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What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk shares our most recent publications and other resources to help you stay informed about Oklahoma. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In The Know. Click here to subscribe to In The Know.
This Week from OK Policy
Lawmakers should choose targeted relief amidst budget uncertainty: State-level budget and tax policy matters deeply for Oklahomans because it directly affects how the state can meet its obligations to our fellow residents. This includes shared services like public safety, education, transportation construction, workforce development, and other programs that help all Oklahomans thrive. As is typical during an Oklahoma legislative session, legislators filed hundreds of bills on budget and tax issues. The bills are grouped below in three key spheres: tax credits, sales tax exemptions, and income tax. This article summarizes legislation and concepts likely to move forward this spring. [Aanahita Ervin / OK Policy]
Bill would revamp Oklahoma’s economic development efforts (Capitol Update): Sen. Kristen Thompson, R-Edmond, Chair of the Senate Economic Development, Workforce and Tourism Committee, has been working more than two years to revamp Oklahoma’s economic development efforts, and the result was passage in the Senate last week of her Senate Bill 987. The bill will create a new governance structure for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce employing the expertise and perspective of private citizens to be appointed by the Governor, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate President Pro Tempore. [Steve Lewis / Capitol Update]
Policy Matters: Hands off our ‘power reserved for the people’: Oklahoma’s Constitution explicitly names the initiative petition and referendum process (which allows citizens to put state questions on the ballot) as “the first power reserved to the people.” This right exists to guard against government overreach and ensure that legislative authority ultimately rests with the people. Senate Bill 1027 guts this vital safeguard. Oklahomans should be outraged. [Shiloh Kantz / The Journal Record]
Weekly What’s That
Charter Schools
Charter schools are public schools that are typically subject to fewer regulations and restrictions than traditional public schools. Charter schools operate under a formal, written contract – or charter – with a sponsoring or authorizing entity, such as a school district, university, or Tribal government. That charter specifies how the school will be organized and governed, what students will be expected to achieve, and how success will be measured. Like traditional public schools, charter schools are publicly funded, free to students, non-sectarian, and must accept all students without regard to race, religion, disability status, or other essential characteristics.
Currently, 45 states and the District of Columbia have authorized charter schools and these schools enrolled 3.7 million students, or 7 percent of all U.S. public school students in 2020-21, in approximately 7,800 schools.
Oklahoma initially passed the Oklahoma Charter School Act in 1999. In 2022-23, there were 30 charter schools serving just over 50,000 students in 2022-23, or about 7% of the overall public school population in Oklahoma. The charter school population has fallen from a peak of over 80,000 students in 2020-21 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 30 charter schools operating in 2020-21, 6 were virtual and 24 were brick-and-mortar schools. The largest charter school, EPIC virtual, accounted for over half of total enrollment.
In 2023, the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted to authorize the application of the Catholic archdiocese of Oklahoma City to operate St. Isidore Virtual Charter School. This would be the first expressly religious public charter school anywhere in the United States. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the school contract unconstitutional in June 2024; the archdiocese has expressed its intent to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“Our founders feared an overreaching government. That’s why they included the initiative and referendum process in our constitution. It serves as a backstop against the Legislature. It placed legislative authority directly into the hands of the people.”
-Bob Burke, a well-known Oklahoma historian and attorney, talking about the state’s founders lack of trust in politicians. He said they wanted to ensure that Oklahoma residents, themselves, retained power in government. Burke and constitutional experts said a new bill does more harm than good. [The Oklahoman]
Editorial of the Week
Trump’s DEI erasure won’t erase Indian people or culture
As the Trump administration begins its third month in office, some things are coming into focus with respect to federal Indian policy. It appears to threaten both heart and mind in the Native community.
The mind is the federal trust relationship, which takes many forms including housing, health care, natural resource management, education and many others the U.S. has made toward the Indigenous community. These fiduciary trust relationships with tribal nations are based upon treaties made with the U.S. in the 18th century. The courts have, for the most part, consistently upheld these ever since…
There has been an explosion of prosperity in tribal economies coupled with record growth in the areas of education, health care, language and cultural preservation. This policy has become the driving force that powers the economies in rural Oklahoma and America.
Today, these successful policies have operated largely without much fanfare and attention. Under the Trump administration, all the programs lifting Indian people out of poverty are being threatened. The freezing of federal funds has been a body blow to Indian Country that cannot be easily absorbed, even with gaming. There is no excuse to break that trust relationship because not all tribes are in gaming or equally benefit from gaming.
[Read the full op-ed from former Osage Nation Chief Jim Gray at the TulsaWorld.com]
Numbers of the Week
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58% – A majority of Americans continue to say taxes should be increased, not decreased, for wealthy households. About six-in-ten (58%) say tax rates on household income over $400,000 should be raised, including 23% who say these tax rates should be raised a lot. Much smaller shares say taxes on higher-income households should be lowered (19%) or kept the same (21%). [Pew Research]
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10.8% – The percentage-point decline in the homeownership rate among 35-to-44-year-olds in 2023 when compared with 1980. The data also show the relative income for this age group versus all homeowners nationally has fallen during this period. [Urban Institute]
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838,254 – Number of Oklahomans who received Social Security payments for retirees, survivors, and disabled workers, as of December 2023. This represents about 1 in 5 of all state residents. [Social Security Administration]
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3 in 5 – Medicaid covers people in all walks of life, including 3 in 5 nursing facility residents. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
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97% – Nearly all adults (97%) said Medicaid is at least somewhat important for people in their local community. [KFF]
What We’re Reading
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What might happen if the Education Department were closed?: Though entirely eliminating the department requires an act of Congress, Republican lawmakers have offered no protest — some are cheering Trump on — as the administration has cut funding to Education Department grants and programs, laid off hundreds of staff members, and closed offices around the country. Linda McMahon, confirmed as education secretary in March, described her role as guiding the department through its “final mission.” [The Hechinger Report]
- Tracking Trump: His actions to dismantle the Education Department, and more [The Hechinger Report]
- Homeownership Has Fallen Further Out of Reach for Younger Families with the Lowest Incomes: Over the past 45 years, median home prices in the US have increased much faster than median household incomes. A new Urban Institute analysis finds these rising housing costs have become a critical economic challenge for working families. We find that today, lower-income households in their critical homebuying years are much less likely to buy a home than previous generations. [Urban Institute]
- Trump Administration, DOGE Activities Risk Social Security Operations and Security of Personal Data: Tens of millions of people count on the Social Security Administration (SSA) to reliably deliver benefits they need to pay rent or afford basic household expenses. In recent weeks, however, the Trump Administration — including Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE) — has taken actions that risk creating unprecedented delays, degraded customer service, and unnecessary barriers for millions of beneficiaries to access the benefits they earned. For these primarily older and disabled people, President Trump’s repeated insistence that he would not cut Social Security benefits may be a distinction without a difference if his Administration’s actions delay benefits or make it harder to get them in the first place, regardless of whether the President ever proposes legislative changes to Social Security. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
- Medicaid Cuts Could Cost States Billions in Tax Revenue and a Million Jobs: One in five Americans depends on Medicaid for health insurance. A new report from the Commonwealth Fund shows Medicaid cuts over the next 10 years could amount to $880 billion to meet deficit reduction goals, with an additional $230 billion in reductions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The Commonwealth analysis concludes that the combined economic losses to states from cuts at these levels could reach over $1.1 trillion. [Governing]
- We May Be Watching The Death Of The Federal Income Tax: The actions of President Trump combined with early policy initiatives in Congress threaten to kill the federal income tax. If these efforts continue unabated, the current revenue system could collapse, opening the door to two stated goals of many Trump supporters—deep federal spending cuts and some form of consumption tax. [Tax Policy Center]
