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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 state Board of Education voted unanimously to delay release of A-F report cards for Oklahoma schools until the Oct. 25 regular meeting. NewsOK shared reactions from Oklahoma legislators and educators. The okeducationtruths blog writes the Superintendent Barresi told school districts that the grades were no longer embargoed following the meeting, despite the Board’s decision to delay their release.
The OK Policy Blog discussed Oklahoma’s problems with infant mortality. We currently have the 6th highest rate of infant death among the states. Independents and voters wanting more of a choice in candidates held a rally for easing Oklahoma’s ballot access laws. American Airlines will lay off 370 workers at its Tulsa maintenance base by February. A 23-year-old Illinois man accused of planning to attack dozens of churches in Oklahoma with Molotov cocktails has a history of struggling with mental illness.
The Tulsa World writes that a state question to restructure governance of DHS is justifiable. The OK Policy Blog previously discussed how ambiguities in the legislation and ballot language make it appear as if the Department itself could be abolished if voters approve SQ 765. Find more on all of the state questions at our 2012 State Questions page.
The Number of the Day is how many people in Oklahoma with an intellectual and/or developmental disability are currently on the waiting list to receive state services; the average wait time is 8 years. In today’s Policy Note, SCOTUSblog summarizes a case before the Supreme Court challenging affirmative action programs at public universities. The court will hear oral arguments on the case tomorrow.
In The News
Release of A-F report cards for Oklahoma schools delayed by Board of Education
The state Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to delay a vote on releasing the first report cards of the new A-F grading system for all schools and districts statewide until the Oct. 25 regular meeting. The board’s decision went against the wishes of State Superintendent Janet Barresi. The board was set to vote to certify the new grades and then release them in the afternoon. Board members agreed to delay the vote with the singular purpose of further reviewing how average student growth is calculated – a major sticking point for nearly 300 school districts statewide. During public comments, Lisa Muller, assistant superintendent of curriculum at Jenks Public Schools, said the current way of calculating student growth “would be analogous to determining the average yardage of a running back by using only plays in which he gained yardage.”
Read more from the Tulsa World.
See also: Oklahoma legislators stand behind A-F law; other states have faced challenges from NewsOK; Oklahoma educators react to grading-system delay from NewsOK; Unfit response from okeducationtruths
It’s everyone’s responsibility
The State Department of Health recently convened a leadership summit to address a public health problem that is as tragic as it is entrenched in Oklahoma: infant mortality. The summit is part of a statewide initiative to raise awareness about the issue, Preparing for a Lifetime: It’s Everyone’s Responsibility. Babies born in Oklahoma are less likely to reach their first birthday than in almost any other state in the country, with about 400 babies dying each year before their first birthday. We currently have the 6th highest rate of infant death among the states, and Oklahoma’s infant mortality rate (IMR) has been consistently higher than the national average for more than fifteen years.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Third-party Oklahoma voters seek easier ballot access
Independents and voters wanting more of a choice in candidates called upon lawmakers Monday to ease Oklahoma’s ballot access laws, which are regarded as the most restrictive in the country. Legislators have rebuffed efforts over the years of relaxing requirements to get another party on the ballot. The House of Representatives passed a bill in 2011 that would have lowered the number of petition signatures needed to get a political party on the ballot, but it failed to advance in the Senate. Some of the 40 people attending a noon rally on the Capitol’s north plaza also were irked by a state Supreme Court ruling last month that denied a request from the Oklahoma Americans Elect Party to have its nominees and the party’s seven presidential electors listed on the state’s Nov. 6 general election ballot.
American Airlines to lay off 370 at Tulsa maintenance base
American Airlines will lay off 300 mechanics and about 70 fleet service workers at its Tulsa Maintenance & Engineering Center by February, company and Transport Workers Union officials said Friday. The announcement came after American said Thursday that 709 mechanics, plant maintenance and logistics specialists in Tulsa elected to take an early-retirement option. The layoffs will be effective in November and December for the fleet service workers and in December and February for mechanics, officials said. The Tulsa maintenance base employs 7,000 people overall, 3,000 of them aircraft maintenance technicians or mechanics.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma bomb plot suspect mentally ill
A 23-year-old Illinois man accused of planning to attack dozens of churches in Oklahoma with Molotov cocktails has struggled with mental illness, substance abuse and grief, said his cousin, who expressed relief that no one was hurt in the plot. Gregory Arthur Weiler II, of Elk Grove Village, Ill., was arrested Thursday after a motel maintenance worker spotted the makings of Molotov cocktails in a trash bin and alerted police. Officers found bomb-making materials in Weiler’s motel room, along with plans to attack nearly 50 churches in Miami, a community of about 13,500 in northeast Oklahoma, according to a police affidavit. Weiler’s parents both committed suicide, and Weiler has battled “a lot of mental illnesses” that led to his own suicide attempt in the eighth grade, Meyers said. He has been admitted to mental hospitals multiple times, and Meyers said “with his medication, he was perfectly fine and functional.”
Tulsa World: Restructuring of DHS justifiable
There are pros and cons to just about every form of public governance. Voters will decide Nov. 6 whether to continue with the nine-member Oklahoma Human Services Commission governing the Department of Human Services or to switch to a new form that places more authority with the agency’s director and includes more citizen involvement through advisory panels. Given the issues that have plagued the agency in recent years, and the fact that no other state in the country uses the commission form, we feel the scales tilt in favor of switching to the new form.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Previously: SQ 765: Are Oklahoma voters beings asked to do away with DHS? from the OK Policy Blog
Quote of the Day
[It] would be analogous to determining the average yardage of a running back by using only plays in which he gained yardage.
–Lisa Muller, assistant superintendent of curriculum at Jenks Public Schools, on school districts’ objection to the way the state Department of Education is calculating average student growth for schools’ A-F report cards.
Number of the Day
6,756
The number of people in Oklahoma with an intellectual and/or developmental disability currently on the waiting list to receive state services; the average wait time is 8 years.
Source: OKWaitingList.org
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
College admissions case: Made simple
America’s Constitution embraces the cultural ideal that all persons are equal, and that race should not be a dividing line in who gets to benefit from public policies or programs. But the Supreme Court has spent decades sorting out what remedies are constitutionally acceptable when opportunity does not appear to be open equally to all who seek it. If opportunity was explicitly denied because of someone’s race, the remedy, of course, is to end that discrimination. But the other side of the constitutional issue is whether and when race can be used to try to break down what are seen as barriers to equality. That is the issue the Court faces in cases about “affirmative action,” an issue that it will confront again in October.
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