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Oklahoma Preschool Study Provides No Evidence of Lasting Benefits
By Adam Schaeffer

On June 26 USA Today reported on the findings of a preschool study which concludes that Oklahoma's government-run preschool gives a boost to the performance of all students in the short-term. This is news because the collective conclusions of previous studies overwhelmingly suggest that preschool boosts at-risk children in the short-term, but not children from middle- and upper-income families.

"An ambitious public pre-kindergarten program in Oklahoma boosts kids' skills dramatically, a long-awaited study finds, for the first time offering across-the-board evidence that universal preschool, open to all children, benefits both low-income and middle-class kids," Greg Toppo reported. "More than any other state, Oklahoma has pushed for universal pre-kindergarten, with the USA's highest enrollment rate."

There's just one tiny problem. Oklahoma's achievement scores on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, also known as "the nation's report-card") suggest that the state's universal preschool program is at best ineffective and at worst harmful to student achievement. Read MORE!

The War on Direct Democracy

By Brandon Dutcher

Attorney General Drew Edmondson's politically motivated prosecution of term-limits and taxpayer activist Paul Jacob has been getting a lot of press lately.

You may recall that OCPA adjunct scholar Andrew Spiropoulos called the prosecution "unjust" and "profoundly wrongheaded." Now it's receiving attention in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Examiner, National Review Online, and The Wall Street Journal, where John Fund (pictured here) calls Edmondson's "bizarre" prosecution part of "the far left's war on direct democracy."

Unsurprisingly, this assault on the democratic process is being funded by billionaire George Soros and the forces of organized labor--forces which Mr. Edmondson recently declared are "at the vanguard of taking the good news of the Bible and putting it into practice."

OCPA FaxLine Report

Socialized Medicine Morphs into National Health Care

By: Brett Magbee

The idea for National Health Care is not really that new at all. It has been around a very long time. Proponents have merely changed the name from "socialized medicine" to make it more palatable for public consumption. Forty-seven years ago, long before he ever ran for elected office, Ronald Reagan spoke about his concerns on this still timely issue on a LP record. Entitled "Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine" the recording was widely distributed and his points hold up very well today. You can find the actual recording on youtube.com . Below are a few excerpts. . . Read MORE!

"Back in 1927, and American socialist, Norman Thomas, six times candidate for president on the Socialist party ticket said the American people would never vote for socialism. But he said under the name of liberalism, the American people would adopt every fragment of a socialist program . . .