Janelle Stecklein

Gov. Kevin Stitt apparently decided he’s finally had enough of Walters’ shenanigans making a mockery of our public school system.

Gov. Kevin Stitt on Friday tapped a businessman and economist to head the state’s new Division of Government Efficiency.

The ramifications of state Sen. Dusty Deevers’ plan to reduce participation in IEPs drew parental outrage that exploded on social media.

It’s hard not to feel increasingly cynical about the missed opportunities when you live in a state like Oklahoma that always seems on the cusp of greatness, only to see our legislators repeatedly stumble at the finish line.  When the final gavel falls to close the legislative session each May, I always find myself scratching my head at all the work that was left undone, or feeling bummed that our elected officials punted on tough issues.

As if we don’t already have enough laws on our books, Oklahoma legislators have decided we need at least 3,100 more. Yes, our state representatives filed about 1,960 proposed laws and resolutions, while our state senators filed about 1,140 of them. But have no fear, only a fraction of these bills will likely become law because December and January of each year is the legislative period that I unaffectionately call “political silly season.”

The leader of Oklahoma's school systems has blamed teachers and their unions for the New Orleans terrorism attack.

Rather than using state resources to promote a video expressing sympathy, calling for unity, and correctly putting blame where it belongs, Walters decided to sow the seeds of dissent by bizarrely blaming schools and teachers unions.

I rarely pay attention to the prattlings of Oklahoma’s  college football coaches who are being paid ungodly amounts of money to put teams on the field to entertain us every fall.  But every once in a while they’re impossible to ignore.  The latest example was the recent hateful, offensive and frankly ignorant comments made earlier this month by Oklahoma State University football coach Mike Gundy.

Last month, my parents called me with some big news.  Oklahoma was mentioned in The New York Times as being pretty much the only state that didn’t have early, in-person early voting underway. I immediately – and wrongly – insisted that there was no way that I lived in a state that had some of the worst in-person early voting access. 

It must be nice to have $3 million stuffed in the couch cushions of your office. Because that’s essentially what Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters told us last month when he dropped a bombshell that he’d allocated $3 million to purchase Bibles. And now he wants another $3 million from lawmakers to buy even more.

For the first time in many years, I didn’t vote in an Oklahoma primary election. It might sound odd coming from the editor of a political nonprofit publication and from someone who typically shows up at even the lowest turnout elections, including one where a single school board race was on the ballot.?>

It’s time to have a candid conversation about a topic that seems to make many lawmakers cringe and flush.  Sex education.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Predators, weather extremes, disease and habitat changes are threatening the survival of the state’s wild turkey population, experts told lawmakers during an interim study Monday. Lawmakers met at the Capitol to discuss the steady decline of the turkey and learn whether state legislation might help stem the loss while allowing for continued hunting. 

Some leaders across the Oklahoma City area have raised the alarm recently about an odd provision of state law that allows correctional facilities to be built uncomfortably close to public schools. A debate over relocating the Oklahoma County jail has highlighted an obscure provision in state law that allows correctional facilities to be built about two-tenths of a mile from K-12 schools.