INFOGRAPHIC: Who’s at risk from food stamp cuts?

House Republicans are proposing to cut at least $39 billion from the food stamp program over ten years. So who could be affected in Oklahoma? Read more... [More...]

Reforming the child welfare system: A progress report

One year after Oklahoma finalized an historic plan to transform its child welfare system, significant changes have been put in place. However, major obstacles remain and the ultimate success of the Pinnacle Plan will depend on many more years of… Read more [More...]

The Oklahoman’s distorted case for cutting the safety net

A recent report by the Cato Institute claims to calculate the total value of a “welfare benefit package”, and it contrasts that value with the salary of a full-time worker earning minimum wage. On Tuesday, the Oklahoman published an editorial … Read more [More...]

[Closing The Gap, Part 5] Past is future: Intergenerational wealth

This is the fifth post in a running series based on our recent report, Closing the Opportunity Gap: Building Equity in Oklahoma, which assesses the racial wealth gap and proposes solutions for closing that gap through asset-building. Previous posts detailed … Read more [More...]

Report confirms that for states, investing in education is key to prosperity

The best way for Oklahoma to grow its economy is by investing in a well-educated workforce, according to a new paper from the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN), a project of the Economic Policy Institute. In “A Well-Educated Workforce… Read more [More...]

Got Marriage? Three reasons marriage PSAs are a bad idea

This past legislative session Oklahoma passed HB 1908 into law.  HB 1908 authorized the use of ‘welfare’ or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds to be spent on an ad campaign promoting marriage.  TANF is a program that provides… Read more [More...]

Am I such a danger to the people? (Guest Post: Camille Landry)

Camille Landry is a writer, activist, and advocate for social justice who lives in Oklahoma City. This is the fifth in Camille’s series, “Neglected Oklahoma”, focused on Oklahomans who find themselves in a position where the basic necessities of life… Read more [More...]

Taking out the trash

This post was written by OK Policy volunteer Zoraya Hightower. Zoraya completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Tulsa, and this fall she will begin a Master of Environmental Management program at Yale. Trash is a surprisingly controversial topic.… Read more [More...]

The changing map of poverty and race in Oklahoma

Previously on this blog, we’ve discussed Oklahoma’s long history of high poverty and the reasons for its persistence. We’ve also discussed the racial wealth and opportunity gap of our state, in which people of color as a group lag behind… Read more [More...]

A tale of two budgets

An earlier version of this post appeared as a column in the Journal Record $2,060 a month? Or $4,239? Two recent attempts to calculate how much income it takes to make ends meet reached starkly different conclusions. But both, in… Read more [More...]