OKPOLICY.ORG
Last week, State Representative Jason Nelson (R- Oklahoma City) expressed concern about a presentation given by Kate Richey, a policy analyst for Oklahoma Policy Institute, as part of a lecture series sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Human Series. The apparent cause of Rep. Nelson’s concern, and that of at least one legislator who urged DHS to cancel the lecture, was that the talk addressed issues of racial disparities in Oklahoma. These issues, while uncomfortable to some, are a valid subject of public debate and should be an urgent matter of legislative attention.
Oklahoma Policy Institute is committed to evidence-based analysis of state policy issues, and we will continue to promote policies that lead to expanded opportunity for all Oklahomans. We appreciate DHS’ willingness to use its lecture series to raise awareness and foster debate on important policy issues, and applaud their decision to reject appeals made by members of the legislature to cancel the lecture.
The free public presentation, which neither Rep. Nelson nor any of his legislative colleagues attended, was titled “Closing the Opportunity Gap: Building Equity in Oklahoma.” DHS described the lecture as follows:
Kate Richey, Policy Analyst with the Oklahoma Policy Institute will present data and analysis on the racial wealth gap in Oklahoma – from home and business ownership to savings, investments, and other assets vital to long-term financial security. This research points to deeply entrenched gaps in wealth, income, and employment between white and nonwhite Oklahomans. Without equitable economic growth at the state level, broad-based prosperity and the ideal of the American dream will become increasingly out of reach.
Rep. Nelson questioned the appropriateness of DHS employees receiving continuing education credits for attending the lecture. According to Oklahoma Capitol Source:
He says [he] talked with DHS officials and suggested they offer a differing view on the topic as well. He says he’s attended some of the lectures and found them worthwhile, but that this particular lecture topic seemed “marginal.” He says he’s not against giving education credits for the lecture series as a whole, but “I don’t see the value of it for this one.”
DHS spokesperson Sharee Powell defended the decision to sponsor the lecture and qualify it as meeting continuing education requirements for the agency’s staff because “issues and effects of poverty certainly have a direct connection to the work of DHS, the primary agency serving all types of people in poverty.”
In fact, knowledge of past and present disparities in Oklahomans’ opportunities to build wealth is critical to understanding how patterns of poverty and prosperity emerge. The economic challenges facing people and communities of color in Oklahoma are not “marginal,” as Rep. Nelson claimed. They are as central to our prosperity as any other more popularly discussed economic development issue.
The presentation noted that white households possess 18 times more wealth than Hispanic households on average and 20 times more wealth than African American households, according to a 2011 study from the Pew Research Trust. Just this week, a new Urban Institute report revealed that racial wealth disparities were worsened by the Great Recession.
In Oklahoma, nearly two in five households of color experience asset poverty, meaning they have insufficient savings to last three months if they suffered a loss of income. This is twice the rate for White households. People and communities of color in Oklahoma have less access to opportunity across a broad array of indicators of economic prosperity – employment, educational achievement, health care, home ownership, bank accounts, and many more. No economic development strategy can be successful in creating opportunity and increasing prosperity without an awareness of these disparities and a purposeful approach to addressing them.
We would be happy to present the research to Rep. Nelson or any other members of the Legislature who are interested in learning about entrenched asset poverty in Oklahoma at a time and place most convenient to them, and we hope that this might help to spark a serious and much-needed discussion about a policy agenda to close the opportunity gap.
The complete slideshow from the presentation is available by clicking here. For our report outlining policies that could close the opportunity gap and promote financial security for all Oklahomans, go to https://okpolicy.org/
