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The Tulsa Beacon

 

Jonathan Small

Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (www.ocpathink.org).

Editorial: Oklahoma’s reading crisis must be addressed

Tulsa Beacon

It’s been said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing expecting different results.” This describes the failures in reading proficiency by Oklahoma students, despite billions of dollars of increased spending on public education in Oklahoma. The Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University revealed that from 2013 to 2024 Oklahoma’s per-pupil spending increased 47 percent…

Editorial: Reading failures must be addressed

Tulsa Beacon

It’s said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing expecting different results.” This describes the failures in reading proficiency by Oklahoma students, despite billions of dollars of increased spending on public education in Oklahoma. Edunomics Lab revealed that from 2013 to 2024 Oklahoma’s per-pupil spending increased 47 percent during that decade, but National…

Editorial: Seven ways to boost reading outcomes

Tulsa Beacon

I’ve written about Oklahoma’s appalling reading outcomes, which have fallen dramatically and are now among the worst in the nation Fortunately, lawmakers have banned the use of “three cuing” instruction that mostly involves teaching a child to guess rather than sound out words. But more can be done. Here are seven policy steps to improve…

Editorial: Unfunded mandates harm Oklahoma pension systems

Tulsa Beacon

Spending money you don’t have quickly leads to financial instability. That’s obvious to anyone who has balanced a family budget. Yet Oklahoma politicians appear intent on ignoring that reality. The problem of deficit spending is well-known at the federal level but is also a problem at the state level when it comes to the management…

Editorial: Oklahoma judicial appointment deserves scrutiny

Tulsa Beacon

In the 2024 general election, Oklahomans chose to move on from an extremely liberal judicial activist, Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Kauger, when a majority of voters opposed her retention. The process of replacing Kauger, one of the court’s most liberal members, is now underway. Oklahomans should watch that process closely—at least what little they…

Editorial: Oklahoma judicial appointment deserves scrutiny

Tulsa Beacon

In the 2024 general election, Oklahomans chose to move on from an extremely liberal judicial activist, Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Kauger, when a majority of voters opposed her retention. The process of replacing Kauger, one of the court’s most liberal members, is now underway. Oklahomans should watch that process closely—at least what little they…

Editorial: Court ruling a warning for state pensions

Tulsa Beacon

A recent ruling by a U.S. District Court validates Oklahoma law and also fires a warning shot across the bow for the managers of state pension systems. In Spence v. American Airlines, pilot Bryan P. Spence asked a federal court to declare that American Airlines breached its fiduciary duties in violation of the federal Employee…

Editorial: California election system fuels California fires

Tulsa Beacon

A group called Oklahomans United wants to set fire to our state’s primary election system and replace it with the California model, which places all candidates from all parties on a single ballot with all voters casting ballots to winnow the field down to two candidates for the November election. The California system has produced…

OCPA: Oklahoma should ban ranked choice voting

Tulsa Beacon

Oklahoma is one of only a relative handful of states that conduct runoff elections. Because those runoff elections cost taxpayer money—typically hundreds of thousands of dollars—and draw lower turnout, some officials argue we should abandon runoff elections and instead adopt “ranked choice” voting. But a recent legislative study highlighted why that is a bad idea….

Editorial: Embrace what works (phonics) or risk getting sued

Tulsa Beacon

One of the lower-key victories of the 2024 Oklahoma legislative session was the passage of Senate Bill 362, which stated that Oklahoma public-school teachers “shall be prohibited from using the three-cueing system model of teaching students to read” starting in the 2025-2026 school year. Under the three-cueing method, students are encouraged to guess words based…