractually obligated to offer the leaseholders a similar chance to profit in wells it developed across a 10,900-acre swath described as the “sweet spot” of the Barnett Shale, an oil and gas formation under Fort Worth, Texas, according to the plaintiffs, two Houston energy companies.
Quote of the Day
I think that’s fantastic. I think that’s the only way we were going to be able to recover. At least these people will have some hope that they have something to live in.
–Mannford Town Administrator Mike Nunneley, on the announcement that federal aid will be provided to wildfire victims in Creek County
Number of the Day
46th
Oklahoma’s rank nationally for the percentage of children receiving basic early childhood immunizations (Diptheria, Tetanus, Whooping cough, Polio, Meningitis, Hepatitis B), 2011
Source: United Health Foundation
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
The kids are all right
Standardized tests may not tell us everything there is to know about a school like Mission High, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their uses. And one of those uses is myth busting—in particular, the myth that America’s schools are in a state of terminal decline and students aren’t learning as much as those of a generation ago. The real story is more complicated, and the best place to see it is the federal government’s National Assessment of Educational Progress, otherwise known as the Nation’s Report Card, the “gold standard,” or just plain NAEP. It provides a long-term set of results going back to the early 1970s, and unlike state tests, which vary substantially and are sometimes dumbed down to produce higher scores, the NAEP is widely trusted in the educational community.
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