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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 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…

Editorial: Oklahoma Income-Tax Repeal must be a priority

Tulsa Beacon

Now that this year’s elections have concluded, Republican caucuses have selected leadership in both chambers of the Oklahoma Legislature. State Rep. Kyle Hilbert of Bristow will serve as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives while state Sen. Lonnie Paxton of Tuttle will serve as President Pro Tempore of the Senate. As they prepare agendas…

Editorial: Proposals could cut red tape in Oklahoma

Tulsa Beacon

Despite being a conservative electorate, Oklahomans still face more state regulations than citizens in most other states. The accumulation of those rules impedes economic growth and job creation. Fortunately, legislative leaders are preparing to tackle this problem. At a recent meeting jointly led by state Rep. Gerrid Kendrix and state Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, who each…

Editorial: Voters send message with retention vote on judges

Tulsa Beacon

Oklahomans sent a message this week when they voted, for the first time in state history, to oust a sitting member of the Oklahoma Supreme Court while two other justices came within a whisker of sharing the same fate. The question is whether defenders of the status quo will listen to the voters. In 1967,…