This morning, the liberal Oklahoma Policy Institute (OPI) released a report challenging the findings of a May 2011 OCPA study that projects growth in the state’s share of Medicaid expenditures under Obamacare. Earlier this year, OCPA collaborated with Cato Institute senior economist Jagadeesh Gokhale, Ph.D., to undertake a co...

Chris Jacobs with the Senate Republican Policy Committee has a lighthearted take on the left’s recent attempts to salvage Obamacare from its non-partisan, nationwide unpopularity. Earlier this week came word that an organization out in Colorado is seeking to reclaim the “Obamacare” name by running a new “Thanks Obamacare” ad ...

As Oklahoma recently marked the 10-year anniversary of our “Right to Work” law, new evidence suggests the law is not just working, but working extraordinarily well.Oklahoma’s law, which prohibits employers and labor unions from agreeing that union membership and dues are required as a condition of employment, was passed by a ...

Alexis de Tocqueville “foresaw some of the influences that have transformed the national government from a constitutional republic into a welfare-state administered by a bureaucracy and a technocratic elite,” writes Bill Evers, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.Likewise, during the Progressive...

The recent news that the Oklahoma State and Education Employees Group Insurance Board (OSEEGIB) is implementing a cost-cutting move that will save taxpayers $9 million annually is refreshing. OSEEGIB is doing what bureaucrats so often have difficulty doing, which is remembering that they are funded by taxpayer funds. OSSEGIB ...

The issue of faculty workloads at colleges and universities, and its corresponding effect on rapidly increasing costs within higher education in the United States, has recently received national attention.  Unfortunately, it seems the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education do not evaluate faculty workloads when appr...

Oklahoma’s Task Force for the Study of Tax Credits and Economic Incentives has been doing some important work lately, and it’s looking more and more likely that some tax credits will be eliminated. OCPA recently commissioned SoonerPoll, a highly respected survey firm, to conduct a statewide survey of 587 likely Oklahoma voter...

A year ago, many state-appropriated agencies in Oklahoma responded to the realities of diminished revenue by requesting an increase in appropriations of about $1.5 billion. Alas, it seems the concept of a realistic budget request is still foreign to many state-appropriated agencies.  October 1 is the annual deadline for ...

In a recent OCPA report, Dan Lips explained how Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) can empower parents to customize an education for their children. Now Lindsey Burke, senior education policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, is out with an excellent new memo on ESAs (“Education Savings Accounts: A Promising Way Forward on S...

OCPA recently commissioned SoonerPoll, a highly respected survey firm used by the Tulsa World and others, to conduct a statewide survey of 587 likely Oklahoma voters. The survey was conducted July 25 through August 11, 2011. The margin of error is ± 4.04 percent. Here’s one of the questions:“Do you think that Oklahoma’s state...

Like most other agencies of state government, the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education (CareerTech) has been known to complain about budget cuts and to request greater and greater sums of taxpayer money. But what most Oklahomans don’t realize is that the local technology centers governed by CareerTech are al...

“Low turnout traditionally is a problem with school board and school bond elections as voter participation percentages are at times in the single digits,” The Oklahoman editorialized on September 26 (“Moving school board elections might help counter voter apathy”).Indiana hopes to increase turnout by moving all its school boa...

Every summer, the Oklahoma Employee Benefits Council (EBC) puts together the benefit package for state employees. Recent news of a massive increase (approx. $26 million) in overpayment of employee benefits is no surprise. The EBC has long been a significant part of the problem with how employee benefits are administered for s...

Last week 191 Oklahoma high-school students were named National Merit Semifinalists; 106 of them attend traditional public schools (where students are bureaucratically assigned based on geography), and 85 attend schools of choice. Of those 85 students attending schools of choice, the breakdown is as follows:•  &nbsp...

I present for your consideration two facts: (1) Cameron University in Lawton is a four-year university from which only 6 percent of the students graduate in four years, and (2) the president of Cameron University was paid a third of a million dollars in fiscal year 2010.

What is federalism? And more importantly, does it still matter?Before jumping into a discussion about the meaning and purpose of federalism, we need to talk about human nature. If you do not understand the true state of human nature, your conclusions about methods of government will not be realistic, i.e., the philosophies of...

...a thousand words.

The respected survey firm SoonerPoll recently asked Oklahomans: “According to official state data, education spending in Oklahoma is approximately $8,400 per student. Are taxpayers getting a good return on their investment of $8,400 per student per year?”  Only 23 percent of respondents said yes, while 62 percent said no...

In an article in the September issue of Perspective, we examine all the federal aid flowing into Oklahoma and discuss some of the unintended consequences of accepting this “free” money from Uncle Sam. The list of federal agencies doling out aid to Oklahoma is so long—are there no limits to what the federal government can do?—...

For quite some time, we have heard from President Barack Obama and his administration about the various things that government does to create jobs.  For example, on August 10, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney stated emphatically that extending unemployment benefits created jobs. Carney responded to questions about ...