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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 millions of dollars in funding for education, public safety, and a host of other Oklahoma programs are at stake if the sequester takes effect, detailed in Tulsa World, The Edmond Sun, The Duncan Banner, News9 and KJRH. The parties to a federal lawsuit over the death of a child born to an incarcerated Oklahoma mother have settled and agreed to adopt new procedures for babies born to mothers in prison.
Rep. Mark McCullough has agreed not to push to eliminate Children First and other home visitation programs, but they will be audited. The OKPolicy Blog previously detailed in a guest post the overwhelming evidence that home visiting programs work well and support vulnerable Oklahoma children and families.
A new report by the Oklahoma Policy Institute and Community Action Project of Tulsa calls for more funding and better planning to improve reading achievement in light of a looming requirement to hold back third-graders who can’t read at grade level [access the full report here]. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt answers questions about his challenges to the Affordable Care Act.
Tulsa World’s Editorial Board asks why lawmakers are pushing reforms to the food stamp program that ultimately impact innocent children the most. The OKPolicy Blog detailed a slew of legislation that targets the poor and is gaining momentum in the legislature. The state education board heard proposed changes to the A-F school grading system.
In today’s Policy Note, a new issue brief by Oklahoma Policy Institute and Community Action Project Tulsa provides in-depth analysis of how Oklahoma’s Reading Sufficient Law (RSA) law will affect students and schools. The Number of the Day is the additional amount the state needs to allocate to common ed annually to fully fund the RSA.
In The News
Sequester budget cuts would affect Oklahoma, Tulsa area
Furloughs for local federal workers and the overnight closing of the tower at Tulsa International Airport are among the possible effects of anticipated “sequestration” budget cuts. Tulsa International Airport usually has only six to eight commercial flights arriving between 10 p.m. and midnight, with the last departure by a commercial flight usually occurring before 9 p.m., said Alexis Higgins, deputy marketing director for the airport.
Read more from the Tulsa World
Sequestration vote fails; cuts still loom
“If sequestration occurs, the federal cuts to the federal title programs under No Child Left Behind and IDEA are anticipated at 9.1 percent with an impact of nearly $600,000 to Edmond Public Schools,” said Lori Smith, Edmond Public School’s Chief Financial Officer. Federal dollars fund programs to serve the most at risk students within our schools; that is, students who have academic, social or physical disabilities or who are affected by poverty. The local district already is required to subsidize programs mandated by the federal government by millions of dollars each year. Further reductions will increase that burden.
Sequestration will not cause the sky to fall in Stephens County
Automatic across the board budget cuts are scheduled to go into effect today, known as sequestration. The sequestration is a result of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which was designed to encourage legislative leaders to come up with a plan to reduce the deficit. Steve Fair, Republican National Committee Man For Obama, said the sequester was never actually meant to go into effect. “It was to force them to sit down and look at each agency in a specific way,” he said. Sequestration was never meant to happen,” Oklahoma Representative Dennis Johnson said. “It was meant to be so scary they would come to an agreement before it would happen.
Read more from The Duncan Banner
DOE: Budget cuts may slow nuclear waste cleanup
Cleanup of radioactive waste at nuclear sites across the country – including one in Washington state where waste tanks may be leaking 1,000 gallons per year – would be delayed under automatic spending cuts set to take effect Friday. Energy Secretary Steven Chu says the cuts would delay work at the department’s highest-risk sites, including the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash., where six tanks are leaking radioactive waste left over from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons.
Millions at stake for Oklahoma education if sequester takes affect
Millions of dollars in federal funding for education are on the line in Oklahoma if the sequester takes affect this Friday. Special needs students could take the biggest hit. Approximately $12 million in education funding could disappear in Oklahoma. Federal budget cuts across the board have parents like Deann Richmond wondering how much more public schools can take. “I’m thinking an education crisis, you know. What’s that mean for our kids in the future?” Richmond said.
Settlement made in ‘Precious Doe’ federal lawsuit
The parties to a federal lawsuit arising from the brutal killing in 2001 of the child known as “Precious Doe” have announced a settlement. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections, OU Medical Center and the Oklahoma Department of Human Services have agreed to adopt new procedures to ensure that babies born to mothers in prison will be referred to DHS to plan for the safe placement of the newborn before the baby leaves the hospital.
Read more from The Norman Transcript
Children First program spared; group to study home visitation services
An effort to kill a state program that sends public health nurses into the homes of poor first-time mothers has been shelved for the year. Rep. Mark McCullough, R-Sapulpa, has agreed not to push his effort to eliminate the Children First program, return Affordable Care Act funding to the federal government and suspend three smaller home visitation programs until they can be audited, said Rep. Jason Nelson, R-Oklahoma City. Instead, House Speaker T.W. Shannon, R-Lawton, announced the formation of a bipartisan working group to examine the state’s home visitation programs.
Read more from this Tulsa World
Report calls for funding to curb ‘social promotion’ for lagging readers
A new report by the Oklahoma Policy Institute and Community Action Project of Tulsa County calls for more funding and better planning to improve reading achievement in light of a looming requirement to hold back third-graders who can’t read at grade level. “We’ve created a mandate for kids to pass a reading test or repeat the third grade, but we haven’t done enough to make sure children, teachers, and schools are properly equipped,” said Gene Perry, a policy analyst with Oklahoma Policy Institute and co-author of the report.
Read more from the Tulsa World
Oklahoma’s New Third Grade Retention Law
This issue brief examines the history of the RSA, what current research says about third grade reading and retention, and how Oklahoma is implementing the law both in local school districts and at the state level. The brief estimates how many additional students could be retained due to the law, what these retentions could cost the state, and what it would cost to implement effective reading remediation measures to reduce the number of students being retained.
Read more from Oklahoma Policy Institute and Community Action Project Tulsa
Q&A: Scott Pruitt on health reform challenges
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has been at the forefront of state efforts to challenge the Affordable Care Act. He joined 25 other states in the original effort to try to topple the law. While the Supreme Court upheld most of the law last June, Pruitt is now challenging the law’s federal health insurance exchanges. He has also joined the attorneys general of six other states to block a requirement that employers provide free birth control to their employees.
Thomson Reuters News and Insight
Food stamps Bill would punish innocent children
The Oklahoma House Human Services Committee on Monday voted 6-2 in favor of a bill that would deny Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits – food stamps – to convicted drug felons. In 1997, lawmakers voted to exempt Oklahoma from a provision of the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, which disqualified anyone convicted of a felony offense involving a controlled substance from receiving SNAP benefits.
Read more from this Tulsa World
A-F school grading system changes heard at state ed board meeting
The state education board heard proposed changes to the A-F school grading system Thursday, but only after some heated discussion about whether the public must restrict their comments to the changes rather the entire system. “You have boxed the board in. You didn’t come to us and say these are the rule changes we want to have. You didn’t do any of that,” said board member Lee Baxter.
Read more from the Tulsa World
Quote of the Day
“We are working hard to hopefully have success in the lawsuit. Right now it’s in such an early stage. It’s almost fully briefed, and oral argument has been requested. We’re pretty myopic.”
Attorney General Scott Pruitt, when asked what Oklahoma will do if his lawsuits challenging the Affordable Care Act are unsuccessful
Number of the Day
Additional amount Oklahoma needs to allocate to common ed annually to fully fund the Reading Sufficiency Act (RSA), which banned social promotion after 3rd grade for students who don’t read at grade level
Source: OKPolicy Blog
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
New issue brief examines how the third grade retention law will affect Oklahoma students and schools
In 2011, Oklahoma amended the Reading Sufficiency Act (RSA) to ban social promotion (promoting a child based on age rather than academic achievement). The new law requires schools to retain students who do not pass a reading test and do not meet other criteria for exemptions by the end of the third grade. The first group of students affected by this policy will complete the third grade in 2014.
Read more from the OKPolicy Blog
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