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Election Eve 2022: Notes
An election eve assortment of thoughts: Last week, I attended and live-tweeted the Tuesday, November 1, 2022, Red Wave rally in Oklahoma City featuring Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Kevin Stitt, and State Superintendent nominee Ryan Walters; the Wednesday Tulsa rally with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and a Wednesday lunch-time...
Oklahoma Primary 2022: Statewide races
Somewhat short takes on the races for Oklahoma statewide office on the June 28, 2022, Republican primary ballot. Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell did not draw a primary opponent, and Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready has been re-elected without opposition. I've endorsed John O'Connor for Attorney General in a separate entry....
Oklahoma SQ 790: The First Amendment, not Oklahoma's special version
Oklahoma State Question 790 is a legislative referendum which would remove a discriminatory and inconsistently applied provision in the Constitution of Oklahoma that deals with the relationship of religion and government. Its passage would allow the People of Oklahoma through our elected representatives to weigh and balance a variety of...
LWVTulsa Hot Topic Lunch on SQ 790
The League of Women Voters of Tulsa are holding a "Hot Topic Lunch" at the newly remodeled Central Library next Tuesday, October 11, 2016, to discuss SQ 790. I will be arguing in favor of the state question, which repeals Article II, Section 5, the discriminatory "Blaine Amendment" language in...
Poll: Oklahoma Republican voters strongly support school choice
A poll of likely Oklahoma Republican primary voters revealed strong support for school choice generally and specific school choice proposals, as strong in the rest of the state as it is in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City metropolitan areas. The poll was commissioned by the American Federation for Children and...
Who is Leigh Goodson, Tulsa school board candidate?
Leigh Goodson is a candidate for Tulsa Public Schools Election District 5, a seat currently held by Brian Hunt, who has opted not to run for re-election. Goodson is involved in what looks very much like an arm of Tulsa's Cockroach Caucus. She's a member of the board of the...
Sand Springs school board blasts special-needs vouchers
Yet another Tulsa-area school board has voiced support for the lawsuit by Jenks and Union school districts to strike down the law that provides for adequate education for Oklahoma children with special needs. The Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship Act allows parents of a special-needs child to transfer some of the...
Mitch Daniels to headline OCPA Tulsa gala, October 6, 2011
The Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs (OCPA), a free-market think-tank focused on state policy, will hold its annual gala here in Tulsa, on October 6, 2011, at the Renaissance Hotel. Keynote speaker for the event is Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. Single-seat tickets for the gala begin at $125 (of which...
Tulsa District 5: Must Karen Gilbert quit her day job with Tulsa Public Schools?
I've received a couple of emails regarding Tulsa Public Schools policy 4401, regarding employees running for public office. The policy allows for employees to be granted a leave of absence to run for and serve in elective office. The question posed is whether District 5 candidate Karen Gilbert is required...
Public trust funds aren't public?
That page about Oklahoma's "Blaine Amendment" (linked by Brandon Dutcher, regarding school vouchers vs. tax credits) had an interesting summary of an Attorney General's opinion: 1984 Op. Atty. Gen. No. 227. ("Funds raised by or through a public trust organized under 60 O.S.1981, § 176 that do not come from...
To raise Oklahoma per-pupil funding, use school vouchers
Mickey Hepner, Professor of Economics at the University of Central Oklahoma, suggests one way to raise per-pupil school funding, other than raising taxes or cutting non-education spending: Offer vouchers to encourage parents to put their children in private schools. In 2008-2009 Oklahoma education funding averaged $8,006 per student. This figure...
Paglia: "What kids need is facts"
It's rare that you will find me quoting, with approval, a lesbian, atheist, leftist East Coast professor, but Camille Paglia's love of Western Civilization and her critique of what passes for education in America warms my heart. Paglia's recent interview with Margaret Wente in the Globe and Mail reads like...
John McCain on school choice
From Sen. John McCain's acceptance speech in St. Paul tonight: Education is the civil rights issue of this century. Equal access to public education has been gained. But what is the value of access to a failing school? We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empower parents...
"Parents have no qualifications to make these choices!"
Over on Choice Remarks, the blog of Oklahomans for School Choice, I've linked to a clip from the classic British sitcom Yes, Prime Minister, in which the PM and his cabinet secretary argue about whether parents should have the right to choose where their children go to school. It's a...
Oklahomans want school choice
Strategic Vision polled 1200 Oklahoma voters for the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. Here is the executive summary: This scientifically representative poll of 1,200 likely Oklahoma voters measures public opinion on a wide range of K-12 education issues. The underlying theme of the Friedman Foundation's Survey in the State series...
School choice brings families back to inner-ring suburbs
If city officials want to bring families with children back to the older parts of our city, they ought to be lobbying the legislature to expand school choice -- more charter schools, vouchers, tuition tax credits. Here's a recent example from the Cincinnati area of the positive effects of school...
Choice Remarks
Oklahoma is lagging behind the rest of the nation in offering a variety of affordable K-12 educational options to our children and their parents. In hopes of improving the situation, there's now an organization called Oklahomans for School Choice, with an official blog called Choice Remarks, headed up by Brandon...
More Fredapalooza; Romney's back in the noise
Columnist Mona Charen explains "Why Fred Thompson Should Run": The current Republican field is like a smorgasbord at Denny's -- lots of OK choices, but nothing to get the heart racing. That's why the potential candidacy of former Sen. Fred Thompson is creating a palpable stir. She runs through the...
Someone call the waaaahh-mbulance!
State Sen. Nancy Riley, who represents District 37, announced yesterday that she is leaving the Republican Party and becoming a Democrat. Her stated reasons, according to the Daily Oklahoman: Riley, who finished third in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor but received enough votes to force a runoff election, said...
Textbook payola
Donald Luskin posts a message from reader Jameson Campaigne about corruption in textbook purchasing decisions. Some excerpts: At a meeting of the nuns who chose elementary reading texts for the diocese schools in Chicago some decades ago, the head honcho nun praised a look-say basal reading series that nearly destroyed...
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