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Oklahomans Want School Choices
State Sen. Judy Eason McIntyre, a liberal Democrat from Tulsa, believes Oklahoma parents should have more school choices. In this clip from a recent
press conference announcing
the release of a new public opinion survey, the former social worker and longtime Tulsa Public Schools board member argues for "the right
of parents to be able to
choose." And in this conversation with News9's Alex Cameron, OCPA's Brandon Dutcher points out that Oklahoma parents
want to exercise that
right.
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What Oklahoma Can Learn from Louisiana's Transparency Push
By Brandon Dutcher
A political-operative friend of mine who has worked in several different states tells me that of all the states in the nation that are not named
Louisiana, our own Sooner State is the most corrupt. Sadly, recent headlines haven't done much to prove my friend wrong.
Well, don't look now, but it's a new day in Louisiana. The state's energetic new governor, Bobby Jindal, is providing plenty of good examples for
Oklahoma policymakers to emulate. Naturally I admire the governor for pushing through school choice, but consider also what he's done in the area of
transparency.
Newt Gingrich writes today ("Bobby Jindal,
America's Most
Transformational Governor") that "in the first special session back in March, Governor Jindal began his reform agenda where it had to
begin:
fixing the culture of corruption and cronyism that has long dominated Louisiana politics and damaged Louisiana's economy. READ MORE!!
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OCPA FaxLine Report
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Higher Gasoline Prices are Good For Us?
By: Brett Magbee
Well, now I've really seen everything! In the latest issue of Time magazine (July 14, 2008) an
article entitled, "10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas" talks about the benefits of today's higher gasoline prices -- like the fact that globalized
jobs may return home because of the rising costs associated with shipping products to different assembly points and then back to the U.S. The article
notes there will also be fewer traffic deaths (up to 1,000 fewer fatalities a month) because of people driving slower and driving less. The article
is
interesting "green" propaganda.
The writer presents the very "politically correct" view that urban sprawl will stall and that as people move closer to their places of employment
there will be less (unhealthy) pollution. "About 2,220 lives have already been saved over the past year because of higher gas prices . . ." Isn't
that
an interesting figure? Big bold numbers proclaim there's been a 55% decrease in Ford Motor Company SUV sales in June -- should we cheer? The article
notes that there has been an 85 million increase in public transit trips in the first quarter of 2008 over the same period in 2007. So there's less
traffic to hassle with -- "the number of freeway trips went down 0.7% for every 50 cents increase in gas prices." And because we're driving less we
might even qualify for lower car-insurance premiums - saving as much as 10 to 15%. Yippee! READ MORE!
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