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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.
State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister has decided to eliminate field testing for this year’s state writing assessments amid growing concerns among educators and parents. The Tulsa World shared a Q & A with new Tulsa superintendent Deborah Gist. The state’s new secretary of education and workforce development, Natalie Shirley, says programs are in place to help Oklahomans acquire the skills they need to get good jobs, but low expectations are holding some students back.
The Muskogee Phoenix reported that requests keep coming for tax breaks at the Capitol despite a $300 million budget shortfall. The Oklahoma editorial board wrote that further income tax cuts aren’t on policymakers’ radar. In a Tulsa World op-ed, David Blatt discussed how lawmakers have set Oklahoma up for long-term budget shortfalls. In the latest OK PolicyCast, we talk with Affordable Care Act Navigator Donna Orban on what’s being done to get Oklahomans signed up for health insurance, and we hear David Blatt’s takeaways from Governor Fallin’s new budget proposal. On the OK Policy Blog, Steve Lewis discusses how chronic budget shortfalls are not creating much of a future for Oklahoma kids.
Gov. Mary Fallin has signed an executive order that carries forward 24 executive orders from her and previous administrations and eliminates dozens of others. In the wake of court action legalizing same-sex marriages, lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Legislature have filed more than a dozen bills that affect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Oklahomans. Philanthropist Lynn Schusterman wrote in The Oklahoman that enshrining discrimination against LGBT Oklahomans into law would damage the social and economic fabric of the state. KGOU shared several briefs on what else happened during the first week of the legislative session. Oklahoma lawmakers are debating a bill that would ban selling a used tire with a tread length less than 2/32nds of an inch.
After rising for three years, the percentage of union membership among Oklahoma workers dropped in 2014. Since 2005, the 211 Helpline serving the Tulsa area has fielded more than 1 million calls from people seeking assistance from health and human services agencies, a number that has far exceeded expectations. An oil and gas wastewater disposal well is suspected of triggering an earthquake that damaged homes in Love County near the Texas border, but when residents protested the operator’s application to build the well before the Oklahoma Corporation Commission they were told their concerns were out of the commission’s jurisdiction.
The Number of the Day is the percentage of Oklahomans aged 18-29 who turned out to vote in 2012, well below the national average of 45 percent. In today’s Policy Note, Grist shares the story of a bakery that will hire anyone who applies for an open position.
In The News
Hofmeister announces elimination of field tests from 2015 state writing exams
State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister has decided to eliminate field testing for this year’s state writing assessments amid growing concerns among educators and parents. Hofmeister said she believes the elimination will cut in half the amount of time required for fifth- and eighth-graders to take writing tests, thus freeing up valuable time for more classroom instruction.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Question and answer time with Deborah Gist, the next TPS superintendent
In her initial three-day tour at Tulsa Public Schools, superintendent designee Deborah Gist exchanged handshakes and “hellos” with more students, teachers, administrators, parents and community leaders than she could count. But in between all of those simple introductions, she took time out to answer some of the deeper questions on the minds of Tulsans.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Closing the skills gap is critical to Oklahoma’s future, state officials say
The state’s new secretary of education and workforce development, Natalie Shirley, says programs are in place to help Oklahomans acquire the skills they need to get good jobs, but low expectations are holding some students back. “We have to pick them up and get them in some post-high school program,” she said.
Capitol beset by demand for tax breaks
These days, the talk around the state Capitol is of a $300 million shortfall. The problem, legislators and the governor say, is that a glut of tax breaks and business incentives cost the state more than $1 billion annually. Each is billed as well-intentioned, yet each tax break that passes costs the state money. Yet, the requests keep coming. Recent proposals have sought tax breaks for a college outbuilding, deductions for grandparents raising grandchildren and exemptions for funeral equipment used in ceremonies of disabled veterans.
Read more from the Muskogee Phoenix.
Further income tax cut not on Oklahoma policymakers’ radar
Gov. Mary Fallin talked about many things during her 2015 State of the State speech to the Legislature. Oklahoma’s personal income tax rate wasn’t one of them. Perhaps that’s instructive. For a time during her first term, Fallin urged her fellow Republicans who control both chambers to approve a plan that ultimately would eliminate the personal income tax. That didn’t materialize, but lawmakers did approve a bill that in January 2016 will cut the top rate to 5 percent from its current 5.25 percent.
Why Oklahoma’s budgets don’t balance
Recently the Tulsa World ran a series of op-eds by state leaders making the case for why their favored area of state government deserves additional funding. These advocates made impassioned arguments for why Oklahoma’s prosperity, safety, and well-being depend on larger investments in areas including public schools, higher education, child welfare, health care, juvenile justice, public safety and infrastructure.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
OK PolicyCast Episode 20: One more push for health insurance | Takeaways from the Governor’s budget
This week we talk with Affordable Care Act Navigator Donna Orban on what’s being done to get Oklahomans signed up for health insurance during this year’s Affordable Care Act enrollment period. We also speak with OK Policy Executive Director David Blatt, who shares some takeaways from Governor Fallin’s new budget proposal.
Hear more from the PolicyCast.
‘Starve the beast’ comes to Oklahoma
The legislative session started Monday with Governor Fallin’s state of the state address. It’s hard to escape the thought that this is going to be a very tough year because of the budget situation. Right now it’s like the state agencies and the legislature are living in alternative universes. The agencies are asking for millions in budget increases and the legislature is working with a budget that begins with a $300 million deficit.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Gov. Fallin renews, clears out executive orders
Gov. Mary Fallin has signed an executive order that carries forward 24 executive orders from her and previous administrations and eliminates dozens of others. The governor won’t renew nearly 70 executive orders — some dating back 56 years. Many orders not being renewed deal with outdated policies and agencies or are inconsistent with federal law.
Lawmakers file more than a dozen measures targeting LGBT Oklahomans
In the wake of court action legalizing same-sex marriages, lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Legislature have filed more than a dozen bills that affect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Oklahomans. Some of the bills have been dubbed by their authors as the “Protection of Religious Freedom in the Sanctity of Marriage Act of 2015,” the “Preservation of Sovereignty and Marriage Act” and “the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act.”
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma deserves better than what some legislators are providing
Imagine living in a state where businesses can legally refuse to serve people based on their sexual orientation. Where parents can force their children to undergo conversion therapy to “cure” them of their “homosexual tendencies.” Where state officials can be prosecuted for carrying out their oath of office by issuing same-sex marriage licenses. If you think this couldn’t happen in the 21st century, think again. These are proposed bills that await legislative action as Oklahoma lawmakers go back into session this month.
Oklahoma Legislators Get To Work – Last Week At The Capitol
Legislative committee work dominated the first full week of the Oklahoma legislative session for the House and Senate, as well as some other planning. A plan to dedicate every other legislative session in Oklahoma exclusively to creating a state budget is picking up momentum in the Legislature. Gov. Mary Fallin touted the idea on the campaign trail, and now Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman has written a resolution that would send the plan to a vote of the people.
Oklahoma Legislators Debate Restrictions On Used Tire Sales
Oklahoma lawmakers are debating a bill that would make it harder to sell used tires. Owners at one auto salvage yard in Tulsa say the bill would hurt their business and the people who can’t to afford to buy new tires. State senator Frank Simpson (R-Springer) and state representative Pat Ownbey (R-Ardmore) are behind the legislation that would prevent selling a used tire with a tread length less than 2/32nds of an inch.
Oklahoma’s Union Membership Rate Dropped in 2014
After rising for three years, the percentage of union membership among Oklahoma workers dropped in 2014, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2014, the number of Oklahoma workers belonging to a union was 89,000, down from 114,000 in 2013 according to Regional Commissioner Stanley Suchman of the Southwest Information Office. Union members accounted for 6.0 percent of all Oklahoma wage and salary workers in 2014, compared with 7.5 percent in 2013.
211 Helpline met more than 237,000 needs of local residents last year
Since receiving its first call July 1, 2005, the 211 Helpline serving the Tulsa area has fielded 1,057,863 calls from people seeking assistance from health and human services agencies. The number of calls has far exceeded expectations, said Jim Lyall, associate director for the Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa, which operates the helpline.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Residents’ concerns about well ‘out of jurisdiction’ for regulators
After a 3.4 earthquake damaged homes in Love County near the Texas border in 2013, state officials scrambled to learn whether a new disposal well there played a role. Residents protested the operator’s application to build the well before the Oklahoma Corporation Commission but were told some of their concerns were out of the commission’s jurisdiction.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Quote of the Day
“I think that if I was a teacher in Tulsa right now, having gone through everything that Tulsa teachers have gone through, (and everything that) Oklahoma teachers have gone through in terms of some of the stuff happening in the state Legislature, and the funding issues and so forth — and then I saw that there was this connection — I probably would be having the same reaction right now that some teachers are having right now in Tulsa.”
-New Tulsa schools superintendent Deborah Gist speaking about Tulsa teachers’ protests of her hiring, in part because she belongs to the controversial “Chiefs for Change” association that also counted as a member ousted state superintendent Janet Barresi (Source: http://bit.ly/1DXccUb)
Number of the Day
27.1%
Percentage of Oklahomans aged 18-29 who turned out to vote in 2012, well below the national average of 45 percent.
Source: Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Felons, addicts, immigrants: This bakery will hire anyone
There are millions of people in America that lack the means to feed their families legally. That’s the claim made by Dion Drew, who speaks from personal experience rather than statistical authority. Drew grew up in the projects and started selling drugs when he was 15, then bounced in and out of jail for nearly 20 years. Finally, he decided he wanted to do whatever was necessary to stay on the right side of the law. But of course no business owner wanted to hire an ex-convict.
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