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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 $70 million Oklahoma has spent on a program to teach relationship skills and promote marriage has not stopped divorce rates from rising. The OK Policy Blog previously shared a series of posts examining whether the state should be promoting marriage. A research fellow working for the state Department of Education claimed that research criticizing the state’s A-F Grading System used an unrepresentative sample of testing data.
Responding to a supposed new national fad called the “knockout game,” state Representative Bobby Cleveland called for requiring juveniles charged with unprovoked battery to be tried as an adult with a 10-year minimum sentence. ThinkProgress explained why the “knockout game” trend is a media-fueled panic based on no real data. An Oklahoma jury convicted a police captain of first-degree manslaughter in the death of an unarmed teenager who was running away after scuffling with the officer. The Tulsa World writes that Oklahoma’s plan to move 1,000 offenders to private prisons is a short-sighted move that could have been avoided.
Even though Gov. Mary Fallin remains locked in two separate legal battles over her office’s refusal to release documents, her top lawyer insists Fallin’s administration is the most transparent Oklahoma has ever seen. New Mexico Governor Susan Martinez is trying to recruit Oklahoma nurse practitioners to her state, where they have more freedom to practice medicine without paying subsidies to physicians. With an already growing collection of exhibit materials, supporters of a popular culture museum to be built in Tulsa will again seek legislative appropriations.
House Speaker TW Shannon’s plan to build chapel inside the statehouse is raising constitutional questions after Shannon said the chapel would commemorate the state’s “Judeo-Christian heritage.” The OK Policy Blog discussed how inadequate pay and benefits keep Oklahoma retail workers on precarious financial footing, regardless of how hard or how much they work. The Number of the Day is the share of retail employees earning at least half of their family’s total income. The New York Times reported on how older workers are increasingly entering the fast-food industry and facing extreme pressures to make a living on minimum wage.
In The News
Oklahoma marriage initiative fails to stop rising divorce rates
For the past dozen years, Oklahoma government and groups have spent more than $70 million in federal money on a marriage program originally aimed at reducing the state’s high divorce rate in hopes of fighting poverty. Morethan fourth-fifths of that money for the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative came from the state’s pool of federal welfare funds. During that time, however, the rates of divorce, unmarried cohabitation and single-parent families have increased in Oklahoma and the nation, while the percentage of households with married couples has declined, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Read more from Oklahoma Watch.
Previously: OK Policy Roundtable: Should the state of Oklahoma be promoting marriage?
Department of Education analyst responds to A-F study
A controversial study by researchers at two Oklahoma universities that deems the state’s A-F school grading system as flawed is “misleading,” according to an in-house analysis by staffers at the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Megan Clifford, a Harvard University strategic data fellow “on loan” to the state Education Department for the next two years, conducted her own analysis of the system with input from her Harvard professors. One of the primary problems with the OU/OSU study is that it relied on a “small, non-representative sample of state data” for its conclusions, she said.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma lawmaker wants 10 year minimum sentence for unprovoked battery by juvenile
A state lawmaker plans to introduce legislation that would increase criminal penalties for anyone who participates in a supposed new national fad called the “knockout game.” State Rep. Bobby Cleveland, R-Slaughterville, said he knows of no cases in Oklahoma. Cleveland said his proposed legislation would ensure that any minor charged with unprovoked battery is tried as an adult and would increase the penalty to a minimum 10 years in prison. Oklahoma City police Sgt. Jennifer Wardlow said local police are not aware of any “knockout game” assaults occurring in the city, but they have fielded “a million telephone calls” inquiring about the existence of such assaults since news reports of the fad began surfacing.
See also: Media Feeding Panic Over The So-Called ‘Knockout Game’ That Might Not Even Exist from Think Progress
Oklahoma jury convicts police captain in death of unarmed teenager
An Oklahoma jury Tuesday convicted a veteran police captain of first-degree manslaughter in the death of an unarmed teenager who was running away after scuffling with the officer. Del City Police Capt. Randy Trent Harrison shot Dane Scott Jr. in the back on March 14, 2012, following a high-speed chase that began when Harrison tried to pull over Scott’s car. Harrison had previously arrested Scott on drug violations, and prosecutors said his pursuit of the teenager crossed the line from professional to personal.
Read more from the Associated Press.
Invasion of the private prisons
The word out of a legislative interim study group is that the state should transfer 1,000 offenders to private prisons to relieve stress on the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Two facilities, one in Watonga owned by GEO Group and the other in Hinton, owned by Corrections Corporation of America, just happen to be sitting empty. The DOC, the state’s innkeeper, is at capacity. With no room at the inn, the state might have little choice but to house its overflow crowd in private prisons, which it does to some extent already. How convenient. And, how short-sighted, considering that the state had its chance and missed it to reduce its prison population in a rational, safe manner.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Fallin’s top lawyer responds to secrecy claims
Even though Gov. Mary Fallin remains locked in two separate legal battles over her office’s refusal to release documents, her top lawyer insists Fallin’s administration is the most transparent Oklahoma has ever seen. Fallin signed a pledge while running for office to uphold both the spirit and the letter of the state’s open government laws, but critics say she is falling far short, and a statewide organization dedicated to supporting the state’s sunshine laws gave both Fallin and her general counsel its annual “Black Hole Award” this year for thwarting the free flow of information.
Read more from the Associated Press.
New Mexico wants to recruit Oklahoma’s nurse practitioners
Gov. Mary Fallin might want to take note of the marketing campaign New Mexico Gov. Susan Martinez hopes to launch. Martinez wants to market New Mexico beyond its ski vacations, hot air balloons, beautiful desert sunsets and art museums. Unlike Oklahoma, New Mexico allows nurse practitioners to practice with “full authority,” not requiring them to have a physician sign off on care in order for them to have prescriptive authority. Martinez specifically mentioned Oklahoma in her recent announcement of the campaign, adding that she hopes to further reform her state’s laws to remove any barriers that nurse practitioners moving to New Mexico might face when opening their practices.
Tulsa OKPOP museum promoters continue to seek state funding
With an already growing collection of exhibit materials, supporters of a popular culture museum to be built in Tulsa will again seek legislative appropriations. But with state officials forecasting a flat budget picture for fiscal year 2015, the fate of such funding for the OKPOP museum remains far from certain. “Until we get a better idea of our revenue picture from the Board of Equalization in February, we can’t commit to anything that will have a budget impact,” said Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Okla. GOP Speaker’s plan to build chapel inside statehouse raises constitutional questions
Some Oklahoma lawmakers want to build a small chapel in the Capitol to celebrate the state’s “Judeo-Christian heritage,” a potentially divisive move for a Legislature that in recent years targeted Islamic law with a constitutional amendment and tried to bar the leader of a Muslim advocacy group from a law enforcement seminar. But some civil libertarians and legal scholars question whether such a chapel would be constitutional or improperly endorse one strain of religious thought. “The purpose of the chapel would be historical, much like other statues that are there to celebrate history and the contributions of other Oklahomans,” said Republican House Speaker T.W. Shannon. “My focus would be to commemorate the history of the faith community in Oklahoma, and as far as I know, that was a Judeo-Christian heritage.”
Read more from the Associated Press.
Crappy Holidays! Truly a ‘Black Friday’ for retail workers
Every holiday season, retailers lure throngs of shoppers with extended hours, blowout sales, and special deals. The frantic sales environment is stressful for some shoppers, but it’s doubly so for most store employees. Oklahomans working retail aren’t likely to see their pay increase in proportion to their seasonal workload. Regardless of how hard or how much they work, inadequate pay and benefits keep too many workers on precarious financial footing.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Quote of the Day
We wouldn’t practice any differently if we had full autonomy. Nothing that we did here would be different, other than we wouldn’t have to jump through extra hoops to get the same amount of care … The sooner we get to where New Mexico is, the better.
-Toni Pratt-Reid, the first nurse practitioner in Oklahoma to open a private practice, on an Oklahoma law that requires nurse practitioners to be supervised by (and pay subsidies to) a physician (Source: http://bit.ly/1ch7kh9)
Number of the Day
72 percent
The share of retail employees earning at least half of their family’s total income – and 18 percent of those are their family’s sole earner.
Source: Oklahoma Policy Institute
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Life on $7.25 an hour
On a recent Friday evening, Eduardo Shoy left work at 6 p.m. Mr. Shoy, a deliveryman for KFC and Pizza Hut, was coming off an eight-hour shift of driving three-cheese pies and crispy chicken fingers, in an automotive blur, to private homes and businesses in central Queens. Now it was the weekend and he headed home. Within an hour, remote control beside him, still dressed in his uniform, he had drifted off to sleep. If Mr. Shoy were differently employed, he might have remained that way till morning. But as a fast-food worker paid the minimum wage — $7.25 an hour in New York — he didn’t have the luxury. At 10 p.m., he was up again and back in his car, this time driving to his second job.
Read more from the New York Times.
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