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The Tulsa Beacon

 

Opinion

Editorial: Obscure election dates undermine parents’ voice

Tulsa Beacon

In 2020, parents urged the school board at Deer Creek to provide full-time, in-person instruction to students. But the board opted to continue with COVID distance learning for many students. Yet recent reports show officials at Deer Creek schools also allowed charity fundraisers to include events where students lick peanut butter off people’s feet. Former…

Editorial: Another dubious Supreme Court ruling

Tulsa Beacon

Can Oklahoma’s economy continue to grow and its people thrive if businesses lack certainty in our legal system? Unfortunately, we may find out. Members of the Oklahoma Supreme Court recently issued a ruling that contradicted one of the court’s prior rulings, but refused to provide a written opinion explaining if they are overturning their prior…

Editorial: Time to act on college tuition

Tulsa Beacon

The story of Oklahoma college tuition usually falls into one of three patterns. Lawmakers cut college appropriations and colleges raise tuition, blaming the lack of appropriations. Or lawmakers provide steady appropriations, and colleges raise tuition, blaming the lack of increased appropriations. Or lawmakers increase appropriations, and colleges still raise tuition, blaming lawmakers for not doing…

Editorial: Dobbs Anniversary Social Conservatives united on Abortion

Tulsa Beacon

In the only straw poll for and by social conservatives exclusively, of 13,928 social conservatives who have taken the poll to-date, 92% of them confirm that abortion should never be legal or should only be allowed up to 6 weeks, with 66% of that group making no exceptions or making an exception only for the…

Editorial: Family focus is desperately needed

Tulsa Beacon

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has declared war on a “loneliness epidemic.” Murthy noted “about one-in-two adults in America reported experiencing loneliness. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic cut off so many of us from friends, loved ones, and support systems.” According to the CDC, 25.5 percent of adults ages 18-24 reported having…

Editorial: OCPA condemns OU tuition hike

Tulsa Beacon

OKLAHOMA CITY (June 19, 2023)—Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs President Jonathan Small said the recent tuition hike approved by OU is unjustified and shows the university is not serious about its mission of providing a quality, affordable education to Oklahomans. “It is absurd that OU has chosen to hike tuition in a year when more…

Editorial: A Free-speech victory for all Oklahomans

Tulsa Beacon

Free speech and public debate are necessary ingredients of a democratic government, which is why the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution enshrines free speech as a basic right. But that hasn’t stopped some entities from trying to do an end run on that fundamental right, including here in Oklahoma. One tactic used by free-speech…

Editorial: Stitt, lawmakers deserve families’ thanks

Tulsa Beacon

For years, Oklahoma has ranked among the worst states in measurements of important education metrics, particularly outcomes. But with Gov. Kevin Stitt’s signing of House Bill 1934 last month, Oklahoma moved into the top 10 nationally in school-choice opportunity. Oklahoma children will benefit from this accomplishment for years to come, and by extension so will…

Editorial: What is the Oklahoma Supreme Court doing?

Tulsa Beacon

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has been busy. Busy striking down abortion laws passed by the Oklahoma legislature. This may strike some as odd. After all, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs that “Our Nation’s historical understanding of ordered liberty does not prevent the people’s elected representatives from deciding how abortion should be regulated.”…

Editorial: Renewing tabacco, car-tag compacts

Tulsa Beacon

Special-interest attempts to force automatic renewal of existing tobacco and license-tag compacts will create enormous challenges for the state. The legal reality that undergirded current compacts is under attack by special interests who are inaccurately wielding the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which declared the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s Oklahoma reservation was…