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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 needs Initiative Petition transparency

Tulsa Beacon

Oklahoma’s initiative-petition process allows voters to determine major policy issues, but some system flaws have become apparent. That’s why Oklahomans should support bringing greater transparency to the petition process. Under Senate Bill 1027, the initiative-petition process would have to include clear language, transparent reporting of funders, and buy-in from a wider swath of Oklahoma. None…

Editorial: Oklahoma lawmakers seek to rein in costly state agency overreach

Tulsa Beacon

A major focus of this year’s legislative session is reducing excessive government regulation. House Bill 2728, by state Rep. Gerrid Kendrix and state Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, would create the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2025. Under the bill, any state agency rule with an economic impact of $1 million…

Editorial: An agenda for Oklahoma statewide candidates

Tulsa Beacon

Candidates for Oklahoma’s statewide offices, such as governor, attorney general, and lieutenant governor, are kicking off their campaigns. While candidates and campaigns are very important, equally if not more important is what those candidates would accomplish—and how they would accomplish it—if elected. Oklahoma has great opportunities and significant challenges. To address both requires candidates to…

Editorial: Oklahoma’s Medicaid expansion: A bad deal getting worse

Tulsa Beacon

A key plank of Obamacare (the federal “Affordable Care Act”) allowed states to expand Medicaid programs to include able-bodied adults and not just the medically needy. When expansion was narrowly approved by a public vote in Oklahoma in 2020, everyone knew it would require the diversion of millions of dollars annually in state tax money….

Editorial: Oklahoma’s Medicaid expansion: a bad deal getting worse

Tulsa Beacon

A key plank of Obamacare (the federal “Affordable Care Act”) allowed states to expand Medicaid programs to include able-bodied adults and not just the medically needy. When expansion was narrowly approved by a public vote in Oklahoma in 2020, everyone knew it would require the diversion of millions of dollars annually in state tax money….

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…