Oklahoma Watch

Nearly five years after the Legislature authorized the Oklahoma Election Board to launch an online voter registration system, the work remains unfinished.   

Gov. Kevin Stitt has some big decisions to make in 2020. The Republican governor is entering his second year in office with his promise from the 2018 political campaign still defining expectations for his performance – to make Oklahoma a “top 10” state in several critical areas.

Enrollment in Oklahoma public schools is growing, but it’s not happening in every district. Who are the winners and losers?

A divided Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday disciplined an Oklahoma County district judge over her unpaid taxes and parking tickets, but stopped short of ordering a trial for her removal from the bench.

Teenagers, fresh out of high school, could be hired to guard and oversee hardened criminals in Oklahoma’s chronically overcrowded and understaffed prisons.

The state’s bar has been set for schools to operate on a four-day week and the requirements could force many schools back to five days a week.

Oklahomans will learn in the coming weeks whether Medicaid expansion supporters collected enough valid signatures to put the hotly debated question on the 2020 ballot. 

But the proposal, which could provide subsided health coverage to more than 200,000 uninsured low-income adults, likely will not be the only plan up for debate.

Teacher pay raises in 2018 and 2019 likely helped address some of the critical educational needs facing rural schools raised in a new report by a national education group. But other funding and academic issues remain, a rural schools organization leader says.

In the months since last year’s gubernatorial election, Gov. Kevin Stitt has continued to pull in hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, topping his predecessor.

The latest “Nation’s Report Card" results are out, and Oklahoma continues to lag most other states in reading and math scores and faces a steep climb toward its goal of being in the top 20 states.

To fight its high rates of domestic violence, Oklahoma sends offenders to 52 weeks of classes in batterer intervention. But an Oklahoma Watch investigation found that many abusers don’t complete the program, even after multiple chances.

Featured guests discussed the issues surrounding safety in school sports, with a focus on football. The recent deaths of two football players in Oklahoma schools raised new concerns about whether enough is being done to prevent injuries.

Parents are suing Epic Charter Schools because the virtual school involuntarily unenrolled their children saying they can’t be enrolled at the same time in Epic and a private school. The parents say the prohibition, which is part of Epic’s contract with the state, violates the state Constitution.

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services’ counts of child maltreatment present a conundrum: How could cases of abuse plummet over six years while cases of neglect soar?

Gov. Kevin Stitt’s pick to head the Commissioners of the Land Office lacks the advanced degree needed to become permanent secretary and has owned a company involved in legal disputes over oil and gas leases.

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt fielded many questions about the details and intentions of the ambitious MAPS 4 proposal in an Oklahoma Watch forum Tuesday night. The proposal, to be funded by a penny sales tax for eight years, would generate close to $1 billion in public funding – much of it aimed at addressing human-services and neighborhood issues.

Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said there is no question Monday was a “day of reckoning” for pharmaceutical companies that helped accelerate the spread of dangerous opioids across the country.

The question of whether to expand Medicaid and extend health insurance to thousands of Oklahomans promises to be a major topic over the next year.

The Healthcare Working Group, a bipartisan legislative committee charged with deciding whether to endorse Medicaid expansion or other policy moves, kicked off its work last week and is expected to unveil recommendations before next year’s session. Meanwhile, a signature-collecting drive is underway to put a state question on a 2020 ballot to accept expansion.

Mass shootings in Texas and Ohio over the weekend have put gun deaths and firearm laws back in the spotlight.

Oklahoma’s last major mass shooting event was in 1986, when 14 people were killed at an Edmond post office. But the state’s death rate from guns used in both suicide and homicide has been rising and a major loosening of gun regulations is upon us when the state’s new “permitless carry” law goes into effect Nov. 1.

A $3 million taxpayer-funded program will soon give schools across the state access to a relatively untested “panic button” app that can alert authorities and staff if there is an active shooter, fire or emergency in the school.