Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters testified Tuesday at a U.S. House Subcommittee Hearing about the influence of the Chinese government in American schools.
Walters provided testimony related to funding for Confucius Classrooms in K-12 schools and Confucius Institutes at colleges and universities, which are language programs managed by a Chinese non-government organization but sponsored by the government.
The Chinese government actively set up schools both in higher education and K-12, with the institution to spread communism and undermine the United States. Knowing this, any response and solution should be bipartisan and a non-controversial issue. We must protect our kids and not allow a hostile foreign government to indoctrinate them.
Walters also says Tulsa Public Schools has a partnership with Confucius Classroom. One TPS campus, Booker T. Washington High School, uses the program. He further called for Congress to pass a law banning schools from accepting money from and entering into data sharing agreements with “hostile foreign governments.” TPS officials deny receiving money from the Chinese government.
The Oklahoma State Board of Education recently passed a measure to require school districts to report any money they accept from foreign governments.
A decade-long legal fight will continue in a federal courtroom in Tulsa Wednesday over the future of a wind farm in Osage County.
Critics within the Osage Nation say their estate is illegally impeded by the turbines as their presence damages the prairie and harms the value of the mineral estate. That's why they, the Osage Nation's Minerals Council, and the federal government are asking a federal judge that the wind development be removed from the prairie.
Wilson Pipestem of Pipestem Law formerly represented the Minerals Council on this matter. He says if companies like Enel and Osage Wind are allowed to take Osage minerals to build their industrial wind facilities, where will it stop?
"Hopefully Osage sovereignty in the 1906 Act will prevail there," said Pipestem.
Osage Wind, the defendant in the lawsuit, says that would cost about $300 million and cause irreparable financial damage.
The hearing is set for Wednesday morning.
Oklahoma has a new law that requires high school students to pass a citizenship test before graduating. Though a study of states with similar tests don’t see an increase in civic engagement as a result.
Oklahoma has one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the country. It’s especially low for young people. Last November fewer than 25% of the state’s registered voters under 30 cast a ballot for governor and other races. Less than 10% voted in a March election to legalize recreational marijuana.
The nonprofit news outlet Oklahoma Voice reports, a Pennsylvania State University study finds young voter turnout isn’t improved in places that have similar exams.
Oklahoma lawmakers who championed the civics exam, say the purpose wasn’t necessarily to increase young voter turnout. But, to have young people be more civically engaged.
However, scholars and educators recommend civic education as a solution to the problem of low young voter turnout.
A project to relocate prairie dogs from a city park to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is getting underway.
The prairie dogs are being taken from Elmer Thomas Park in Lawton due to overcrowding in an area the city is looking to develop. Instead of euthanizing them, the city is offering the prairie dogs to the Wildlife Refuge.
Dan McDonald is the wildlife biologist at the refuge. He says they are looking to trap and relocate at least 30 of them.
"The larger number of dogs that you use for your reintroduction, the more likely you will be that these dogs will be successful," said McDonald.
After the prairie dogs have been trapped, the team will take blood samples and microchip them. McDonald says he doesn’t think these prairie dogs have been too "urbanized” and has high hopes for them.
"They were acting like a prairie dog should act. We would walk around the town. They would do their alarm calls and scurry down into their burrows," he said.
McDonald says it's the first time in 20 years new prairie dogs have been introduced to the wildlife refuge. The relocation is slated to happen mid October.
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