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The Weekly Wonk is a summary of Oklahoma Policy Institute’s events, publications, blog posts, and coverage. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In The Know. Click here to subscribe to In The Know.
Registration is still open for our first State Budget Summit Thursday, January 16th at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City! With the theme of “Navigating the Perilous Fiscal Waters,” the summit will offer important perspectives on budget and tax issues. You can click here to register for the event.
On the OK Policy Blog, Executive Director David Blatt compared how the state governments of Oklahoma and Kentucky are taking very different approaches to the Affordable Care Act. He previously discussed the topic in a Journal Record column. Legislative Liaison Damario Solomon-Simmons wrote that Bowl Championship Series schools are failing their Black male athletes. A guest post examined the importance of updated ordinances related to urban agriculture in Oklahoma City. We counted down our top ten most popular blog posts of 2013.
In his Journal Record columns, Blatt shared the story of an Oklahoma family who were able to purchase affordable, comprehensive health insurance, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. He also suggested that the “feel-good story” of a Tulsa high school teacher volunteering her time to teach at 7am at after budget cuts eliminated a class is emblematic of the ongoing failure of the Oklahoma Legislature to properly fund public education.
- 19,400 – Number of Oklahomans who will be cut off from unemployment benefits by June 2014 if Congress does not extend the Emergency Unemployment program
- 11,418 – Number of children in Oklahoma who were victims of child abuse or neglect during fiscal year 2013, nearly 58 percent increase since 2010
- 20.2 percent – The share of total state expenditures for undergraduate student aid in Oklahoma that is based only on financial need, 8th lowest among the states in 2012
- It’s still too early for Congress to stop worrying about unemployment, says Wonkblog.
- Wonkblog discusses what 2014 means for the Affordable Care Act.
- Atlantic Cities writes about the real reason the poor go without bank accounts.
