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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.
The U.S. Department of Education has reinstated Oklahoma’s flexibility waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The state had lost its waiver after repealing Common Core education standards, but it was restored after the State Regent for Higher Education certified Oklahoma’s old standards as “college and career-ready.” You can read the letter from the U.S. Department of Education here. Hundreds of students, parents and supporters lined the street in front of Norman High School on Monday to protest the school’s handling of the bullying of three female students who allege they were raped by a former male student. Buzzfeed shared photos and social media updates from the event. Norman Public Schools has released a fact sheet describing their response to the sexual assault allegations and protest.
State officials have sought a protective order in federal court to withhold from the public key documents and information in a civil rights lawsuit filed by inmates who reported being raped at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center. Oklahoma’s Department of Public Safety has complied with a federal judge’s order to deliver records to attorneys for 21 Oklahoma death-row inmates who have filed a lawsuit to block their executions. Oklahoma and twenty other states are asking a federal appeals court to overturn provisions of Maryland’s gun-control law that bans 45 assault weapons and limits gun magazines to 10 rounds. Oklahoma State Treasurer Ken Miller said Oklahomans are owed up to $37 million in unclaimed death benefits they are not aware of.
On the OK Policy Blog, we look at how others states are taking advantage of federal flexibility to design their own plans to expand health coverage, which Oklahoma has so far refused to do. At an Oklahoma City Metro Chamber forum, several economists praised Oklahoma’s metro areas as engines of growth, but criticized state leaders for failing to plan for the long term and neglecting investments in education and infrastructure. A new grant program by the Tulsa Area United Way that funds creative responses to community challenges has awarded its first grants to a new medical clinic for homeless and at-risk youth and a camp serving child victims of domestic violence, among others.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rejected parts of Texas’ plan to reduce pollution from power plants that are impacting a wildlife refuge in Oklahoma. The New York Times reported on how wind power projects in Oklahoma are starting to produce energy cheaper than coal or natural gas. The Number of the Day is the percentage of calls to Oklahoma’s child abuse and neglect hotline in 2013 that were reporting abuse and/or neglect of an adult. In today’s Policy Note, This American Life shares stories of schools struggling with how to handle misbehaving kids and examines evidence that some of the most popular punishments may actually harm kids.
In The News
Oklahoma’s No Child Left Behind Act waiver reinstated for 2014-15
The Oklahoma State Department of Education on Monday announced that its flexibility waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Act is being reinstated for the current academic year. State Superintendent Janet Barresi said at an afternoon press conference that the waiver will take effect immediately.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Read the Department of Education’s letter here.
Hundreds of Norman students join walkout, anti-bullying rally
Hundreds of students, parents and supporters lined the street in front of Norman High School on Monday to protest the school’s handling of the bullying of three female students who allege they were raped by a former male student. The protest was held in response to allegations from a 16-year-old who said she was raped Sept. 19 and bullied when she tried to return to school. After the girl made her accusations public, two other girls said they were raped by the same student.
See also: Oklahoma High Schoolers Walk Out After Alleged Rape Victims Bullied from BuzzFeed.
Read a press release from Norman Public Schools here.
AG’s office seeks order preventing release of details in prison rape lawsuit
State officials have sought a protective order in federal court to withhold from the public key documents and information in a civil rights lawsuit filed by inmates who reported being raped at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center. The Oklahoma Attorney General’s office filed a motion for a protective order this past week on behalf of employees of the Department of Corrections, stating that the court may take such actions “to prevent the embarrassment, oppression, undue burden, or expense” to parties in a lawsuit.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Department of Public Safety Turns Over Documents Related To Oklahoma Executions
The head of the Department of Public Safety has complied with a federal judge’s order to deliver records to attorneys for 21 Oklahoma death-row inmates who have filed a lawsuit to block their executions. U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot convened a brief hearing Monday to determine whether Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Thompson had turned over records he was ordered to produce earlier this month.
Oklahoma, Twenty Other States Challenge Maryland Assault Weapons Ban
Oklahoma and twenty other states are asking a federal appeals court to overturn provisions of Maryland’s gun-control law that ban 45 assault weapons and a limit gun magazines to 10 rounds. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey led the coalition in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in the Fourth U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia last week. The brief says the law violates the Second Amendment right to keep firearms in homes for self-protection.
Oklahoma state treasurer says $37 million in unclaimed death benefits are owed to Oklahomans
Oklahomans are owed up to $37 million in unclaimed death benefits they are not aware of, state Treasurer Ken Miller said. Miller is in the business of linking people to lost property through the state’s unclaimed property fund, and $14 million of that total has already been reported to the fund. He expects to turn up $23 million more from examinations of insurance companies, he said Friday.
Oklahoma has options to insure our people. Here’s how.
When justifying their opposition to the Affordable Care Act’s provisions to extend health coverage to the uninsured, Oklahoma leaders often cite a preference for a state-specific solution. For example, Governor Mary Fallin promised an “Oklahoma plan” to address the large number of uninsured citizens in the coverage crater.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Economists Optimistic About Oklahoma Growth, Worried About Inaction On Roads, Teacher Pay
Several economists praised Oklahoma’s metro areas as engines of growth, but criticized state leaders for failing to plan for the long term. During the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber’s State of the Economy luncheon Wednesday, University of Central Oklahoma College of Business Dean Mickey Hepner said Oklahoma City set a model in performing long-term planning and raising the sales tax through the city’s MAPS plan.
Camp for child victims of domestic violence part of United Way’s first Innovation Grants
The Tulsa Area United has announced the first recipients of a new grant program designed for individuals and nonprofits that develop creative responses to community challenges. The first round of grants include $90,000 to hire a health navigator at a new medical clinic for homeless and at-risk youth that is a partnership between Youth Services of Tulsa and the School of Community Medicine at OU-Tulsa and $60,000 to Fab Lab Tulsa to launch a mobile digital fabrication lab. A $65,000 grant will help create a two-week camp to serve up to 60 children between the ages of seven and 15 who have experienced domestic violence.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
EPA Rejects Texas’ Plan to Reduce Haze at Oklahoma Wildlife Refuge
Oklahoma’s largest utility companies will spend more than $1 billion to upgrade coal-fired power plants or retire them in favor of natural gas, all to comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Regional Haze Rule, which is meant to improve visibility at national parks and wildlife refuges. But as StateImpact reported, the haze issues at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge near Lawton are being caused by power plants in Texas, not Oklahoma, and concerned residents in the area wanted to see plants in Texas held to the same standard as the ones here.
Solar and Wind Energy Start to Win on Price vs. Conventional Fuels
For the solar and wind industries in the United States, it has been a long-held dream: to produce energy at a cost equal to conventional sources like coal and natural gas. That day appears to be dawning. The cost of providing electricity from wind and solar power plants has plummeted over the last five years, so much so that in some markets renewable generation is now cheaper than coal or natural gas.
Read more from the New York Times.
Quote of the Day
“Until our state leaders take that same emphasis on thinking more about tomorrow than today, our state and its people will never reach its full potential.”
-University of Central Oklahoma College of Business Dean Mickey Hepner, speaking at an Oklahoma City Chamber luncheon. Hepner said Oklahoma’s growth is threatened by lawmakers who put shortsighted gains ahead of investing in infrastructure and education (Source: http://bit.ly/1Cam7cw).
Number of the Day
9%
Percentage of calls to Oklahoma’s child abuse and neglect hotline in 2013 that were reporting abuse and/or neglect of an adult.
Source: Oklahoma Department of Human Services
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Is This Working?
Stories of schools struggling with what to do with misbehaving kids. There’s no general agreement about what teachers should do to discipline kids. And there’s evidence that some of the most popular punishments actually may harm kids.
Hear more from This American Life.
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It’s hard to argue with the need for futures planning in state and local policymaking even if it’s almost always limited at best. These scholars are well-meaning but unfortunate examples of the myopia that besets our policy silos and practices right now. While they and other policymakers/observers/advocates may say they accept the reality of the warming of our planet with all the attendant impacts and needs for new and unprecedented action that that is already bringing, including demands on state and local budgets for preferred policies, their prognoses and recommendations all treat the next 10-20 years as if they will be like the last 10-20. They won’t. The pressures on infrastructure as well as on health (physical and mental), available food and potable water, social disruption and displacement will combine with the yo-yoing and uncertainties of energy costs and supplies to stress available resources well beyond even the shortages and damage outlined by the academics above. Yet this is “the future of which no one dares speak,” in part because of the politics, in part because of its unprecedented nature, in part because of the danger to invested careers and perspectives that will be jettisoned as the future plays out along unforeseen and fluxing lines. So we march along with the same warnings from basically the same people who were ignored in the past when the future is shaping up to be something far more threatening to state and local action and policy than even anything they talk about. That future will get talked about, by our children and grandchildren when they get to be our ages and wonder why such well-credentialed people who claimed to be so concerned about their future were so derelict in really addressing it, kept doing and talking the same old and increasingly inadequate ways, and left them with a vastly changed world that didn’t have to be as bad as their parents and grandparents bequeathed them.