OKPOLICY.ORG
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 Oklahoma City Public Schools is struggling to recruit and retain teachers because of low salaries and the challenges of teaching in a district with high poverty. The Tulsa school board will consider expanding a sex education program aimed at preventing teen pregnancy and STDs. The Tulsa World profiled programs that are successfully helping at-risk students with alternative classes and therapeutic counseling and helping first-graders who are having trouble reading with intensive tutoring.
Opinions vary on the motivation for a special legislative session beginning today to reinstate a lawsuit reform law that was found unconstitutional in June. With one month to go, organizations are hiring dozens of navigators to help Oklahomans learn about new health insurance options under the Affordable Care Act. Despite efforts to increase the number of doctors in rural areas, many Oklahoma counties are still sorely lacking physicians to provide sufficient care to their residents.
An Oklahoma City attorney is arguing that the $750 million dollar MAPS 3 initiative passed in 2009 was unconstitutional. The Number of the Day is Oklahoma’s rank among the states for the change in housing prices over the last 5 years, up 4.5 percent since 2008. In today’s Policy Note, the Texas Observer reports on how Texas reforms limiting accountability for doctors and hospitals allowed a neurosurgeon to kill or paralyze 6 patients in 3 years before his license was suspended.
In The News
Oklahoma City losing young teachers to higher-paying schools districts
Cale Nockels is so passionate about teaching that he once cut short a career in the U.S. Air Force to serve inner-city children. “I saw a calling to work with young people,” he said Thursday. “They needed to have people in their lives that could influence them in a positive way.” Now the 27-year-old algebra teacher at Northwest Classen High School is considering another career change. He and his wife want to start a family, and they say teaching won’t allow them to make ends meet.
TPS proposes teen pregnancy prevention program
Sex education could soon be expanding in Tulsa Public Schools. On Tuesday, the school board will be asked to approve a comprehensive pregnancy prevention curriculum for students in grades seven, nine and 11 that would be provided beginning this fall by Youth Services of Tulsa, the Tulsa Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and the Tulsa City-County Health Department. Steve Mayfield, director of constituent and student affairs at TPS, said that just like a pregnancy prevention program that has been offered to summer school students the last two years, parental consent would be needed for any student to participate.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Street school helps at-risk students with emotional and academic needs
Elijah Wilson dropped out of high school in February, but on the first day of the new academic year last month, he decided to show up again. Really show up. “I came back because Pam and all of the staff here believe in me. I have a lot of support here,” said Wilson, 19, referring to his counselor, Pam Sinor. “I know they want to see me succeed, and I want to be successful.” Street School, a Tulsa nonprofit, has become a national model for helping at-risk youths ages 14-19 because it combines alternative education classes and therapeutic counseling.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Broken Arrow students get boost from reading program
Second-grader Landon Smith can read now like never before – with enthusiasm, confidence and on level with his peers. Last year, the 8-year-old participated in a research-based reading intervention program called Reading Recovery at Broken Arrow Public Schools. In its third year, the program is proving successful in identifying first-graders who are having trouble reading and then intervening with intensive one-on-one tutoring that complements classroom instruction, said Janet Dunlop, assistant superintendent of instructional services.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
View vary on motivation for special legislative session
Opinions vary on the motivation for a special legislative session beginning Tuesday to revamp a lawsuit reform law that was found unconstitutional in June. Gov. Mary Fallin last month called for the special session after rulings by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that found a highly touted 2009 lawsuit reform measure, House Bill 1603, violated the state constitution’s single-subject rule. In a separate opinion, the court said that requiring an expert to certify that a professional negligence case has merit before it can proceed was an impermissible special law and created a monetary barrier to the courts.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Groups gear up to help Oklahomans enroll in health insurance plans
With one month to go, organizations hiring dozens of navigators to help Oklahomans learn about the new federal health insurance plans are scrambling to get ready. While there’s little evidence of the statewide program in the works now, officials with two organizations receiving federal grants say they are confident the navigators will be ready by Oct. 1. That’s when citizens can begin enrolling in health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Aug. 15 it was awarding $67 million nationally for navigator training, including $1.6 million to three groups in the state.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
The doctor is not in
Despite efforts to increase the number of doctors in rural areas, many Oklahoma counties are still sorely lacking physicians to provide sufficient care to their residents. Seventy-two of the state’s 77 counties, or 94 percent, are designated by the federal government as shortage areas for primary health professionals; 30 have 10 or fewer doctors of any kind. The five counties not considered shortage areas are Oklahoma, Johnston, Canadian, Rogers and Wagoner, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.
Read more from Oklahoma Watch.
Attorney says MAPS 3 ballot may have been unconstitutional
An Oklahoma City attorney is threatening to file a legal challenge to the $750 million dollar MAPS 3 initiative that is currently in the works. In 2009, voters approved the plans. Now, an Oklahoma City attorney says MAPS 3 is unconstitutional and has threatened the city with legal action. David Slane, a local attorney, said he’s not opposed to a new central park, convention center or river improvements in MAPS 3. However, he says forcing people at the polls in 2009 to vote on eight different projects with a single up or down vote may have been illegal.
Quote of the Day
The shocking thing is, every time these things come up, we say give us a list of frivolous lawsuits or a list of suits outside the bounds of reasonableness. Inevitably, it is some example from out of the state. There is no litigation crisis.
-Tulsa attorney Guy Fortney, on a special session beginning today to restore tort reform laws that the Oklahoma Supreme Court threw out as unconstitutional (Source: http://bit.ly/17wJMT7)
Number of the Day
Oklahoma’s rank among the states for the change in housing prices over the last 5 years, up 4.5 percent since 2008
Source: Tax Policy Center
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
After Texas limited options for holding doctors accountable, neurosurgeon left 6 patients dead or paralyzed in 3 years
When the Medical Board suspended Duntsch’s license, the agency’s spokespeople too seemed shocked. “It’s a completely egregious case,’’ Leigh Hopper, then head of communications for the Texas Medical Board, told The Dallas Morning News in June. “We’ve seen neurosurgeons get in trouble but not one such as this, in terms of the number of medical errors in such a short time.” But the real tragedy of the Christopher Duntsch story is how preventable it was. In Duntsch’s case, we see the weakness of Texas’ unregulated system of health care, a system built to protect doctors and hospitals. And a system in which there’s no way to know for sure if your doctor is dangerous.
Read more from the Texas Observer.
You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.
