Long list of state challenges
THIS week’s special legislative session was notable for its lack of notable accomplishment. Lawmakers effectively threw in the towel when Democratic obstruction prevented passage of a cigarette tax increase. The increase, which enjoys broad public support, should have been among the easiest measures to pass. That lawmakers haven’t been able to do even easy jobs doesn’t bode well for their ability to tackle more pressing issues. And there are many in Oklahoma.
The prison system is overcrowded with too many prisoners in aging and nearly obsolete facilities, and too few correctional officers who are paid wages that generate high turnover. Officials have been forced to create a Community
Supervision Program to ease overcrowding. Lawmakers must pass corrections reforms that reduce overcrowding, or fund new prison construction to house the growing inmate population, or pursue some combination of the two. They have failed to take any of those steps.
Oklahoma’s school system has far more districts and administrators than necessary, producing subpar academic results that make business recruitment difficult. Yet even simple streamlining of administration is a no-go in the Legislature, as are much-needed schoolchoice measures that would increase children’s learning and opportunity.
The state’s welfare system continues to grow. Drug treatment is unavailable to many who need it. Child protective services remain subpar. The only thing longer than the list of Oklahoma’s problems is the excuses lawmakers offer for failing to act.
Oklahomans deserve better. Failure to address problems today only ensures that greater challenges await tomorrow.
Top readers
An initiative by the Oklahoma City Schools Compact, called ReadOKC, challenged elementary school students in the Oklahoma City district to spend at least 1,200 minutes — 20 minutes per day — reading during their summer break. About 150 exceeded that goal. Students at Johnson Elementary led the way with nearly 60,000 minutes, followed by Adams Elementary (57,532 minutes) and Rancho Village Elementary (50,711). Students in the district’s elementary schools combined to log about 800,000 reading minutes, which was almost three times more than during the summer of 2016. Mary Melon, president of the Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools, noted that, “The more they read, the more successful they’re going to be.” That’s the truth. Hearty congratulations are due all the students who made it a point to regularly crack open a book this summer.
An unsympathetic plaintiff
Thirty years ago, Douglas Spitznas abducted a teenage girl and held her captive in his van for 21 hours. During that time, Spitznas raped the girl repeatedly, burned her with cigarettes and dripped hot wax on her. After she testified against him, Spitzas was convicted of rape and torture and given seven consecutive life terms plus 1,000 years. Today, he contends the Department of Corrections is doing him wrong by withholding 20 percent of his prison pay. The DOC does this for most inmates as part of a state law, and sets the money aside until they’re released. Spitzas says that since he’s never going to see freedom again, he should get to keep all his pay. An Oklahoma County judge dismissed his lawsuit, but that ruling was overturned by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. Spitzas may ultimately win his case, but he’ll certainly engender no sympathy in the court of public opinion.
Off to prison
The sexting scandals of former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner provided late-night comedians plenty of fodder in recent years. That continued this week after Weiner was sentenced in a Manhattan federal court to 21 months in prison for his contact with a 15-year-old girl, which produced a guilty plea in 2016. “Weiner can get out in eight months with good behavior” Jimmy Fallon said. “So … he’ll be serving 21 months.” Weiner earned that zinger. He resigned his congressional seat in 2011 after admitting to sexting several women over a period of three years. Two years later, his run for mayor of New York blew up when it became known he was sending explicit photos to a woman under the pseudonym “Carlos Danger.” Then came last year’s guilty plea, which cost him his marriage to Huma Abedin, longtime aide to Hillary Clinton. Weiner told the judge he “was a very sick man for a very long time.” There’s nothing funny about what Weiner has done, of course. Perhaps he’ll get the help behind bars that he so clearly needs.
North Korean rhetoric
In his recent speech to the United Nations, President Trump was typically blunt regarding what awaits North Korea if it doesn’t stop efforts to threaten other countries with nuclear weapons. On Twitter, Trump later said North Korea “won’t be around much longer.” North Korea’s foreign minister then accused Trump of declaring war. That might sound like an alarming and dangerous escalation, but Isaac Stone Fish, a journalist with Foreign Affairs, notes such rhetoric is routine from North Korea. Officials there have declared a wide range of statements and actions to be a “declaration of war,” including imposition of sanctions under the Obama administration, joint U.S./South Korean military exercises, imposition of U.N. sanctions, and more. The tactic is so common, it was parodied by The Onion as far back as 2006. In short, apocalyptic rhetoric from North Korea is like a day ending in “y.”
Generating controversy
When it was revealed that reality TV star and model Kylie Jenner was pregnant, blogger Perez Hilton (real name Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr.) responded with a commentary declaring, “If I were Kris Jenner, I would tell that girl to get an abortion!” Later Hilton added, “This is when being pro-choice really comes in handy.” The comments, like many made by the blogger, were intended to offend and generate controversy. What’s surprising is that they did. The public response was mostly negative, despite abortion being considered an unquestionable pillar of liberal stances among the Hollywood crowd. Polling shows the public generally supports more restrictions on abortion than current law imposes, although many are still uneasy with an outright ban. But public response to Hilton’s tirade shows that many people support abortion only in the abstract, and not when looking at a real person pregnant with a real baby.
Eligibility debate
One measure filed in the special legislative session, House Bill 1093, would require review of Oklahoma’s Medicaid rolls to ensure those in the program remain eligible to participate after joining. Similar programs in other states have generated savings when it was found some Medicaid patients subsequently earned incomes that exceeded eligibility for the program for the poor, and those ineligible people were culled from the program. Oklahoma Policy Institute, a left-leaning advocacy organization, opposes HB 1093. Fair enough. But it argues additional verification measures aren’t needed because Oklahoma’s Medicaid program “has the lowest payment error rate in the nation.” But this means only that when Medicaid pays for, say, prenatal care, the services are really provided to a pregnant woman. The payment error rate doesn’t tell officials if the person receiving care is truly eligible, which is the focal point of this debate.