Tag: Oklahoma

Guest blog (John Thompson): The dropout crisis

John Thompson is an Oklahoma City teacher with 18 years of urban high school experience and an education blogger at thisweekineducation.com. He is a regular contributor to our blog on education issues. All of the neighborhood high schools in the… Read more [More...]

SQ 744: The wrong solution

Today, Oklahoma Policy Institute released an issue brief exploring State Question 744, the proposal that will appear on the November ballot that would peg Oklahoma’s education spending to the regional average per pupil expenditure in six neighboring states. On our… Read more [More...]

Fat chance? Can soda taxes help solve the obesity epidemic and state budget woes?

A recent report released by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced the latest alarming figures about the spread of obesity in America. They found that last year in 31 states, including Oklahoma, more than… Read more [More...]

By the numbers: State personal income recovering far more quickly than state revenues

The latest edition of our monthly Numbers You Need bulletin reports on the most recent state personal income data that was put out last month by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the 1st quarter of 2010, state personal income… Read more [More...]

We’re in this together: Private sector suffers, too, from public sector decay

Last month I gave a presentation to a meeting of the State Chamber of Commerce along with a representative from another state policy organization.  I was struck, and frankly dismayed, by the extent to which my co-presenter  spoke as if… Read more [More...]

On the Rohde again: Nick's family bids Oklahoma farewell

This week, Wayne Rohde sent out an e-mail informing his friends and networks of his family’s decision to leave Oklahoma. For the last several years, Wayne and his wife Robyne have been tireless and fierce advocates for Nick’s Law, legislation… Read more [More...]

Unhappy New Year: FY11 gets underway with no end in sight to the state fiscal blues

July 1st marks the start of the new state fiscal year in most of the country – but as glad as state Governors, fiscal directors and legislators will be to see the end of the annus horribilis of 2010,  don’t… Read more [More...]

Still Drilling: Gas production remains high even as prices stay low

Last March, we ran a blog post we titled “Kill the drill” commenting on a front-page  New York Times story on the  steep drop in drilling activity that accompanied plunging oil prices and gas prices in early 2009. The Times… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Connie Cronley): Feeding the hungry, tearing down gates

Editor’s note: Over the past eight months it has been my privilege to spend one hour a week doing food prep at Iron Gate, one of Tulsa’s largest and most active food assistance programs. I invited Connie Cronley,  Iron Gate’s… Read more [More...]

The public safety net at work

Today we released the 19th issue of our monthly Numbers You Need bulletin, which tracks monthly and quarterly data for key economic indicators. As in many recent months, the overall economic news was mixed: a slight increase in employment and… Read more [More...]