Skip to content

The Tulsa Beacon

 

Ray Carter

Center for Independent Journalism

Ray Carter is the director of OCPA’s Center for Independent Journalism.

New Test results expose deep reading crisis

Tulsa Beacon

The results of 2025 state tests, administered in public schools last spring and publicly released this week, show that nearly three in four Oklahoma students are not proficient in reading. Those results bolster the findings of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests, which found similarly low levels of reading proficiency in Oklahoma public…

OSU student reprimanded after honoring Charlie Kirk in speech

Tulsa Beacon

Josh Wilson, a junior at Oklahoma State University, has long been interested in public policy and free speech, which led him to be involved in the OSU student government and the debate society. He also volunteered with Turning Point USA, the organization founded by free-speech activist Charlie Kirk, when Kirk visited the Stillwater campus in…

Trump DOJ Sides with OK in Birth Certificate Case

Tulsa Beacon

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a brief in support of an Oklahoma law that requires birth certificates to list a person’s biological sex and limits the options to either “male” or “female.” The DOJ brief, submitted by U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, argued that Oklahoma’s law does not discriminate against…

OK Supreme Court ruling opens door for California-style elections in OK

Tulsa Beacon

An effort to replace Oklahoma’s current election system with one like California’s model, which often limits voters’ general-election choices to two Democrats with no alternatives, can proceed under recent decisions issued by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The court also held that the signature-collection process, which could place the California model before Oklahoma voters, will not…

Kirk’s death comes as more college students support violence

Tulsa Beacon

The assassination of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and outspoken Christian, comes as a record share of U.S. college students now say violence is an acceptable response to speech with which they disagree. The sixth annual College Free Speech Rankings, released by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and survey partner College Pulse, showed…

Tulsa Public Defender’s Pro-Assassination post fuels public outcry

Tulsa Beacon

A public defender’s social-media post appearing to celebrate the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has drawn public outcry and demands for her resignation. In a short social-media post, Chance Bennett, a Tulsa County Assistant Public Defender, responded to the news of Kirk’s death with a one-word response: “Good.” Bennett’s online bio also listed her…

Stitt deploys State Troopers to Tulsa to tackle crime and homeless encampments

Tulsa Beacon

Saying Tulsa leadership is failing city residents, Gov. Kevin Stitt announced he is deploying state law enforcement to clear homeless encampments from state-owned property inside Tulsa and reduce the city’s growing crime problem. “Tulsa is a beautiful city. I lived there for years. But today everybody can see the disaster it’s turning into—homeless people on…

Despite more money, OK students struggle

Tulsa Beacon

Since 2018, Oklahoma’s per-pupil public school revenue has increased by 51 percent. But academic outcomes have declined steadily since 2018 despite the massive funding increase. That defies expectations. When C. Kirabo Jackson, a professor of education and professor of economics at Northwestern University, and Claire L. Mackevicius, an assistant professor of education policy and equity…

OSSAA conflict-of-interest questions in Glencoe Case

Tulsa Beacon

This month, the 15-member board of the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA), which oversees K-12 school competitions, voted to bar four teenagers from playing basketball for Glencoe after the boys used the open-transfer process to enroll in Glencoe schools. The boys’ families have sued the OSSAA, alleging the association acted arbitrarily and in defiance…

OK wins court fight to protect minors

Tulsa Beacon

Aligning with a recent decision issued by the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has upheld an Oklahoma law that bans the performance of sex-change surgeries on minors or the provision of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to children as a treatment for gender dysphoria. “We recognize the importance…