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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.
On the OK Policy blog, we presented a breakdown of the FY2015 budget. We released a statement after HB 2562, which made a tax break for horizontal drilling peromanent, passed through the state House and Senate, and shared talking points detailing why the tax break is unnecessary and not in Oklahoma’s best interests. You can see more about why the tax break should have ended here.
We explained why State Insurance Commissioner John Doak’s statement regarding the taxpayer cost per Oklahoman enrolled in the federal health insurance marketplace is inaccurate and disingenuous. We discussed a new report that found Oklahoma’s court-ordered effort to reform its child welfare system is falling short. We’ve talked about previously about early reports of its implementation. A new federal program could help high-poverty schools in Oklahoma provide free meals to students.
In his Journal Record column, Executive Director David Blatt wrote that the FY2015 budget fails to meet the state’s critical obligations in a responsible and sustainable way. KGOU featured OK Policy in its roundup of reactions to the budget.
Policy Director Gene Perry spoke to NewsOn6 about the education budget. He also spoke to the Edmond Sun after the legislature overrode Gov. Fallin’s veto of HB 2526, which determined a role for parents and teachers in decided to promote or retain students who failed the third-grade retention law. We had previously explained why we thought Gov. Fallin should have signed the bill.
- 41 percent – Forecasted decrease in Oklahoma wheat production from last year, from 105.4 million bushels to 62.7 million bushels.
- 22 – Decrease in the number of school districts in Oklahoma since the 2007-2008 academic year, from 539 to 517 districts.
- 3,736 – The number of Oklahoma third-graders with disabilities who failed a high-stakes third-grade reading exam, nearly half of all students who failed.
- 12.3% – Population growth in Owasso from 2010 – 2013, the largest increase among Oklahoma cities during that time period.
- 85.2% – Percentage of Oklahoma foster care workers whose caseloads are still much higher than the standard set by the Pinnacle Plan.
Policy Notes
- Vox makes the case for why salaries shouldn’t be secret.
- The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities discusses how migration data shows significant numbers of Americans do not relocate in search of lower taxes.
- Wonkblog examines the results of 60 years of political gerrymandering.
- Pacific Standard delivers a list of 10 things you probably didn’t know about state politics.
- The Atlantic makes the case for why it’s important for Americans to more fully acknowledge our country’s history of racism and its impact on the present.
