Claim OwnershipThe Oklahoma Observercast
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To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable
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If legislatures were to compete on Dancing With The Stars, Oklahoma’s would have an excellent shot at winning, given lawmakers’ exquisite tap dancing when it comes to oversight of state Superintendent Ryan Walters. Privately, supermajority Republicans – at least the sanest ones – are choreographing impeachment; publicly, they make like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, pirouetting […]
Three gun incidents – one resulting in the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old Midwest City High School student – marred the opening week of Oklahoma’s high school football season. For the latest Observercast –Frightful Night Lights – four-term Tulsa state representative and former Tulsa University football standout Monroe Nichols joins us to discuss gun violence, what […]
Tulsa Public Schools kept its accreditation, but don’t think for a minute that state Superintendent Ryan Walters is done wreaking havoc at the state’s largest school district – or sowing chaos in Oklahoma public education. For this week’s Observercast – The Hit Job On TPS – Tulsa Rep. Melissa Provenzano, herself a former principal and educator, […]
Oklahoma’s students returned to class this month amidst arguably the most toxic environment ever, courtesy of state Superintendent Ryan Walters. For this week’s Back-To-School Observercast, teacher-turned-Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, veteran teacher Sandra Valentine and Mid-Del Superintendent Rick Cobb help explain the challenges – and landmines – facing the state’s 500-plus districts, 700,000-plus students, their parents, teachers […]
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 anti-abortion ruling, Republicans pivoted quickly to new front in the Culture Wars: launching an all-out assault on the rights of transgender Americans. Oklahoma’s GOP supermajority played its part, following up restrictions it imposed on bathroom use and athletic participation with legislation that banned gender affirming care. For this week’s […]
The state of Oklahoma talks a big game about being “pro-life.” But at the end of the day, we’re all hat, no cattle when it comes to actually walking the walk to take care of our kids. And once again, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNTS Data Book sets out in stark terms just how poorly […]
An acute teacher shortage. Schools that still haven’t recovered from a decade-plus of the nation’s deepest budget cuts. Private school vouchers projected to divert hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars that could have gone to underfunded public K-12 schools. A state education agency in disarray. A culture warrior state superintendent who wants evangelical Christianity unleashed […]
Who and what are behind the unprecedented attacks on Oklahoma’s K-12 schools? What’s at stake for the 700,000-plus students and families that rely on public ed? And what does it portend for Oklahoma’s future? In GOP Hypocrisy In 2023, former Senate President Cal Hobson joins us for the first in a series of Observercasts that […]
In this era of acronyms in Oklahoma politics— DEI, CRT, and now, ESG— the cost of our Republican supermajority’s hyperpartisan culture wars comes with a cost to the State of Oklahoma. Because government entities are no longer allowed to contract with certain vendors who have environmental, social, or governance policies, the state stands to […]
It’s late spring in Oklahoma and lawsuits once again are in full bloom – this time thanks to a Legislature, governor and Statewide Virtual Charter School Board which thumbed their noses at the state Constitution, empowering the creation of the nation’s first publicly-funded religious school. For this week’s Observercast – Freedom From Religion – OKC […]
Hold two opposing ideas in your mind for a minute: First, the state of Oklahoma has a historic amount of money to appropriate this year. However, the Republican supermajority decided to sit on $1 billion of that money and continue to hold state agency budgets flat, underfunding core services for our most vulnerable citizens. One […]
State leaders hailed next year’s education funding package as “historic.” But is it? There’s $625 million in new spending, teacher pay raises and paid maternity leave … but there’s also vouchers for private schools. For this week’s Observercast, The Whole Education Enchilada, veteran public policy analyst David Blatt helps separate the rhetoric from the reality […]
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals refused to stop it. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board also declined to intervene. Now the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to stay Richard Glossip’s May 18 execution. Glossip’s corrupt case serves as Exhibit A that Oklahoma’s death penalty system is anything but just. For a special midweek […]
Food fight!!! The 2023 session has gone straight up Animal House entering its final month. The governor vetoing 20 bills, willy-nilly, just to stick it to the Senate; the Senate President admonishing the gov to sober up; the House Speaker ducking for cover behind the gov. What a Stitt show! For this week’s Observercast – […]
Lost in the news of the squabbles over the governor’s, Senate’s, and House’s competing plans to privatize public education in our state is the other front in Gov. Stitt’s privatization gambit: managed care Medicaid. Why should we care? The reasons number in the millions and billions: one million Oklahomans are on Medicaid, and the state […]
At least 4,000 Oklahomans are homeless on any given night – that’s 10 people per 10,000 in the general population. And we’re not just talking adults: Oklahoma City’s public schools served nearly 2,000 children experiencing homelessness in the 2021-22 school year. Yet, last week, Gov. Kevin Stitt arbitrarily dissolved the Governor’s Interagency Council on Homelessness, […]
Buckle up, public school supporters. The governor, Senate president and House speaker all want public dollars to underwrite private education and homeschooling – hundreds of millions of tax dollars that could be earmarked for Oklahoma’s underfunded K-12 classrooms. For this week’s Observercast – The Latest School Voucher Gambit – Tulsa Sen. Jo Anna Dossett, a former teacher, […]
Top 10 state? Not when it comes to spending the once-in-a-lifetime federal infusion of $1.87 billion in taxpayers’ capital from American Rescue Plan Act. One national ranking puts Oklahoma’s allocation at 40th. Why the holdup? For this week’s Observercast – ARPA Dollars, Where Art Thou? – state Rep. Meloyde Blancett, who serves on the Legislature’s Joint Committee […]
For 50 years, the rightwing has used Roe v. Wade as the main talking point in their culture wars. But now, the United States, and states like Oklahoma that were waiting with baited breath to ban abortion, will have to confront the reality of what it means to live in world without legal access to […]
All but lost in the regular session’s acrimonious final hours was a massive change in Oklahoma’s health care for the working poor. The Legislature passed and Gov. Kevin Stitt signed legislation that outsources management of Medicaid, even though the current state-run system, administered by the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, is widely heralded as one of […]
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