
Did you know that 1 in 6 Oklahomans lived in poverty last year (annual income below $23,850 for a family of four)? Based on recently-released Census Bureau data, OK Policy's 2014 Poverty Profile breaks down what poverty looks like in our state...
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Ryan Gentzler is a Research Associate at the Early Childhood Education Institute at OU-Tulsa and a former OK Policy Research Fellow.
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis recently issued a report that highlighted the effect of higher education on…
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By:
Guest
October 6, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019

Martin Koch is an M.A. student at the University of Kansas’s Department of Geography. He recently earned a B.A. in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma has struggled under severe drought conditions for most of the decade. Conditions…
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[Update: During public comments on the ordinance, a large majority of those speaking said that passing it would be a mistake. A final vote is still scheduled for Oct. 13.]
Today the Oklahoma City Council is holding a public hearing…
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By:
Gene Perry
September 17, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019

New Census data shows Oklahoma made little progress in reducing the percentage of families living in poverty in 2014. In that year, almost one out of six Oklahomans (16.6 percent) were making less than the poverty line of $24,000 a…
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[Go to the full report.]
Despite Oklahoma’s prosperity, too many children go without access to regular, healthy food. State food banks continue to report giving away record amounts of food, and the state’s SNAP enrollment has not significantly declined since…
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By:
Chan Aaron
August 24, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019

Chan Aaron is an OK Policy intern. He is pursuing an environmental policy degree at The University of Tulsa. He is also a graduate of Oklahoma State University with a degree in philosophy and a veteran of the United States…
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With the Community Eligibility Provision, participating schools can eliminate school meals paperwork and serve all students at no charge. Our report explains the program’s benefits and how it works, as well as its potential for Oklahoma schools...
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Derek Wietelman is an OK Policy summer intern. He is an Oklahoma State University student pursuing a double major in statistics and political science, with minors in economics and environmental economics, politics, and policy.
Last May, U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse…
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By:
Gene Perry
August 17, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019

Politicians love to talk about jobs. Promoting job creation is a go-to justification in many of Oklahoma’s policy decisions, whether it’s to extend tax breaks for oil companies or ban local minimum wage and paid sick leave laws.
However, aside…
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