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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 the Oklahoma City School Board voted to close Marcus Garvey Leadership Charter School, due to what administrators said was poor academics and financial mismanagement. Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett has formed a task force to review public and school tornado safety procedures. Kaiser Health News reports on how electronic health records were critical for patients displaced from the Moore Medical Center after the tornado.
With the question of how to help the more than 630,000 Oklahomans without health insurance still unresolved, Gov. Fallin said calling the Legislature back into special session could be an option. The dean of the OU-Tulsa College of Medicine said the needs of the uninsured have been ignored in Oklahoma’s health care debates. Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove, wrote a NewsOK op-ed critizing his Republican colleagues’ opposition to contraception.
The OK Policy Blog explains why Oklahoma’s criminal justice reform efforts have completely ignored the biggest reasons for our sky-high incarceration rate. With the passage of an Oklahoma bill this year, a right to DNA testing for convicted inmates to prove their innocence is now guaranteed in all 50 states. The Tulsa World lists House and Senate lawmakers who missed the most votes this legislative session.
The Number of the Day is Oklahoma’s rank among the states for median speed of residential internet access. In today’s Policy Note, Governing reports that more than a quarter-million veterans who lack health insurance will miss out on Medicaid coverage because they live in states that have declined to expand the program under the Affordable Care Act.
In The News
OKC School Board votes to close charter school
Quanetta Releford blinked back tears. She was out of a job, but that’s wasn’t the point. Her school was closed. The Oklahoma City School Board voted 6-2 during a special meeting Tuesday night to close Marcus Garvey Leadership Charter School. Releford, an arts teacher, was one of more than 200 people — mostly Marcus Garvey supporters — who packed the Oklahoma City Public Schools administration building auditorium. Many got up and walked away while school board members encouraged them to try to open a different school.
OKC mayor forms task force to study severe weather preparation
In the wake of last week’s devastating tornadoes, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett has formed a task force to review public and school safety procedures. The task force will examine any and all options in regard to safety in our community during storms and severe weather. Among the task force members: Oklahoma City Council Members Pete White and David Greenwell, whose wards were hit by the May 20 tornado; Oklahoma Secretary of Education Janet Barresi; Xavier Neira, Oklahoma Director of Development for Manhattan Construction; and Harold Roberts, Chief Operating Officer of ASTEC Charter Schools.
Electronic health records critical in Oklahoma tornado
Everyone expects a hospital to be ready to jump into action when disaster strikes. But what about when the disaster devastates the hospital itself? Turns out, it helps a lot to have an electronic medical record system in place. At least that was the case at Moore Medical Center in Oklahoma, a small hospital right in the path of the tornado that ripped through the suburbs of Oklahoma City on Monday. Amazingly, everyone survived. Within an hour, 30 patients had been transferred to the two other hospitals that are part of the Norman Regional Health System. And every one of them arrived with their medical histories fully intact.
Read more from Kaiser Health News.
Session over, health questions remain
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin gave lawmakers an ‘A’ grade for approving much of her agenda during the recently concluded legislative session, but the question of how the state plans to address the more than 630,000 Oklahomans without health insurance remains unresolved. Fallin, a Republican, rejected the opportunity under the federal health care law to expand Medicaid coverage to nearly 200,000 people without health insurance, saying last November that doing so would prove too costly to the state and the country.
Read more from the Muskogee Phoenix.
Health care changing, OU-Tulsa president says
“It just really kind of hit me yesterday,” said Dr. Gerard Clancy. The president of the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa had clocked in some hours at the Wayman Tisdale Specialty Health Center, putting to direct use his medical training and expertise in psychiatry. “Everybody I saw was uninsured. Everybody I saw had not accessed psychiatric care in a long, long time. Everyone I saw could not afford care. Everyone I saw could not afford medication,” said Clancy. “Everyone I saw couldn’t work because they were so impaired by the illness they were suffering.”
Read more from Urban Tulsa Weekly.
State Rep. Doug Cox: The GOP and abortion legislation
All of the new Oklahoma laws aimed at limiting abortion and contraception are great for the Republican family that lives in a gingerbread house with a two-car garage, two planned kids and a dog. In the real world, they are less than perfect. As a practicing physician (who never has or will perform an abortion), I deal with the real world. In the real world, 15- and 16-year-olds get pregnant (sadly, 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds do also). In the real world, 62 percent of women ages 20 to 24 who give birth are unmarried. And in the world I work and live in, an unplanned pregnancy can throw up a real roadblock on a woman’s path to escaping the shackles of poverty. Yet I cannot convince my Republican colleagues that one of the best ways to eliminate abortions is to ensure access to contraception.
Oklahoma is still waiting for criminal justice reform
In an earlier post, I discussed how implementation of the criminal justice reforms passed in 2011 was not going as hoped. This post examines why the justice reinvestment initiative (JRI) was only a start and what reforms still need to happen to achieve a significant drop in the cost and level of incarceration in Oklahoma.The justice reinvestment law focused on reducing recidivism, but it might surprise many to know that Oklahoma already has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the nation. Oklahoma’s criminal justice reform efforts have completely ignored the biggest reasons for our sky-high incarceration rate.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
With passage of Oklahoma bill, DNA testing guaranteed in all 50 states
Laws like the one passed in Oklahoma are important for the wrongfully convicted because they provide a guaranteed means to DNA testing. Without such laws, prisoners have no statutory right to testing and must convince judges or prosecutors to grant them access. Larry Peterson, who was falsely convicted of murder and spent 16 years in prison in New Jersey, struggled for years to have evidence tested until a DNA testing law was passed in his state. Oklahoma’s testing law is one of the most comprehensive in the nation, but some laws in other states have limitations which can be significant.
Read more from the Innocence Project.
Tulsa lawmakers top list of most missed votes
Two Tulsa area lawmakers are among the legislators who missed the most votes in the legislative session that ended Friday. Sen. Mike Mazzei, R-Tulsa, missed 723 votes, records show. He was followed in the upper chamber by Sen. Harry Coates, R-Seminole, who missed 413 votes. Neither Mazzei, who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, nor Coates returned phone calls seeking comment Tuesday. In the House, Rep. John Trebilcock, R-Broken Arrow, missed the most votes – 487 – followed by Rep. Mike Christian, R-Oklahoma City, who missed 431 votes.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Quote of the Day
As a practicing physician (who never has or will perform an abortion), I deal with the real world. In the real world, 15- and 16-year-olds get pregnant (sadly, 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds do also). In the real world, 62 percent of women ages 20 to 24 who give birth are unmarried. And in the world I work and live in, an unplanned pregnancy can throw up a real roadblock on a woman’s path to escaping the shackles of poverty. Yet I cannot convince my Republican colleagues that one of the best ways to eliminate abortions is to ensure access to contraception.
Number of the Day
40th
Oklahoma’s rank among the states for median speed of residential internet access, 2,941 kilobits per second
Source: Communications Workers of America, 2010
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Uninsured veterans left behind in states not embracing Medicaid expansion
More than a quarter-million veterans who lack health insurance will miss out on Medicaid coverage because they live in states that have declined to expand the program under the Affordable Care Act. Expanding Medicaid eligibility is a key component of the new federal health law, which aims to provide coverage to the vast majority of uninsured Americans. In January, uninsured adults with incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level ($15,415 for an individual and $32,527 for a family of four) will become eligible for Medicaid benefits in states that expand their programs. Many people assume that the nation’s 12.5 million non-elderly veterans receive health benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). But only two-thirds of those veterans are eligible for VA health care and only one-third are enrolled.
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