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State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said schools are closing, teacher layoff notices have gone out and class sizes will grow across Oklahoma because of the state’s flat education budget. Senate Appropriations Committee Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, said “it is past time” for teacher raises in Oklahoma, but he doesn’t know where the money will come from if current revenue forecasts hold. Lack of funding for this priority did not stop the Legislature from allowing a tax cut to go through that will cost $147 million in FY 2017, about the same as would have been needed to fund the first year of Superintendent Hofmeister’s teacher raise plan. The Stillwater News Press Editorial Board wrote that it will take a citizen uprising to get education funded in Oklahoma.
KGOU reported on how state agencies are planning to deal with reduced funding based on the budget appropriations passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Fallin. The Tulsa World Editorial Board wrote that funding for public art programs is another casualty of state tax policy. The Oklahoman Editorial Board wrote that the state’s Indigent Defense System is becoming strained with higher caseloads and reduced state funding. On the OK Policy Blog, Steve Lewis described three kinds of critics of the state budget deal.
The Journal Record wrote that most of the controversial bills that put Oklahoma in the national headlines at the start of the Legislative session did not get passed [paywall]. Gov. Fallin signed five education bills last week, including one that extends the use of parent-educator teams to decide if third graders who do not pass a reading test can go on to the fourth grade. Gov. Fallin also signed a bill that increases the requirements for how young children are secured when riding in vehicles.
Accepting federal dollars to expand Medicaid would make Oklahomans healthier and would save money for residents and the state budget, according to a report released Thursday by the White House Council of Economic Advisers. You can see the full report here. OETA reported that chronic underfunding of mental health care in Oklahoma has forced providers to prioritize the most severely ill while making others wait until they get worse. The Frontier reported on how a young Oklahoma man who had already waited a month for a mental health appointment killed his mother during a psychotic break.
County Health Departments will no longer be offering free vaccinations for Oklahomans with insurance due to reduced funding. The number of abortions performed in Oklahoma declined nearly 19 percent from 2010 to 2013, part of a nationwide decline in abortions. State Sen. Rick Brinkley, R-Owasso, was accused in a lawsuit Friday of embezzling more than $1 million while at the Better Business Bureau to pay personal expenses and “to support a hidden gambling habit.” Starting with the upcoming fall semester, incoming University of Oklahoma freshmen will be required to take a five-hour course in diversity issues before completing the end of their first year.
A complaint that that supervisors at the Chickasaw Nation’s Winstar World Casino “engaged in threats and surveillance” to prevent a union organizing effort has been dismissed because tribal sovereignty puts them outside the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board. The Number of the Day is 5.8% – the percentage of Oklahoma women age 15 to 50 who gave birth in 2013. In today’s Policy Note, the Wall Street Journal shows that public health insurance has done a better job of controlling costs per patient than private health insurance.
In The News
Hofmeister: Flat budget means school closing and layoffs
Schools are closing, teacher layoff notices have gone out and class sizes will grow across Oklahoma because of the state’s standstill education budget, Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister said in an interview. Hofmeister said details are emerging that show the state’s K-12 budget, which remained at $2.5 billion for fiscal year 2016, will ultimately result in cuts at many school districts.
Read more from Oklahoma Watch.
See also: State must put education first from the Stillwater News Press
Senate appropriations chairman backs raises for Oklahoma teachers
The Oklahoma Senate Appropriations Committee chairman laid down an early marker on teacher raises Friday, telling a Tulsa Regional Chamber audience that “it is past time. … I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but I want to get it done before I leave.” Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, who is term-limited after the 2016 session, acknowledged that raises will not be easy next year if current revenue forecasts hold.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
State agencies preparing budgets for next fiscal year
State agencies and departments are starting the process of developing operating plans for next fiscal year based on the budget appropriations passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Fallin. The Office of Juvenile Affairs received an increase that will keep a facility open, but the Oklahoma Arts Council took at 7.25 percent cut that will affect the arts grants to organizations statewide.
See also: State art funding is another casualty of state tax policy from the Tulsa World
Strain is a constant with indigent defense system
When lawmakers produced the state budget for fiscal year 2016, Joe Robertson was glad to learn that his agency, the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, hadn’t taken a cut. Now if only something more could be done about the system’s swollen case file. The agency picked up 4,400 more cases this fiscal year than it did a year earlier.
Three kinds of critics of state budget deal (Capitol Updates)
Legislators likely spent some time this week hearing from constituents and voices from various perspectives about how well or poorly they did in writing this year’s budget. Many feel they made a mistake by allowing a tax cut to go into effect on January 1 that caused $57 million of the state’s budget’s shortfall. A full year of the revenue cut will cause a larger problem for next year’s legislature.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Withering in the spotlight: Controversial bills put Oklahoma in national headlines, but most failed
Some of the bills filed in this year’s legislative session caught national attention, from one that would have remove state funding for Advanced Placement U.S. History to a perceived ban on hooded sweatshirts. Freedom Oklahoma Executive Director Troy Stevenson said 18 anti-gay bills were filed – a record for anti-gay legislation filed in one state for a time. None of Oklahoma’s bills were passed, which Stevenson counted as a victory.
Read more from the Journal Record (paywall).
Fallin signs education bills
Gov. Mary Fallin signed five education improvement bills Wednesday to, among other things, promote early learning and literacy and improve teacher evaluations. One bill under much scrutiny, SB 630, extends the use of reading teams to evaluate student literacy under the Reading Sufficiency Act for three more years.
Read more from the Enid News & Eagle.
Gov. Fallin signs bill to increase child seat restrictions
Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill Friday that is intended to save lives by requiring that children be better secured when riding in vehicles. Current law requires that children under the age of 2 need to be in a child safety seat. They will have to be in a rear-facing child safety seat beginning Nov. 1 under House Bill 1847. Appropriate child restraint systems will need to be used for children older than 2 and younger than 8 or until they reach the height of 4-foot-9.
White House report shows how Oklahoma could benefit from expanding Medicaid
Accepting federal dollars to expand Medicaid would make Oklahomans healthier and would save money for residents and the state budget, according to a report released Thursday by the White House Council of Economic Advisers. The council estimates that 127,000 more Oklahomans would be insured with Medicaid expansion, which is a key provision in the Affordable Care Act.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
See also: Missed Opportunities: The consequences of state decisions not to expand Medicaid from the White House Council of Economic Advisers
To get mental health treatment in Oklahoma, get sick quicker
Nearly a million Oklahomans suffer from mental illness or substance abuse so mental health facilities are using a triage approach to provide treatment. A priority system that mandates the most severely ill get treatment while others wait. Mental health providers say shrinking financial resources have forced such an approach to mental health care.
Families struggle for help as mental illness takes its toll
By the time an incoherent William Matthew Stick walked into All Soul’s Unitarian Church with his mother’s blood on his jeans, he had already waited a month for a mental health appointment. During a psychotic break in October 2012, the then 20-year-old hid behind a refrigerator before lunging at his mother with a knife that he then thrust into her chest.
Read more from the Tulsa Frontier.
County health departments in Oklahoma bill for insurance, make ‘big shift’ in public health
If you’re headed to the county health department for a vaccine, there’s one thing you’ll need to bring if you have it: your insurance card. For uninsured Oklahomans, county health departments will continue to serve as a place where low-income children and adults can receive vaccines for free or at reduced cost. But for insured Oklahomans, the game has changed.
AP survey: Abortions in Oklahoma down nearly 19 percent
Oklahoma’s abortion rate has dropped since Republicans took control of state government, but abortion rights groups say the decline likely has more to do with more access to effective contraceptives and education programs, among other factors. A national survey by The Associated Press found that the number of abortions performed in Oklahoma declined nearly 19 percent from 2010 to 2013 — dipping from 5,641 to 4,587.
Oklahoma senator accused in lawsuit of embezzling more than $1 million from Better Business Bureau
State Sen. Rick Brinkley, R-Owasso, was accused in a lawsuit Friday of embezzling more than $1 million while at the Better Business Bureau to pay personal expenses and “to support a hidden gambling habit.” Brinkley, 53, worked for the Better Business Bureau in Tulsa for more than 15 years. He served first as its president and chief executive officer and then as its chief operating officer. He was fired by the board of directors April 26.
OU to require diversity class for all incoming freshmen
Starting with the upcoming fall semester, incoming University of Oklahoma freshmen will be required to take a five-hour course in diversity issues before completing the end of their first year. The move is part of a larger project to provide a more diverse faculty and student body. This stems from student concerns of groups such as Unheard, which is an alliance of black students calling for institutional reforms.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Anti-union complaint against Winstar Casino dismissed
A complaint alleging anti-union activities against the Winstar World Casino and the Chickasaw Nation isn’t subject to the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board, which dismissed the complaint this week. In 2011, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 886 claimed that supervisors at the casino “engaged in threats and surveillance” of the casino’s blackjack dealers who were attempting to unionize.
Read more from Oklahoma Watch.
Quote of the Day
“Triage is defined in medical terms as determining the priority of patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition when resources are insufficient for all to be treated immediately. Triage is common to the battlefield, accidents, or natural disasters. But in Oklahoma, that’s how people now get treatment for mental illness or substance abuse.”
-OETA reporter Bob Sands, in a report showing 1 in 3 of the Oklahomans in need of mental health or substance abuse treatment are going without care due to a chronic lack of funding (Source)
Number of the Day
5.8%
Percentage of Oklahoma women age 15 to 50 who gave birth in 2013.
Source: U.S. Census American Community Survey
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Public vs. Private Health Insurance on Controlling Spending
No single fact can settle the long-running debate of whether public or private health insurance is preferable. But by one basic metric, the rate of increase in per capita spending, public insurance has an edge. In per capita spending, Medicare and Medicaid have generally grown more slowly than private insurance and are projected to continue doing so through 2023.
Read more from the Wall Street Journal.
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