[Okgrantsmanship] News Articles, 5/5/2012-5/7/2012
Mason, Linda
lmason at osrhe.edu
Tue May 8 15:36:47 CDT 2012
Oklahoma State University program allows students to dive into research early
By Silas Allen, The Oklahoman 5/5/2012
STILLWATER - While many of her fellow students are in class, Lauren Foley spends hours in a lab, working with prairie voles. That's been the case, more or less, since Foley came to Oklahoma State University last year. Foley, now a sophomore, participated in an OSU program that allows students to take part in meaningful research during their freshman year. "To me, it was just a good opportunity to get outside the classroom," Foley said. Foley, a zoology major, was a part of Freshman Research Scholars, an OSU program that gives about 60 first-year students per year the opportunity to take part in research on campus. In addition to their regular coursework, those students may either work with faculty researchers on a project that's already under way, or raise a question of their own and, under faculty supervision, develop a study to answer that question.
Practical experience
Foley's freshman research involved social behavior among prairie voles, a type of rodent that is native to the central United States and Canada, including Oklahoma. Specifically, she looked at whether a male vole can tell other voles apart. She found that male voles can distinguish among other males, but aren't well-equipped to be able to tell one female from another. This year, Foley received another scholarship, this time under OSU's Wentz Research Project program, to continue her research. Foley is building on last year's research, this time looking at whether voles have a kind of home-field advantage - that is, whether voles do a better job of telling each other apart when they're on their own turf. The freshman research program was beneficial, Foley said, because it gave her the chance to get practical experience in her field even as she went through her freshman courses. It also helped her form relationships from the beginning of her college career with faculty members who might go on to be mentors in later years.
Faculty connections
Tim O'Neil, director of the freshman research program, said those faculty connections are one of the program's major selling points. The program seeks to match students with faculty mentors whose research interests match their own. Those mentors not only guide them through their freshman research, O'Neil said, but also work with them for the rest of their undergraduate careers as those students do undergraduate research under other OSU programs. Many former freshman researchers come back as graduate students to work alongside their faculty mentors, he said. Involving freshmen in research can have a major impact on the rest of their college careers, O'Neil said. The program tends to be more of a formative experience than it might be if it took place later, he said, simply because of where the students are in their academic careers. Freshmen typically arrive at college enthusiastic about learning in general, he said. As they progress through their majors, their interests tend to become more specific. By junior and senior year, they tend to think more strictly within their own disciplines - physics majors think like physicists and engineering majors think like engineers. "When they enter college, they really don't think like anything other than a student," he said.
Programs are rare
OSU's program was established in 1998 and is only one of a few programs nationwide that allow freshmen to participate in research. Unlike similar programs in other states, O'Neil said, OSU's freshman research initiative allows students to participate in research in a broad array of fields. Some students, like Foley, may do research in hard sciences, while others might work on projects in humanities-related disciplines like history and literature. From the beginning of the program, O'Neil said, the students are exposed to "more than the standard beaker scrubbing." Their starting point depends on their skill level, he said, but even students who come into the program with little or no background in research typically progress quickly from ground-level jobs like data entry to more substantial contributions to their projects. "Our goal is that this is a meaningful experience to these students," he said. "They can actually add to the body of knowledge in their field."
Linda Mason, Ed.D.
Coordinator of Grant Writing
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
655 Research Parkway, Suite 200
Oklahoma City, OK 73104
405-225-9486 desk
405-706-8757 cell
405-225-9230 FAX
lmason at osrhe.edu
www.okhighered.org/grant-opps/
From: Ross, Emelia
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2012 11:25 AM
Subject: News Articles, 5/5/2012-5/7/2012
OKLAHOMA COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
University of Oklahoma seeks to expand freshman research pilot program
The University of Oklahoma's freshman research program, which is at the end of its first year, is a joint effort between the OU Honors College and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. OU officials hope to see the program expand in the years to come.
By Silas Allen
The Oklahoman
5/5/2012
NORMAN - Organizers said they hope to see a freshman research program at the University of Oklahoma expand in years to come.
The program, which is at the end of the pilot stages, is a joint effort between the OU Honors College and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
During the first year, the program was open to honors chemistry and biochemistry students, said chemistry professor Mark Morvant, the program's founder.
Next year, he said, the program will be open to all students in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
University officials are also discussing the possibility of expanding the program to other departments. Rich Hamerla, associate dean of the Honors College, said he expects to see the program expand into the College of Engineering next year.
After that, he said, university officials plan to move the program into the College of Arts and Sciences department by department.
"Everybody's really enthusiastic about it," Hamerla said.
Undergraduate and freshman research tend to be high-impact activities, Morvant said.
When students have the opportunity to work one-on-one with a faculty mentor, he said, they tend to be more invested in the idea of continuing with research.
"The earlier you can get a student engaged in research, the more learning and research they can get," he said.
The program matches students with faculty who are willing to open up space in their labs to first-year students.
While the program has the potential to have a major impact on the students who participate, he said, the cost to the university is fairly minimal.
"It's not a high-dollar-type program," Hamerla said.
Oklahoma State University program allows students to dive into research early
By Silas Allen
The Oklahoman
5/5/2012
STILLWATER - While many of her fellow students are in class, Lauren Foley spends hours in a lab, working with prairie voles.
That's been the case, more or less, since Foley came to Oklahoma State University last year.
Foley, now a sophomore, participated in an OSU program that allows students to take part in meaningful research during their freshman year.
"To me, it was just a good opportunity to get outside the classroom," Foley said.
Foley, a zoology major, was a part of Freshman Research Scholars, an OSU program that gives about 60 first-year students per year the opportunity to take part in research on campus.
In addition to their regular coursework, those students may either work with faculty researchers on a project that's already under way, or raise a question of their own and, under faculty supervision, develop a study to answer that question.
Practical experience
Foley's freshman research involved social behavior among prairie voles, a type of rodent that is native to the central United States and Canada, including Oklahoma.
Specifically, she looked at whether a male vole can tell other voles apart.
She found that male voles can distinguish among other males, but aren't well-equipped to be able to tell one female from another.
This year, Foley received another scholarship, this time under OSU's Wentz Research Project program, to continue her research.
Foley is building on last year's research, this time looking at whether voles have a kind of home-field advantage - that is, whether voles do a better job of telling each other apart when they're on their own turf.
The freshman research program was beneficial, Foley said, because it gave her the chance to get practical experience in her field even as she went through her freshman courses.
It also helped her form relationships from the beginning of her college career with faculty members who might go on to be mentors in later years.
Faculty connections
Tim O'Neil, director of the freshman research program, said those faculty connections are one of the program's major selling points.
The program seeks to match students with faculty mentors whose research interests match their own.
Those mentors not only guide them through their freshman research, O'Neil said, but also work with them for the rest of their undergraduate careers as those students do undergraduate research under other OSU programs.
Many former freshman researchers come back as graduate students to work alongside their faculty mentors, he said.
Involving freshmen in research can have a major impact on the rest of their college careers, O'Neil said.
The program tends to be more of a formative experience than it might be if it took place later, he said, simply because of where the students are in their academic careers.
Freshmen typically arrive at college enthusiastic about learning in general, he said.
As they progress through their majors, their interests tend to become more specific.
By junior and senior year, they tend to think more strictly within their own disciplines - physics majors think like physicists and engineering majors think like engineers.
"When they enter college, they really don't think like anything other than a student," he said.
Programs are rare
OSU's program was established in 1998 and is only one of a few programs nationwide that allow freshmen to participate in research.
Unlike similar programs in other states, O'Neil said, OSU's freshman research initiative allows students to participate in research in a broad array of fields.
Some students, like Foley, may do research in hard sciences, while others might work on projects in humanities-related disciplines like history and literature.
>From the beginning of the program, O'Neil said, the students are exposed to "more than the standard beaker scrubbing."
Their starting point depends on their skill level, he said, but even students who come into the program with little or no background in research typically progress quickly from ground-level jobs like data entry to more substantial contributions to their projects.
"Our goal is that this is a meaningful experience to these students," he said. "They can actually add to the body of knowledge in their field."
Wake up, Oklahoma! Invest in education
By David Boren
Tulsa World
5/6/2012
Wake up, Oklahoma! Decisions will be made at the state Capitol in the next few days that will affect our state for years to come. Because these decisions are so important they should be made conservatively, carefully and prudently. Wise decisions are far more important than rushed decisions.
To secure our future, we must invest in the next generation. Gov. Fallin has set a public goal of achieving more economic growth through investment in education. It is important to take action to do just that. A recent survey of top business leaders conducted by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce ranked excellence in education, including increasing the number of college and university graduates, as the single most important step to increase economic growth and create more jobs. Through the major chambers of commerce in Oklahoma, business leaders are saying fix education first and then see what changes in the income tax should be made.
Our business community is right but we have been doing just the opposite. Did you know that we now rank 49th in the funds going to common education? Do we want to stay on that path until we are dead last? If we don't start investing in our children and grandchildren what message will that send? We are still not back to the level of support that we had for education four years ago.
Did you know that state support as a percentage of university budgets has fallen by 100 percent since 1980? At OU, for example, state support has dropped since 1980 from almost 40 percent of our budget to 17 percent. Did you know that the medical school gets only 6.9 percent of its budget from the state? With this steep decline in state support the amount of the budget paid by students and their families has tripled. How do we meet the state's goal of more college graduates if state cuts price students out of the market and reduce the number of teachers and courses that students need to graduate on time?
Everyone likes tax cuts. When taxes get so high that they discourage economic effort, they should be reduced. When I was governor I proposed and helped pass an income tax cut and helped end the unfair inheritance tax between husbands and wives. As a U.S. senator I voted for the Reagan tax cuts.
However, almost 45 years in public service have taught me that we must try to strike a careful balance between the right tax level and needed investments in areas such as education. We must also be careful about any multi-year tax cuts with triggers that might not fit changing conditions. At this point we don't know what will happen to natural gas prices and further mandated costs coming from changes in health care. We have no crystal ball. That is why we should examine tax and budget decisions on an annual basis. That is the conservative approach. If we have a sudden financial emergency, it could lead to increases in property taxes and other taxes to replace lost income tax revenue.
Our history of using triggers to determine future tax reductions has also proven fraught with danger. What base year do we use against which to measure economic growth? If we pick 2011 instead of 2008, for example, we would further impoverish education by allowing tax cuts before we even get back to the level we had achieved before being devastated by the recession.
In short, we need to ask ourselves what kind of future we want. Are we willing to sacrifice for our children as our parents and grandparents sacrificed for us? How do we want to be remembered? All Oklahomans need time to think about the answer.
David Boren is president of the University of Oklahoma and a former U.S. senator and governor.
Groundbreaking ceremony to be held for new RSU campus
By Sara Plummer
Tulsa World
5/7/2012
PRYOR - Officials from Rogers State University and MidAmerica Industrial Park will be on hand for a groundbreaking ceremony Monday, the first step toward the Pryor branch campus' move to a new facility at the industrial park.
The new 38,000-square-foot building will be constructed on a 70-plus acre lot in the industrial park. MidAmerica is building the facility and after engineering, utility installation, road and parking lot construction, the total cost of the project will be between $9 million and $10 million, said Sanders Mitchell, administrator at the industrial park. RSU will lease the property for $1 a year.
Construction is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2013 with classes starting that fall.
The new facility will more than double the current 14,000-square-foot building housing the RSU Pryor campus, which opened in 1986 in a building loaned from the Oklahoma Military Department.
Because of the space limitations and continued growth, the Pryor campus has only been able to offer general education courses and then students have to transfer to upper-level courses at the Claremore campus, said RSU President Larry Rice.
"We are seeing a consistent, steady growth at all three campuses: Claremore, Pryor and Bartlesville," Rice said. "This fall was record enrollment for us. It's manageable growth but steady. The (new) campus in Pryor will help alleviate some of the pressure at the Claremore campus."
RSU's enrollment was up 5.6 percent this fall, and at the Pryor campus, enrollment has grown by nearly 50 percent in the last three years to almost 300 students with an additional 200 students taking courses in Pryor, although they are enrolled through the Claremore campus, said RSU public relations director David Hamby.
The larger facility in Pryor will house additional classrooms, science labs, computer labs, a library, student lounge, food service and dining, bookstore, meeting rooms, administration and faculty offices and a 150-seat auditorium for classroom or community use.
"That's something new for Pryor. We wanted something the community could use. That's a new opportunity for us," Rice said.
RSU will be the third higher education campus located at MidAmerica. Oklahoma State University-Institute for Technology and Northeast Technology Center also have branch campuses at the industrial park, Mitchell said, and businesses like having those educational opportunities nearby for its work force.
"OSU, in the evenings the school parking lot really fills up. They'll do the same thing at RSU," he said. "It's going to be good for the industrial park but also for the community and northeast Oklahoma."
Original Print Headline: Ceremony to break ground at RSU Pryor
Osteopaths oppose residency funding plan
By Wayne Greene
Tulsa World and The Oklahoman
5/5/2012
A plan to increase the number of state-funded medical residencies - and start to deal with a shortage of primary care physicians - has been complicated by Oklahoma Osteopathic Association opposition to any of the money going to the OU College of Community Medicine.
Top legislative leaders and Gov. Mary Fallin have endorsed a $3 million plan to increase the number of medical residencies in underserved parts of the state, especially rural areas.
The proposal has passed both houses of the Legislature and is awaiting final legislative form.
But the Osteopathic Association has posted a notice on its website opposing a pending version of the bill.
The association supports the bill's original language but opposes "any new language that supports an additional medical school in Tulsa ... and any amendments that fund increasing class sizes at the OSU or OU medical schools."
A committee substitute for the bill would change a definition within the law that would allow the money to be spent at the OU College of Community Medicine in Tulsa.
"Our intended support was for the development of rural residency programs with the ORIGINAL language," the association's website says. The association "recommends that all appropriations be utilized to develop rural residency programs and we do NOT feel that appropriations should be used to fund a third medical school in our state."
Efforts to reach the association's executive director and president Friday evening were unsuccessful.
Oklahoma State University-Tulsa President Howard Barnett said the problem shouldn't derail the bill.
"This is an absolutely critical issue to the health of Oklahoma," Barnett said.
While the bill's language would allow some of the money to be used by the OU medical school, Barnett said that as a practical matter OSU's osteopathic college will move faster to spend it.
OU-Tulsa President Gerard Clancy disagreed. He said he is ready to fill medical residencies immediately.
State Rep. Doug Cox - an allopathic physician and a graduate of the OU Medical School - said the bill's intent is to principally fund OSU rural residencies, but if any money is left over, it would be available for OU programs.
A strong selling point on the residency program is that it would bring in close to $6 million in federal matching money, and in three years, all costs should be absorbed by the federal government, said Cox, R-Grove.
Barnett and Cox said they don't expect the issue to derail the bill because the state's need for more physicians is urgent.
The state is near the bottom in terms of number of doctors and especially short of primary care physicians, Barnett said.
OSU and OU are planning to increase the size of their Tulsa medical school classes - one of the objections in the association's posting - because of the state's severe shortage of physicians.
OSU-Tulsa will add 20 students to its class at the Center of Health Sciences this fall and has longer-term plans to add 75 more, Barnett said.
OU is working on plans to increase the number of medical school students at its Tulsa campus by 30 to 35 to be funded significantly through private support, Clancy said.
He said several factors are about to aggravate the state's shortage of physicians.
The number of residencies in the state hasn't grown as the population has, Clancy said. Also, he noted that the number of Oklahoma physicians approaching retirement age is increasing and the number of people seeking medical services is increasing as the baby boom generation ages, life expectancy increases and health care reform increases the number of people who have health insurance.
To deal with the problem, the state has to increase the number of pre-med students, the number of medical school students and the number of residencies, Clancy said.
"We have a pipeline issue, and the entire pipeline needs to be widened," he said.
About allopaths, osteopaths
Allopathy and osteopathy are two separate traditions of physician training with separate accrediting agencies for their colleges, licensing boards for their practitioners and professional organizations.
*Allopaths earn M.D. degrees.
*Osteopaths earn D.O. degrees.
Original Print Headline: Osteopaths oppose bill
Oklahoma State University medical school and FFA form relationship to stimulate interest in rural medicine
To combat Oklahoma's growing shortage of primary care physicians, OSU Center for Health Sciences is reaching out to rural Oklahoma students in hopes they'll become doctors and stay in the state to practice medicine.
By Jaclyn Cosgrove
The Oklahoman
5/6/2012
Strike up a conversation with a high school student, and it likely will not lead to a discussion about Oklahoma's growing shortage of primary care physicians.
Unless you're talking to Skylar Vogle, a junior at Perkins-Tryon High School.
Vogle wants to be a doctor in rural Oklahoma, and she's just the kind of student the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences is seeking.
This past week, the medical school had a booth for the first time at the Oklahoma Future Farmers of American convention in Oklahoma City.
Four things predict where physicians will practice mid-career - where they grow up, where they go to college, whether their medical school has a curriculum with an emphasis on primary care or rural and underserved populations and where they do their residency, said Dr. Kayse Shrum, the OSU Center for Health Sciences provost.
"The FFA is the first piece of that to me, finding students who are interested in medicine, are already from rural Oklahoma and are more likely to return," Shrum said.
In 2011, the New England Journal of Medicine ranked Oklahoma as the most access challenged state in regards to health care. Oklahoma was among seven other states that are expected to have large Medicaid expansions but have weak primary care capacity, according to the report.
One of the reasons Oklahoma has so few primary care physicians might be because of high rates of uninsured residents and poverty, which make it hard to attract and keep doctors in the state, according to the medicine journal report.
At the rate Oklahoma is going, it will hard to even attain an "average" health care ranking, Shrum said.
There's an immediate need to expand medical school class sizes, expand residency programs and retain physicians to supplement the aging physician population, Shrum said.
"We're already at the bottom, and if we don't do something different, and if we don't address it, it will be devastating to the state," Shrum said.
Vogle, the president of her high school FFA chapter, already has a plan - go to OSU, major in biology and get accepted into OSU's Rural and Underserved Primary Care Early Admissions Program through its College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Students in the program must plan to practice primary care in rural or underserved Oklahoma. Through the program, students can complete pre-doctoral medical training in seven years.
Vogle doesn't want to leave Oklahoma, hoping to someday practice medicine somewhere near her hometown of Glencoe.
"The fact that you can take someone who is in pain and is hurting and is coming to you to help them and know what to do in that situation would be an amazing feeling," Vogle said.
Glencoe, a town of 600 people, is about 15 miles northeast of Stillwater in Payne County. There are 81 medical doctors in Payne County, serving 68,190 people. This factors out to 841 patients per doctor, according to the state medical board.
But several counties in Oklahoma face significant physician shortages. In eight of Oklahoma's counties, there's only one medical doctor - Atoka County, Choctaw County, Dewey County, Harper County, Jefferson County, Pawnee County, Pushmataha County and Roger Mills County, according to the state medical board.
Less than one-fourth of the counties in Oklahoma, about 18 counties, have at least one doctor per 2,000 people, according to a draft from the state Health Department about provider population ratios. Almost half of the counties in Oklahoma, about 36 counties, have between 0.57 and 0.99 doctors per 2,000 people. About 23 counties have fewer than 0.57 doctors per 2,000 people.
That's why medical students like Rachael Pattison are important to keep in Oklahoma.
Growing up on a ranch in Holdenville, Pattison didn't initially want to go to medical school. Pattison, a third-year medical student at OSU, wanted to be a veterinarian.
Once she was at East Central University in Ada, a mentor asked her - have you considered medical school?
After shadowing a few doctors, Pattison decided her mentor was right and that she wanted to practice medicine in rural Oklahoma.
"It's where I'm from, it's what I know, and I see the desperate need for it," she said.
Pattison, past president of the Student Osteopathic Rural Medical Association at OSU's medical school, hopes to practice medicine at a small hospital and have her own practice in Holdenville or at least close by.
Holdenville is about 80 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, population 5,771. The small town is in Hughes County, which has three medical doctors serving about 4,718 people each, according to state medical board data.
Pattison recently finished a shift on OSU's telemedicine bus when it traveled to Porter, a town of about 570 people in northeastern Oklahoma.
These patients are some of the most grateful people Pattison has found. Many of the patients treated through telemedicine don't have access to a doctor either because there isn't one in the area or they don't have a car or maybe they can't take a full day off from work.
"Or they need a specialist," Pattison said. "That's the only way we can get a specialist to Porter, Oklahoma, is via telemedicine."
Feminist playwright Eve Ensler urges OU to fund Women's and Gender Studies program
By Silas Allen
The Oklahoman
5/5/2012
NORMAN - Feminist playwright and activist Eve Ensler is urging the University of Oklahoma not to cut funding for one of its programs.
In a letter dated Wednesday, Ensler asks OU officials to restore funding for the Women's and Gender Studies program. The budget has been slashed by 52 percent over the past two years.
Ensler is founder and artistic director of the New York-based group V-Day, which seeks to end violence against women and girls. In 1996, Ensler wrote "The Vagina Monologues," a collection of vignettes based on interviews with women about sexuality.
In the letter, Ensler notes the program is the only one of its kind in Oklahoma, and says funding cuts would be detrimental to students and to the state at large. She calls women's and gender studies "a first-line defense for women's rights."
"We must do everything in our power to keep them not only open, but thriving," she says.
In an interview, Ensler said OU had been involved with the V-Day movement for more than 10 years.
She became aware of cuts through discussions with the program's organizers, she said.
Low rankings
Oklahoma has the highest rate of female incarceration in the country.
Typically, Ensler said, that means a high percentage of women being denied education, coming from violent homes and lacking support.
The state also ranks poorly in terms of overall health. America's Health Rankings for 2011 places Oklahoma at No. 48, two spots lower than the previous year. Among other factors, the ranking cites a low use of prenatal care.
Cuts aren't unique to OU's program, she said.
During tough economic times, programs for women tend to be some of the first to see cuts.
She said the loss of those services places women in an increasingly difficult position, as they scramble to feed their families on diminishing resources.
"This would be the absolutely worst time to end this program," she said.
OU awaits budget
OU spokeswoman Catherine Bishop said the university has no plans to eliminate the program or cut essential courses. OU won't be able to set funding levels for campus departments until it receives its budget from the state legislature.
"There will be no decisions about cuts in any programs, including Women's and Gender Studies, until we find out if the state leaders will cover our fixed cost increases this year," Bishop said. "We are hopeful they will."
The university has sustained $100 million in budget cuts and unfunded cost increases over the past three years, Bishop said, meaning no area has been spared.
Jill Irvine, director of OU's Women's and Gender Studies program, said the cuts have hurt the program because the department is relatively small and the funding cuts hamper its ability to offer courses.
'Educational concern'
Funding cuts also affect the department's ability to play an active role on campus and in the community, she said, including raising funds for the Women's Resource Center and inviting guest activists to campus to offer workshops and guest lectures outside of class.
"First and foremost, it's an educational concern," Irvine said.
Inasmuch Foundation gives $11.3 million to Oklahoma groups
$11.3 million in grants go to 37 Oklahoma charities or service organizations
The Oklahoman and Tulsa World
5/5/2012
The Inasmuch Foundation on Friday announced the distribution of $11.3 million in grants to 37 organizations in Oklahoma.
"We made substantial investments this grant cycle in building the capacity of our grantees," said Bob Ross, president and CEO of Inasmuch Foundation. "We hope that this will allow them, in turn, to make substantial change in our communities."
Grants were awarded to organizations for projects addressing the foundation's areas of interest as follows:
Education
$1,000,000 to American Indian Cultural Center Foundation for construction of the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum.
$500,000 to Science Museum Oklahoma for a new Children's Hall.
$500,000 to the University of Oklahoma for construction of The Scholars Walk, a major beautification project.
$378,000 to Smart Start Central Oklahoma for addition of an office manager and program coordinator and support of the Early Birds program.
$150,000 to Oklahoma Arts Institute for Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute scholarships.
$100,000 to Girl Scouts - Western Oklahoma for a capital campaign to renovate, equip and endow a facility in Oklahoma City.
$100,000 to KIPP Reach Academy for general support.
$100,000 to Payne Education Center for two pilot studies to determine how to train university faculty and teacher candidate students.
The following education organizations received grants of less than $100,000: Oklahoma Children's Theatre; Community Action Project of Tulsa County; and Tulsa Community Foundation.
Oklahoma City Community College student lives to make a difference
Akash Patel, of Oklahoma City, emigrated from India four years ago and spends his summers volunteering abroad.
By Matt Patterson
The Oklahoman
5/6/2012
Akash Patel lives by a mantra he puts into action every day - you're never too young to make a difference.
Oklahoma City Community College student Akash Patel spends time with students at an elementary school in the Dominican Republic. Photo provided
Patel, 20, is a student at Oklahoma City Community College. He's spent the last two summers volunteering in the Dominican Republic. Last month Patel hosted a United Nations teleconference aimed at encouraging volunteering among young people.
Patel, who emigrated from India with his parents five years ago, has visited 30 countries and has given at least 250 speeches on motivation and volunteering.
Patel is a fast talker and confident. He has to be if he wants to achieve his ultimate goal of becoming a diplomat.
"I think service to humanity is a must," he said. "Everyone can benefit from it."
Patel said he first decided to get into public speaking at the urging of his teachers in India.
"My teachers felt like I was a little bit different," he said. "I never thought of myself that way back then. I was a normal 16-year-old student. But once I got into it, I found it very rewarding and a way to help others."
The United Nations teleconference focused on youth volunteering. About 80 students from area colleges attended. Patel believes some people his age don't believe they can make a difference. He sees it differently.
"You're never too young or too old to make a difference," he said. "If you have a passion and a will you can always achieve what you want and you can help others in the process."
Luxmi Bhakta has known Patel for about four years. She said he's the kind of person you're always glad you ran into.
"I often tease him that I'd like to adopt him," she said. "He's just an amazing young man. He's one of those people that lights up a room when he enters it."
And he's not shy about telling her of his overseas volunteering efforts.
"He talks about it a lot," Bhakta said. "It is a very rare thing for someone his age to be so involved."
Patel will return to the Dominican Republic this summer. He has spoken at a women's prison and at schools throughout the country. He has also assisted with sea turtle conservation, something he hopes to do again. Long term plans include branching out to volunteer in other countries.
"I've worked with kids who are in jail and kids who are young leaders," he said. "That's the real pleasure for me is meeting many different people from different backgrounds. And when you get something accomplished, you see the benefit immediately."
Patel is planning to attend the University of Oklahoma after he finishes at OCCC. His ambition is to become a diplomat. But in between the teleconferences, school and his summers volunteering abroad he does find some down time. He has recently taken up photography.
"I'm not a party animal but I do a lot of the normal things college students do," he said.
ORU to graduate its 25,000th student
By Bill Sherman
Tulsa World
5/5/2012
Oral Roberts University will graduate its 25,000th student Saturday.
And that student is the granddaughter of the man who has organized every graduation since ORU opened nearly a half century ago.
Laura Egstad will graduate summa cum laude Saturday. She was named the most outstanding teacher candidate this year in the College of Education.
Her mother is one of two daughters of longtime ORU employee Bill Jernigan. Both daughters are ORU graduates.
Jernigan was 30 years old when he came to ORU in June 1965 to set up the college library.
He has continued over the years as dean of learning resources but also has found himself in a variety of administrative positions, including vice president of academic affairs.
And he quickly learned that ministry came with the job.
"I probably laid hands on and prayed for 10,000 people," he said, as he traveled on healing crusades, first with ORU President Oral Roberts and then with ORU President Richard Roberts.
"It's been a unique experience, combining ministry and scholarship," he said.
"I've traveled all over the world. ... It's been a great journey."
One of Jernigan's first responsibilities at ORU was to organize the dedication of the university and the inauguration of Oral Roberts as its first president.
Billy Graham spoke at that event in June 1967.
"I must have done a good job because I've had everything since," Jernigan said. He was asked to organize every graduation and also the inaugurations of ORU presidents Richard Roberts and Mark Rutland.
When he was notified by the registrar that the university would graduate its 25,000th student this spring, knowing his granddaughter would be in that class, he asked Rutland if he would mind making her the 25,000th.
"Mind? I will edict it," Rutland told Jernigan.
At the 1 p.m. commencement ceremony Saturday, as Egstad receives her diploma, special mention will be made that she is the 25,000th graduate.
After graduation, Egstad hopes to teach at a public grade school in Tulsa, though she herself is a product of Evangelistic Temple School and Victory Christian School.
"I love everything about teaching," said Egstad, who spent last summer with an ORU team teaching English to grade-school students in China, a trip she called "the most incredible and most trying experience of my life."
ORU will graduate 650 on Saturday. The commencement speaker will be Ralph Winter, who helped produce "X-Men," "Fantastic Four," "I, Robot" and other Hollywood films.
Original Print Headline: ORU to graduate 25,000th
Fallen Claremore soldier receives honorary degree from Rogers State University
By David Harper
Tulsa World
5/6/2012
CLAREMORE - A graduation ceremony is normally a time to look ahead, but for the family of Oklahoma Army National Guard Sgt. Anthony Delmar Peterson, Saturday was a day to look back on a remarkable life.
Rogers State University conferred a posthumous degree on Saturday to Peterson, who was killed Aug. 4 at the age of 24 when he was hit with small-arms fire while on a dismounted patrol in Paktia province, Afghanistan.
Peterson had completed 71 credit hours at RSU at the time of his death.
He also was active in organizations such as Campus Crusade for Christ and the Baptist Collegiate Ministry, and participated in other service-oriented activities.
"We are very grateful to the university," said his father, Garth Peterson, of the associate degree in liberal arts awarded to his son. "It's an awesome thing for them to honor him and his service."
Anthony Peterson was attached to Vinita's Company B, with the 1st Battalion of the 279th Infantry Regiment of the Oklahoma Army National Guard's 45th Infantry Brigade.
He had previously served in Afghanistan in 2006-07.
Garth Peterson said Anthony "surrendered his life to Christ" after that first tour of duty and would often reach out to people in need.
Mindy Sager, an aunt of Anthony's, said her nephew didn't talk much about what he experienced in Afghanistan, but "seeing what he saw, his faith grew."
Terra Peterson, Anthony's mother, said her son was also a dedicated father who was "inseparable" from his son Dakota, now 6 years old. The couple said Dakota already has a lot of the same personality traits of his father.
Sager lives in Chelsea, where Anthony graduated from high school in 2005. She said her nephew had a playful and fun side but also took his devotion to his faith and his allegiance to his country very seriously.
The Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the NATO medal, the Global War on Terrorism medal, the Afghan campaign ribbon and the Oklahoma Distinguished Service medal were among the military honors Anthony Peterson received.
"This is a beautiful tribute," Sager said of the degree awarded to her nephew on Saturday.
"I'm glad they're doing it. They're showing him a lot of respect. He's a hero."
The Petersons said that the idea got its start after the couple informed the university of their son's death.
The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents, the governing board for RSU, approved the awarding of the degree.
The school was honored to recognize the "achievement and the contribution he made to the university," RSU President Larry Rice said. "Anthony served as a positive influence on our campus and in our community."
While the parking lot outside the Claremore Expo Center was filled with excited students getting ready for the graduation ceremony, Terra Peterson said there was part of her on Saturday waiting for Anthony to walk up to the building wearing a cap and gown.
Said Garth Peterson of losing a child: "I don't think you can compare anything."
Yet, they both said their faith sustains them.
"We believe that Anthony's not dead," Garth said. "He's just changed locations."
Sager shares that belief.
"It's comforting to us as Christians that we know we will see him again," she said.
Original Print Headline: Honors class
Q&A with incoming TU president Geoffrey Orsak
By Wayne Greene
Tulsa World
5/6/2012
Geoffrey Orsak, 48, will become the 18th president of the University of Tulsa on July 1.
The dean of the engineering school at Southern Methodist University had never been to Tulsa before the hiring process, but says he is quickly falling in love with the city.
He sat for a 35-minute interview with the Tulsa World. Here are the highlights:
Age: 48
Family: Married to Dr. Catherine Orsak; two children, Mary Elizabeth, 12, and Peter, 8.
College: Bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees from Rice University
Favorite book: The Catcher in the Rye
Tunes: Alternative, roots, jazz, old-school country, "a wide, eclectic mix."
Hobbies: Fishing - fresh and salt water - and going to sporting events.
Pet: A shih-poo named Xie-Xie (Chinese for "thank you")
First car: A "very used" Ford pick-up truck that he drove through his second year in college.
Key teacher: High school physics teacher Walter Potter. "I wrote an op-ed about him and how important he was in my life, and about how I thought he represented what all great teachers represent, which is the pathway to hope."
Q: How many members of the TU faculty do you think woke up Thursday morning and said, "Oh God, an engineer?"
A: "Probably all the engineers. (laughs) ... I know engineers come with some pretty strong stereotypes, but I've tried to break those along the way in my career."
Q: Do you remember the day you got your undergraduate acceptance letter from Rice?
A: "Absolutely. I still have it, actually. It was more than the acceptance letter. What was amazing to me was I got a (recruiting) letter from some person saying, for the first time, that I had done well on a standardized test, and they were interested in having me attend this university. I had never really heard of Rice before. I was so impressed to have a letter on letterhead and it was signed and typed. That might have been the first letter that I ever received that looked official and sounded official. And that was it: I was going to Rice...."
Q: Do you remember how much your tuition was that first year?
A: "The only number I remember is for the entire year was $2,400, and I had about $600 in the bank that I had saved up. So I had a long way to go...."
Q: Are schools like TU in danger of pricing themselves out of the market?
A: "I think any school is in danger of pricing itself out the market, if they don't provide value.... TU today is in a very safe zone. ...An education here is so valuable that the investment is worth it, especially if you look at the long term. ...
It is just like a home. It may take you a while to pay it off, but there's no better investment in the long term, at least historically, than an education and a home. It's the American dream."
Q: Can you tell me anything about your academic research career that I would understand?
A: "Well, I was an applied mathematician doing work that ultimately led to this whole wireless revolution. At the time we didn't know it, but I was working on the foundation of the mathematics that made it possible to have everything from cell phones and even this digital recorder. There were a lot of unknowns as to whether the whole world of digital technology could merge with communications that we have today. So we were working on all those details. It just took off like gangbusters."
Q: You've been a high-end researcher and an administrator. What's the secret for those sectors to get along?
A: "...There are two areas that really define a great university. That's the quality of the education that occurs in the classroom and the impact of the research that comes out of the laboratories and the libraries. And so, I really think of myself as a servant of the university as much as a leader of the university because I come out of that world. I'm still a professor, and I will always be a professor...."
Q: Is electrical engineering research the sort of thing you can do part time?
A: "Not at the level I was operating before. The pace is so fast as you can see by just going into an electronics store. You really need to be all-in, 24/7 to really keep up on the leading edge of that technology...."
Q: Was there a point where you made a decision to leave research and be a suit?
A: "There was. It was at a conference in Washington D.C., the International Symposium on Information Theory - the gathering of the greatest minds in my field, and I was moderating a session and there were probably 70 people in the room, and each scientist or mathematician or engineer would stand up and give a 20-minute presentation about their research and there were only a few people in the room who could follow even the most basic talks.
But at the end of that session I realized there wasn't a single question asked by anybody, and I started wondering, 'Is this really all that important, or are we just doing this for ourselves?'
And so shortly thereafter somebody came and asked me a question that really changed my life, which was, do I want to solve a really, really tough problem, not just the stuff I was working on, and that was intriguing enough to get me to take the meeting. And the question at that time was 'How do we get more kids in America interested in math and science?'
And I started thinking about it and how difficult that problem really is and what its ultimate impact would be... that was in 1997 and ... that's where it all began."
Q: How do we get more kids interested in math and sciences?
A: "Well we're never going to get kids interested in the math and science of the 1940s and 50s that most of us think about. So we've got to change our concept about what math and science is to be. ...It's got to be alive for them. It's got to be tangible. You've got to put it in their hands, and when you do that they recognize it right away. ..."
Q: SMU has had an interesting history with athletics. What do you take from there as you come the presidency of a school with a full-on NCAA program?
A: "Not just from SMU alone, but you can read the sports pages today and it's a precautionary tale about what happens if you really don't run an ethical athletic program, and it's one thing that a university just cannot tolerate.
You can have a hundred researchers producing books and great papers and one bad mistake can put you on the front page of the newspaper and cause the entire institution to have to defend itself for something that a young man or a young woman or a coach would do. So I'm really, really concerned - not only about TU but about athletics in general in higher education - that we remember what it's all about.
It's about developing young men and women to be leaders and giving them an opportunity to compete at the highest levels, and we've got to do that as ethically as possible and to have as close to a zero-tolerance policy as we can implement."
Q: How important is winning in athletics to the future success of the university?:
A: "There's so many ways to win in athletics. You can win on the scoreboard, but you can also win by giving student-athletes an opportunity to really develop themselves. So from a university president's perspective, winning is bigger than W's and L's.
I can tell you the fans in stands want to see victories because it just makes life more fun, and I'm one of the biggest fans that there is. When I go to a football game for TU or a women's softball game, I want to see them win, no question about it, but I'm also cheering for those kids in the classroom during the week when most people don't see them. We've got to win seven days a week, not just one day a week."
Q: Fundraising is such a big part of a university president's job. What do you bring to the table in that regard?
A: "I love to go out and talk to people about what this university wants to become and how they can help. Fortunately, there are so many generous people in Tulsa and in Oklahoma and around the globe who understand the value of a great university.... It's just something that'll be a big part of every day of my life.
If I'm not telling people how important and vital this university is - to this community and to the state and the country - then I'm not doing my job. Money and resources should follow that, but that's sort of a second note. You'll know you don't have the right message when you're not raising money, but you also know that you're doing something important when people want to offer you their support."
HIGHER EDUCATION
Federal financial aid changes could have major impact on Oklahoma's community colleges
After working toward it for five years, Lori Colbart will receive her degree this week. But she very nearly didn't make it because of federal financial aid changes.
By Silas Allen
The Oklahoman
5/6/2012
After working toward it for five years, Lori Colbart will receive her degree this week. But she very nearly didn't make it.
Colbart, a student at Oklahoma City Community College, graduates Friday with an associate's degree in music and a near-perfect 3.9 GPA.
In August, she plans to attend Mid-America Christian University, where she was offered a full scholarship. Eventually, she hopes to finish her master's degree and become a music therapist.
"I want to be Dr. Lori," she said.
But those plans were nearly derailed by changes to the federal financial aid system that took effect in July.
Under existing rules, community college students who receive federal financial aid, including Pell Grants and federal student loans, lose their aid packages after 150 percent of the credit hours it would take to complete the degree. For example, if a degree would normally require 60 credit hours, the student would lose eligibility after 90 credit hours.
Colbart received federal financial aid, including Pell Grants, to pay for her education. She couldn't have afforded to go to school otherwise, she said. But earlier in her career at the college, she switched majors from biochemistry to music - a move that put her behind and eventually pushed her beyond the 90-credit limit.
When she reached that mark, Colbart was just 12 credits short of graduating. The news that she might not be able to finish her degree left her shocked and afraid, she said.
"I cried," she said.
When a student loses eligibility for federal financial aid, he or she may file an appeal requesting an extension of those benefits. However under the new rules, the appeal process is much lengthier and more restrictive, and requires more documentation than in years past.
Colbart was in a better position to navigate the changes, she said, because she works in OCCC's Office of Student Life. Her boss knew who to call and what questions to ask to help her resolve the situation. Despite that advantage, Colbart received word about the extension just days before the semester started.
"Thank God that the money came through," she said. "Without it, I would not be graduating."
Colbart isn't alone. Harold Case, OCCC's director of student financial support services, said last year's changes had a significant impact on students. And another upcoming round of changes to the system could do major harm to students' ability to pay for college, he said.
The changes, collectively called the Pell Grant Protection Act, were part of an effort to make the program leaner and more sustainable. The changes, which were included in the federal budget for fiscal year 2012-13, take effect in July.
One of those changes reduces the eligibility period from 18 semesters to 12 semesters, meaning students who have received Pell Grants for six years will be cut off from further funding. Another change requires students to have either a high school diploma or GED certificate to be eligible for the grants.
The idea behind the requirement is to assess a factor known as ability to benefit - that is, the probability that the student will succeed in college. However, under previous regulations, students without a high school diploma or GED could meet that mark by taking certain tests or by passing a sampling of coursework.
Community college officials statewide have expressed concern about the change, saying it would hit them the hardest. Students with no high school diploma or GED are more likely to get their start at community colleges, which have no admission requirements, officials say.
The loss of Pell Grant eligibility for those students could make "a significant impact" on the college, Case said. In the past, such open-access schools acted as a kind of refuge for students who might not be accepted at four-year colleges. While those students would still be eligible to attend OCCC, Case said, the new regulations hamper the college's ability to help them pay for their education.
In the meantime, community colleges are encouraging prospective students without a high school diploma or a GED to apply for financial aid before the June 30 cutoff date. Students who miss that date could also take the GED to qualify for assistance.
After that point, said John Horinek, OCCC's recruitment and admissions director, students without either qualification will have much more limited financial aid options.
"If students are on the fence about starting their college education, now is the time to decide," Horinek said.
Senate turns to partisan fight over student loans
By Alan Fram, AP
Tulsa World
5/7/2012
WASHINGTON - The Senate is the newest arena in the election-year face-off over federal student loans, and both sides are starting out by pounding away at each other.
With Congress returning from a weeklong spring recess, the Senate plans to vote Tuesday on whether to start debating a Democratic plan to keep college loan interest rates for 7.4 million students from doubling on July 1. The $6 billion measure would be paid for by collecting more Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes from high-earning owners of some privately held corporations.
Republicans want a vote on their own bill, which like the Democrats' would freeze today's 3.4 percent interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans for one more year. It would be financed by eliminating a preventive health program established by President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
Each side scoffs that the other's proposal is unacceptable, and neither is expected to garner the votes needed to prevail. Even so, everyone expects a bipartisan deal before July 1 because no one wants students' interest rates to balloon before November's presidential and congressional elections.
"We're still pushing on that," said Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, chief sponsor of the Democratic bill. "But I also think I recognize if there is another proposal outside of going after the health care fund, we'll certainly listen."
Stafford loans are made to low- and middle-income students. With student loans of all types a growing household burden that now exceeds the nation's credit-card debt, the fight in Congress has come to symbolize how each party would help families cope with the rugged economy and how to pay for it.
Lawmakers face a pile of other issues this week as well.
On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee plans to vote on GOP-written legislation renewing federal efforts to prevent domestic violence. The Senate voted to renew the Violence Against Women Act two weeks ago and included provisions, such as requiring groups receiving money to show they don't discriminate against gays, that drew opposition from conservatives. The House version is expected to leave out such contentious language.
That same day, House-Senate bargainers plan to start talks on overhauling federal transportation programs. Congress is under pressure to act because the trust fund that pays for highway aid to states is forecast to go broke next year. Transportation programs have limped along under nine short-term extensions since the last long-term transportation bill expired in 2009, and the current one expires June 30.
The House turns this week to a Republican measure cutting more than $300 billion from the federal budget over the coming decade. The cuts would prevent the Pentagon from getting smacked with a $55 billion cut in its budget next year. They would also preserve $24 billion for domestic agency budgets.
The GOP cuts hit programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. They'll be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Obama pushes Congress to freeze student loan rate
By Kate Anderson Bower
Tulsa World
5/5/2012
President Barack Obama on Friday sought to keep up pressure on Congress to freeze the interest rate on federally subsidized student loans without cutting public health funding, saying higher education can't be an unaffordable luxury for middle-income Americans.
Speaking hours after the Labor Department reported that employers added fewer workers than forecast in April, Obama said "we've got to do more" to create jobs in the U.S. and that one way is to make sure more students can attend college.
"Higher education cannot be a luxury; it's an economic imperative," the president told juniors, seniors and their parents at Washington-Lee High School in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Va.
The rate on the loans is set to double on July 1 without action by Congress.
While the Republican-led House has passed an extension of the current 3.4 percent interest rate on Stafford loans, Republicans and Democrats disagree about how to pay for it. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the rate freeze will cost $6 billion.
A rate increase would affect about 7.4 million students, according to the White House, adding an average of $1,000 a year in payments on college loans.
Obama made his pitch for action on student loans in a swing state for the November election. He will return to Virginia on Saturday as he formally opens his re-election campaign.
Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney are vying for young voters, two-thirds of whom cast ballots for Obama in 2008. Romney says that while he agrees with Obama on the need to stop the rise in student-loan rates, he blames the administration for an economy where he says too many recent college graduates can't find jobs.
The U.S. House, defying a veto threat from the White House, voted 215-195 on April 27 to extend the current 3.4 percent interest rate on government student loans.
The Obama administration called the measure politically motivated because it would finance the $5.9 billion subsidy by abolishing a public-health fund.
The Senate, where Democrats have a majority, is scheduled to vote next week on freezing the interest rate.
The Senate's version of the measure would raise $9 billion by requiring law, accounting and other professional services firms with three or fewer shareholders to pay withholding tax if they make more than $250,000 annually.
Partners in such firms now treat the income as profits and avoid the withholding tax.
Original Print Headline: Obama: Freeze student loan rate
US revamps student work-visa program after abuses
By Holbrook Mohr, AP
The Oklahoman
5/5/2012
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The State Department announced major changes Friday to one of its premier cultural-exchange programs following an investigation by The Associated Press that found widespread abuses.
The agency issued new rules for the J-1 Summer Work and Travel Program, which brings more than 100,000 foreign college students to the United States each year.
The changes are the latest in a series of steps the State Department has taken to fix the program since the 2010 AP investigation. The investigation found that some participants were working in strip clubs, not always willingly, while others were put in living and working conditions they compared to indentured servitude.
The J-1 Summer Work and Travel Program, created under the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961, allows foreign college students to spend up to four months living and working in the United States. It was meant to foster cultural understanding, but has become a booming, multimillion-dollar international business.
"In recent years, the work component has too often overshadowed the core cultural component necessary for the Summer Work Travel Program to be consistent with the intent of the Fulbright-Hays Act," the State Department said in announcing the new rules.
"Also, the Department learned that criminal organizations were involving participants in incidents relating to the illegal transfer of cash, the creation of fraudulent businesses, and violations of immigration law."
The new rules are meant to ensure that students are treated properly and that they get jobs where there will be interaction with Americans and exposure to U.S. culture.
Some of the rules are effective immediately, while others will take effect in November, including a significant one that would prohibit participants from working in "goods-producing" industries such as manufacturing, construction and agriculture. The rules also ban participants from working in jobs in which the primary hours are between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
"The new reforms for the Summer Work Travel program focus on strengthening protections for the health, safety and welfare of the participants, and on bringing the program back to its primary purpose, which is to provide a cultural experience for international students," Robin Lerner, a deputy assistant secretary for the State Department, said in a statement Friday.
"This is a valuable people-to-people diplomacy program and the changes allow us to improve the unique qualities of the program by providing clarity for participants, their sponsors and employers on what is and is not appropriate."
George Collins, an inspector with the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Department in the Florida Panhandle who has investigated abuses in the program for nearly a decade, said he is pleased with the changes.
"While I might have preferred stronger requirements here or there, I think the new regulations go a long way to help protect workers from the kinds of abuse we have seen routinely," Collins said. "We intend to check implementation in the field, and will notify the State Department of any activities we believe violate these rules."
The visa program is aimed at allowing students of modest means to work in seasonal or temporary jobs as a way of offsetting the costs of their travel to the U.S. More than 1 million students have participated in a variety of jobs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Most participants enjoy their time in the U.S., establishing lifelong memories and friendships. For some, the program is a frightening experience that leaves them with a bad impression of the country.
In one of the worst cases of abuse, a woman told the AP she was beaten, raped and forced to work as a stripper in Detroit after being promised a job as a waitress in Virginia. A federal indictment last year in New York charged that members of the Gambino and Bonnano mafia families and the Russian mob were using fraudulent job offers to help Eastern European women come to the U.S. to work in strip clubs.
More common than sex-trade abuses have been reports of shabby housing, scarce work hours and paltry pay, alleged conditions that led workers to protest last year at a candy factory that packs Hershey chocolates in Hershey, Pa. Those workers complained of hard physical labor and pay deductions for rent that often left them with little money. The company that sponsored those students lost its State Department certification.
Saket Soni, executive director of the National Guestworker Alliance, a workers advocacy group, said the changes vindicate the 400 students who protested against conditions at the candy factory and the changes are a step in the right direction.
"Businesses have grown used to a profit formula based on shifting the nature of work in the U.S. from permanent to temporary, from stable to precarious. Increasingly, they do that by eroding wages and conditions for U.S. workers, and treating guestworkers, including cultural exchange students, as the ultimate source of cheap, exploitable labor," Soni said.
Some of the new rules are aimed at the 49 companies the State Department designates as official "sponsors," whose job is to help the students obtain visas and other documents, find jobs and housing, and make sure the participants are treated properly. The new rules prohibit sponsors from paying host employers to accept participants and require them to provide itemized lists of all student fees.
"A core presumption underlies the Department's renewed focus on the cultural component of the Summer Work Travel Program," the State Department said, adding that only sponsors who can show their students are being exposed to the culture outside of work will be given the two-year contracts that are issued.
Daniel Costa, an immigration policy lawyer for the Economic Policy Institute who has studied the program extensively, said there are positive changes, like the rule that prohibits staffing agencies from subcontracting workers to other companies, but he said there's more work to do.
"I think it would have been better to use stronger language and explicitly state that sponsors should be prohibited from forcing a J-1 worker to remain on a job if they have legitimate complaints, or from threatening the J-1 with program termination if they don't remain on the job," he said. "That seems to be a common issue."
He also said the State Department should keep a black list of "bad actor employers" and prohibit sponsors from working with them.
"Just hoping that employers will 'cooperate' and having no sanctions available if they don't, allows employers to act with impunity and to hop from sponsor to sponsor if they act illegally. This keeps in place the incentive for sponsors to cover-up the bad acts of employers because the sponsor is the only one that will actually get in trouble by sanctions."
In a previous round of changes, the State Department said it had temporarily stopped accepting any new sponsors and limited the number of future participants to about 109,000 students annually. The program peaked with about 153,000 participants in 2008.
The number of participants should be lower and tied to the unemployment rate in the U.S., Costa said.
There also are three new rules meant to protect American workers, including prohibiting from the program companies that have had layoffs in the previous 120 days or whose workers are on strike.
The State Department says it wants to ensure the jobs are really seasonal or temporary and won't displace U.S. workers.
The program requires participants to come to the U.S. during their summer breaks, which fall at different times in different parts of the world. In the past, that had allowed companies to fill what were actually permanent jobs with a series of student workers.
Businesses that hire a foreign student over an American can save 8 percent because they don't have to pay Medicare, Social Security and unemployment taxes. Also, the foreigners must have their own health insurance.
What you won't see on the graduation card
By Julie DelCour,
Tulsa World
5/6/2012
Those graduation cards with the checks inside are stacked up ready to mail out - cards with chirpy challenges such as "Reach for the stars," "Follow your dream," "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door," "Believe."
Believe what?
The Hallmark card writers, for obvious reasons, are ignoring the uncertainty - or is it white-knuckle panic - felt by so many upcoming college graduates (and their parents) about their employment prospects. Try finding a graduation card that blurts out the truth:
Congratulations, here's a little something for that four years of effort. Apply it toward:
- Paying off your $65,000 in student loans.
- Chipping in on your parents' electric bill after you move back home.
- Getting your Burger King uniform pants let out so you'll look sharp making $6.25 an hour.
Sometimes the truth just isn't inspirational. As a consequence, graduation cards seldom say: "Good luck at beating the odds - 85 percent of college graduates now live with their folks."
Last week, I downloaded two reports on the employment prospects for 2011 and 2012 college graduates. One is headlined, "1 in 2 new graduates are jobless or underemployed." The other is entitled, "Better outlook for 2012 College Graduates."
Let's start with the widely quoted, glass-is-half-empty report, by the Associated Press - based on government data. The report came out late last month and "lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor's degrees," says its author, AP writer Hope Yen.
About 1.5 million - 53.6 percent - of bachelor's degree-holders under age 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years.
Broken down by occupation, young college graduates were "heavily represented in jobs that require a high school diploma or less." In the past year, they were more likely to be employed as waiters, waitresses, bartenders and food-service helpers than as all the engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians combined - 100,000 versus 90,000. There were more working in office-related jobs such as receptionists or payroll clerks than in all computer professional jobs - 163,000 versus 100,000. More also were employed as cashiers, retail clerks and customer representatives than engineers - 125,000 versus 80,000.
"While there's strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder," Yen concluded.
The report goes on to say that median wages for those with new bachelor's degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are wiping out or reducing the number of mid-level jobs. "Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home-health aides...."
"According to government projections released in April, only three of the 30 occupations with the largest projected number of job openings by 2020 will require a bachelor's degree or higher to fill the position - teachers, college professors and accountants. Most job openings are in professions such as retail sales, fast food and trucking driving, jobs not easily replaced by computers," Yen wrote.
Harvard University economist Richard Freeman, interviewed for the report, said: "You can make more money on average if you go to college, but it's not true for everybody. If you're not sure what you're going to be doing, it probably bodes well to take some job, if you can get one, and get a sense first of what you want from college."
Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, told the AP that students and graduates face rising tuition costs and poor job outcomes.
"Simply put, we're failing kids coming out of college. We're going to need a lot better job growth and connections to the labor market, otherwise college debt will grow."
Already, student loan debt is at $1 trillion, surpassing credit-card debt. If unemployed or underemployed graduates start defaulting on that student loan debt, another national economic crisis would occur.
In the meantime, Congress is debating whether to raise the interest rate on government-guaranteed student loans. If that happens, a college education would be out of reach for many, which might not be a bad thing considering the economic climate. Vocational certifications from tech schools could be the better option, providing students with a specific skill.
The second report - the glass-is-half-full outlook - is by CareerBuilder.com, one of the nation's largest online employment sites. According to an online survey conducted in February with 2,303 hiring managers and human resources managers, graduates are stepping out into a job market better than in the previous three years.
More than half of employers - 54 percent - reported they plan to hire recent college graduates in 2012, up from 46 percent in 2010, and 43 percent in 2009.
"This is the first time since the recession that we're seeing a majority of employers planning to add recent college graduates to their employee roster," said Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America. "Companies across industries are placing a strong emphasis on recruiting fresh talent for technology-related roles and positions designed to drive revenue - and they're willing to pay more for high-skill, educated labor."
The college majors most in demand are business, 39 percent; computer and information sciences, 24 percent; engineering, 23 percent; math and statistics, 13 percent; health professions and related clinical sciences, 13 percent; communications technologies, 12 percent, and liberal arts and sciences, 9 percent.
I'm not going to send out any hollow, squishy-wishy graduation cards this season saying: "Believe." I'm not sure what graduates should or can believe at this juncture about their employment future.
Better to stick with cards echoing the commencement speech challenge comedian Jon Stewart made at his alma mater a few years back:
"Oops, we broke the world, now go out and fix it."
Original Print Headline: Pomp and circumstance
TAX CUTS
Debate over tax cuts shouldn't end with Oklahoma legislative session
The Oklahoman Editorial
5/6/2012
Tax credits have become the Mark Twain of Oklahoma politics: Reports of their demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Officials have now acknowledged what's been obvious for weeks: Lawmakers lack the political will to eliminate most credits.
The decision also means lawmakers won't approve a major tax cut. Gov. Mary Fallin wanted to slash the top income tax rate to 3.5 percent and eliminate income taxes entirely for low-income families.
However, her plan offset the rate reduction with elimination of many tax breaks, making it similar to President Ronald Reagan's 1986 reform. Reagan's plan cut the federal income tax to the lowest level since the 1920s by closing numerous "loopholes."
State Rep. David Dank, R-Oklahoma City, helped pave the way for Fallin through his work as chairman of a special committee reviewing tax credits. Dank's committee met for months and identified legitimate problems with several credits, most notably the failure to generate long-term job creation.
Transferable tax credits, which can be sold by recipients to other taxpayers at a reduced rate, were among the most controversial. Although designed to support specific economic activity, transferable credits ultimately benefit unrelated individuals and entities, including insurance companies and attorneys.
To critics, transferable tax credits make Oklahoma taxpayers an indirect business lender with no expectation of direct repayment - just a promise of future job creation that often fails to materialize.
While Fallin's plan seemed a slam dunk early on, political reality at the Capitol soon derailed it. Tax breaks benefitting average citizens, including retirees, were quickly taken off the table. And although citizens are largely indifferent to many corporate tax credits, those credits have the devout protection of business interests with clout and potential campaign contributions at their disposal.
As a result, lawmakers quickly shot down bills to end transferable tax credits and even a moratorium to allow further review of others.
This puts Republican lawmakers who campaigned on tax cuts in an unusual position. They're effectively telling constituents, "I voted to require you to pay more in taxes so the guy installing the wind farm, rehabbing an old building or buying a transferable tax credit can pay less."
We strongly support enactment of pro-growth policies. We oppose excessive government interference in the free market. Using the tax code to promote certain industries can distort economic activity. By encouraging capital to be expended on a specific venture, lawmakers are also driving that money away from other, potentially more beneficial uses.
The most efficient tax code would keep rates low and apply them broadly, with few carve-outs. While we need to fund government, the tax code shouldn't penalize achievers for their hard work or subsidize poor business plans.
Some tax breaks, such as the Quality Jobs Program, are worthwhile. But our current state tax code fails the basic test of simplicity and impartiality.
Fallin and Dank deserve credit for taking on tax reform. We hope this important debate doesn't end along with this legislative session. As Mark Twain said, "Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often."
Capitol Report: Tax cut still likely, but smaller than original proposals
By Barbara Hoberock
Tulsa World
5/6/2012
OKLAHOMA CITY - Proposals to give Oklahomans a significant income tax cut coupled with wiping out tax credits, exemptions and deductions likely won't materialize this legislative session.
Lawmakers say they still plan to reduce the state's income tax, but that it will likely be less than what was originally proposed.
The session began after two task forces studied tax rates, credits and exemptions.
Rep. David Dank, R-Oklahoma City, chaired the Task Force on Economic Tax Credits and Incentives, which held meetings to study tax credits and exemptions that have cost the state upwards of $500 million a year.
The incentives benefit an array of industries and individuals, including filmmakers, wind energy, insurance companies, oil, gas and coal producers, and historic preservation.
"I am very disappointed," Dank said, adding that there doesn't appear to be the legislative will to crack down on credits, exemptions and deductions.
House Appropriations and Budget Chairman Earl Sears, R-Bartlesville, served on the task force.
He said the committee spent six or seven months of study and had 10 meetings. But when the legislative session started, some members "were reluctant to do away with credits they felt were being beneficial to their community and region," he said. "We had good intentions, but we fell short."
Dank said there is no question the tax cut will be smaller because of the legislative culture.
"If you are giving away all the money in terms of credits, exemptions and deductions, you are not going to have the wherewithal to cut the average taxpayer's income taxes," Dank said. "I think this will result in a much smaller cut."
Jennifer Monies, a spokeswoman for The State Chamber, said her organization was supportive of the review process.
"We have been happy to work with others to defend many credits, including the wind credit, historic preservation and oil and gas incentives, among others, which we believe show a strong return on investment to the state," she said.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, said getting rid of credits is difficult, because each one has a constituency that benefits from them.
He said discussions in the Senate have involved getting rid of some of them and reforming the rest.
"If you are going to have a sizable cut (in the income tax rate), you either have to cut spending or cut credits or reform credits," Jolley said.
In the next few days, lawmakers hope to have another tax cut proposal from Gov. Mary Fallin, Jolley said.
She said last week that her proposal to reduce the state's income tax to 3.5 percent from 5.25 percent likely wouldn't happen.
Reducing the state income tax to 5 percent from 5.25 percent would cost the state approximately $115 million to $120 million, said Paula Ross, Oklahoma Tax Commission spokeswoman.
Dank vowed to keep the tax credit issue alive.
Likewise, Sears doesn't think the issue is dead next session.
"I don't think the conversation is over," Sears said. "It will continue next year."
Original Print Headline: Incentives live on; big tax cut fades
ScissorTales: Tax cut food for thought from Oklahoma business leaders
The Oklahoman Editorial
5/5/2012
The idea of reducing or eliminating Oklahoma's personal income tax needs more study. It would result in transferring money to the rich from the poor. It isn't as important to business as supporters believe.
The arguments of Democratic lawmakers opposed to the Republican push to cut the income tax? No. Instead, these are the opinions of business and chamber of commerce officials.
Oklahoma Policy Institute, no fan of an income tax cut, cobbled together comments made in recent months as the various tax plans made their way through the Legislature. Lawmakers from each side of the aisle urged caution, as did economists. But so too did business leaders.
Former Republican House Speaker Chris Benge, now vice president of the Metro Tulsa Chamber of Commerce, said the benefits of a cut "may be limited" if doing so affects the state's ability to maintain roads and bridges, or "educate and train employees for a 21st-century economy." Scott Meacham, former state treasurer, said our current tax structure hasn't held the state back. "And that's what you always gotta be careful of when you start getting political solutions to problems that may not really exist."
Roy Williams, CEO of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, said companies look not for the cheapest locale, but for "the place where they believe they get the best value for what it is they invest in and the cost that they pay."
Food for thought as lawmakers continue their work on this issue.
New York, Dallas highlight importance of tax rate
By David R. Brown
The Oklahoman
5/6/2012
As the debate continues over what to do about Oklahoma's income tax, it may be instructive to compare two American cities, their respective tax burdens and how they've fared economically. Tax rates have a direct bearing on economic growth and prosperity, or their absence.
A quick glance at Dallas and New York City shows a stark contrast - one is booming, the other floundering. Tax rates are a major factor.
Texas famously has no personal income tax. New York City residents pay a state income tax with a top marginal rate of 8.97 percent and a city income tax that can soar to 3.6 percent. State and local governments in the Big Apple thus take a hefty bite out of everyone's apple, more than a dime of every dollar they earn.
The result is clear: New York's population is stagnant or declining. >From 2000 to 2008, some 1.5 million New Yorkers fled the state, most of them from New York City. Sixty percent of them moved to Southern states with low or no income taxes, with Florida and Texas leading the way.
Anyone who's ever driven to Dallas knows that it's a boom town. From 2000 to 2005, The Dallas-Fort Worth area gained an average of 125,000 people a year. In just those five years Dallas added 658,000 residents - many fleeing the taxman's lash in Manhattan.
This isn't a new development. In 1989, when Exxon, then the nation's third-largest corporation, announced it was leaving Manhattan for Dallas, New Yorkers were stunned. Exxon announced politely that it was just too expensive to live and do business in New York.
Other big companies followed. J.C. Penney and GTE both upped anchor in Manhattan and dropped it in Dallas-Fort Worth. The thousands of well-paid employees who came with them bought homes, funded schools, ate out and boosted the economy - and Texas state government revenues - by their very presence.
As economists Art Laffer, Stephen Moore and Jonathan Williams have pointed out, "no-income-tax states outperform their high-tax counterparts across the board in gross state product growth, population growth, job growth, and, perhaps shockingly, even tax receipt growth."
Notice that all those corporate headquarters flew right over Oklahoma on the way south. We should be competitive with Dallas-Fort Worth, since we have similar climates and other amenities. Unfortunately, our personal income tax rates are still stuck roughly midway between those in Manhattan and DFW.
Fortunately, Gov. Mary Fallin gets it. I was at a Heritage Foundation meeting in California last month where Fallin got a standing ovation for her remarks on economic freedom and the importance of income tax reform to economic growth. Small steps are better than no steps at all, but wherever our tax rates wind up at the end of this legislative session, we must not abandon the ultimate goal of joining our no-tax, high-growth neighbors to the south.
Short-term thinkers and tax greed cost our citizens money and jobs.
Brown is chairman of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and honorary chairman and trustee emeritus of The Heritage Foundation.
Plan fizzles
Tulsa World's Editorials Writers
5/7/2012
Well, what a surprise. Lawmakers have found that the idea to eliminate dozens of tax breaks is hugely unpopular and politically unfeasible. Who would have seen that coming?
Actually, lots of us did. While it's certainly a worthwhile idea to review tax credits and other incentives with the aim of determining if they should be retained, the reality is that every one of those tax breaks has a constituency that in most cases will fight hard for it.
And that's exactly what happened.
Lawmakers began this legislative session with big plans to do away with some of the incentives, hoping it would be one way of restoring any revenue lost due to anticipated tax cuts.
"There is no question that we started out bold in seeking legislation to do away with the credits," said Rep. Earl Sears, R-Bartlesville, chairman of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee.
"Unfortunately that has just not been the case. Members have found that the credits that we thought maybe needed to go away, in their particular district or in their particular region, continue to make an impact. It has just not been that easy. So these hundreds of millions of dollars we thought we'd review and eliminate, has just not come to reality."
Gov. Mary Fallin was among leaders hoping to find money through eliminating tax breaks - she targeted 44 in all.
Rep. David Dank, R-Oklahoma City, now says it is likely that none or only a few of those will be cut. Dank was a member of a committee that met all last summer reviewing the state's tax incentives, with the aim of eliminating some.
Dank said the "lobbyists are pretty much driving the train on the tax credits," which provides an idea of how important they are to some stakeholders.
Lawmakers are due credit for tackling tax credits, but the political reality is that those affected will always cry foul if their incentive is targeted and somebody else's is not. It's not easy to make the case for keeping some and ditching some, even though it's obvious some are more worthwhile than others.
Well, better luck next time. But don't be surprised if nothing changes.
Five companies or individuals claimed $100 million in Oklahoma tax credits for 2008
In the 2008 tax year, five Oklahoma income tax returns claimed nearly $104.6 million in tax credits, an analysis of data published by the Oklahoma Office of State Finance shows.
By Megan Rolland
The Oklahoman and Tulsa World
5/7/2012
Five companies or individuals are responsible for nearly half of the $264 million in state income tax credits claimed for tax year 2008, according to an analysis of the latest data available compiled by the Oklahoma Tax Commission.
The Tax Commission first began releasing details about who was claiming which income tax credits in 2006 after a law specifically made the information public record. Other tax incentives such as exemptions from sales tax or gross production tax still are not public record.
In the 2008 tax year, five income tax returns claimed nearly $104.6 million in tax credits, an analysis of data published by the Office of State Finance shows.
Weyerhaeuser Co., a national lumber company, claimed $54.6 million; Terra International Inc., a fertilizer producer, claimed $19.3 million; Howard Hawks with Tenaska, a power company, claimed $10.3 million; Koch Industries Inc., a corporation based in Wichita, Kan., claimed $9.2 million; and George Kaiser, with BOK Financial, claimed $11.1 million.
Tax credits have come under scrutiny by lawmakers recently, as more and more money that normally would have come into the state as revenue is lost because of a variety of tax breaks, incentives and credits.
More than 44 different tax credits were targeted for elimination by Gov. Mary Fallin in her initial plan to reduce the statewide income tax. This week members of the House and Senate will meet behind closed doors to hammer out the details of an income tax reduction plan, but key lawmakers have said elimination of any tax credits is unlikely.
Economic impact
Three of the five companies claiming the most tax credits in 2008 say the incentives resulted in a vast economic impact in Oklahoma. The incentives played a significant role in the decision to invest in Oklahoma rather than other states.
The other two companies utilized tax credits for venture capital investments and declined to comment for the article.
"In a project like this, it comes down to economic analysis and calculation of rates of return and tax credits play a big part in that," said Ron Quinn, executive vice president of Tenaska. "The fact is that adjacent states - Kansas, Texas, Missouri - are all competing for these kinds of projects."
The roughly $450 million Tenaska Kiamichi Generating Station opened in 2003 in Pittsburg County after employing 1,051 construction and trade workers, half of whom were from Oklahoma, and spending almost $1.5 million in mortgage recording taxes and $21 million on Oklahoma goods and materials, Quinn said.
Today the plant has 35 full-time employees and will pay substantial property taxes for years to come, he said.
Tax data show the Nebraska company's chairman, Howard Hawks, claimed $10.3 million in tax credits in 2008 using the Oklahoma investments and new jobs tax credit. Quinn said Tenaska generated those tax credits through building the power plant and has carried over remaining credits since 2003. Eventually, he said, the tax credits will run out, and the company will pay full taxes to the state for a power plant that otherwise would have never existed.
Just because a tax return claims a tax credit doesn't mean the individual or company will receive that entire incentive that year or even ever. Entities and individuals only receive as much money back as what they have paid into or owe to the state - the amount of their tax liability.
For example, Weyerhaeuser filed $54.6 million in tax credits on the lumber corporation's 2008 income tax return, but company spokesman Richard Chapman said the company was unable to use a vast majority of those credits.
Chapman said the credits were accumulated using Oklahoma incentives for investments in qualified manufacturing facilities over the course of several years. That tax incentive is the same used by Tenaska.
They invested in heavy machinery at two facilities; however, the company sold one facility and closed the other, and today has only a small sawmill operating in Idabel.
"It's so minimal that we will never, ever use $54 million in state tax credits because we don't have the tax liability," Chapman said.
He said the company received about $2 million in tax credits in tax year 2009.
Invest in Oklahoma
Chapman said the incentives played a role in Weyerhaeuser deciding to invest in Oklahoma.
"It was a little combination of both. No. 1, those machines had to be rebuilt. They were worn out," Chapman said.
"However, Oklahoma had a program that had a capital investment incentive, and if you spent the money in Oklahoma, it would turn over five times."
Ultimately, the housing crisis in 2008 resulted in the closure of one plant and sale of another, Chapman said.
The second-greatest amount of tax credits claimed in 2008 came from Terra International Inc., a subsidiary of CF Industries, a global manufacturer and distributor of fertilizer.
Terra International owns plants in Verdigris and Woodward that produce ammonia and other chemicals used in fertilizer.
The company, based in Deerfield, Ill., claimed $19.3 million in tax credits on its 2008 income tax return, according to the data.
A spokeswoman for the company would not comment on the tax credits, or how much the company's tax liability was in 2008.
The tax credits were for rural small business venture capital investments. The incentive allows a tax credit to be claimed for 30 percent of an investment made in a qualified rural small business.
That tax credit expired in 2011, and lawmakers have not indicated they will extend the credit for this year.
Venture capital
George Kaiser, chairman of the board of BOK Financial, claimed $11.1 million in tax credits on his 2008 tax return, according to state data, for venture capital investments. That tax credit has expired, and no new credits may be made.
Finally Koch Industries Inc. received $9.2 million in tax credits in 2008. The tax credits were accumulated over a 15-year period, Koch spokeswoman Melissa Cohlmia said in an email.
Cohlmia said the company completed a $20 million modernization project at a fertilizer plant in Enid, increasing the workforce by more than 20 percent to 130 people.
The company claimed the same investment and new jobs tax credit that Tenaska and Weyerhauser used, receiving $4.5 million in 2008.
The Wichita-based corporation also claimed $4.6 million in 2008 for operating a qualified recycling facility. Cohlmia said Koch operates a mill in Muskogee that uses 1,300 tons of wastepaper a day to manufacture tissue. She said the plant employs about 1,000 people.
"Oklahoma, like many states, offers specific business tax incentives meant to generate and retain good jobs," Cohlmia wrote. "Koch directly employs more than 1,700 Oklahomans, and our operations support an estimated 5,800 jobs in Oklahoma."
Unkindest cuts
By Janet Pearson, AP
Tulsa World
5/6/2012
Maybe it's a little harsh to compare Oklahoma's leaders to the emperor Nero who, legend has it, carelessly fiddled while Rome burned. But there's no denying they haven't done much to tackle some of the state's biggest problems in recent years, opting instead to make things worse by whittling away at state revenue year in and year at through income tax cuts.
That's been a main objective again in this legislative session, along with hacking away at dozens of tax breaks. Meanwhile, educators are blue in the face from hollering and parents are pulling their hair out over the crummy state of education in the state.
And what, you might ask, have other state leaders been doing in these tough times about these tough times? Oh, things like - gasp! - increasing income tax rates, raising sales tax rates, broadening sales taxes to cover more goods and services, and raising other taxes and fees.
After reviewing the just-released report, "Protecting the Safety Net in Tough Times: Lessons from the States," a casual observer is left to wonder why some state leaders and their constituents will take such bold steps as raising taxes when faced with an economic crisis, while others do exactly the opposite. Are Oklahomans that much different from people in say, Connecticut or Illinois?
'Bold and creative'
The report, put together by policy analysts at the National Center for Children in Poverty, a research center based at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, found quite a few surprising steps enacted this fiscal year by a number of states in response to the Great Recession of the past few years.
The analysis determined that state tax collections "fell by the highest percentage on record in the course of the year ending in June 2009." Inflation-adjusted general fund revenues "fell an extraordinary 17 percent from fiscal years 2008 to 2010."
States embarked on major spending cuts in response to this unprecedent budget crisis, but that's not all that happened. Collectively, a significant number of states "enacted a historically large collective tax increase in calendar year 2009, raising personal income tax levies by the largest dollar amout on record." Sales taxes, corporate income taxes and other taxes and fees also were hiked in some states.
Connecticut, for example, raised marginal personal income tax rates and expects to bring in about $2 billion more in personal income tax collections in fiscal 2012 over fiscal 2010.
Connecticut also raised a corporate tax surcharge from 10 percent to 20 percent for this tax year and next. And, state leaders also hiked the general sales tax rate across the board from 6 to 6.35 percent and to 7 percent for some luxury items.
That's not all. Connecticut also adopted a new Internet sales tax and extended it to services that previously were exempted, and also enacted or increased numerous other taxes.
The Constitution State surely must hold the modern-day record for bold tax moves. But its leaders are not alone.
Illinois took the brave step of enacting a temporary four-year increase in its marginal personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 5 percent in fiscal 2011. (Interestingly, Oklahoma leaders have been looking at decreasing the personal income tax rate from a little over 5 percent to maybe 3 percent.)
Illinois also raised the corporate income tax rate from 4.8 percent to 7 percent for four years. Thanks to all the increases combined, the state will see revenues rise by an estimated $7 billion in fiscal 2012 compared to the prior year. And, Illinois also adopted a measure to collect sales taxes on online retailers that have a physical presence in the state.
New York several years ago adopted a three-year income tax surcharge on individuals earning more than $200,000 which expired in 2011, but the surcharge was extended for those earning more than $2 million.
California voters will decide in November whether to expand the sales tax to professional services and other services, and the Golden State also has increased enforcement of sales and use tax collections on online and out-of-state retailers.
Maryland, New York, Vermont, California, Hawaii and Connecticut also raised smaller but still-significant sums through selective tax and fee increases on such goods and services as alcohol, tobacco, utilities, health care, insurance, utilities, motor fuel and vehicles.
Did any Oklahoma activity catch the researchers' eyes? Well, there was this: "Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Oklahoma and Washington all enacted measures in fiscal year 2012 to consolidate state agencies with the goal of gaining efficiencies and reducing costs."
Not a bad idea, but so far, agency consolidation hasn't exactly made us well.
What have we learned?
So what are the lessons of the states when it comes to protecting core services in difficult times? It's not fair to insist that Oklahoma be like Connecticut or Illinois, of course. All states have differences in their populations, tax bases, economies and so on. What's politically viable elsewhere might not be acceptable here. Any kind of tax increase - even a limited one on something like alcohol, motor fuels or online sales - probably won't fly in Oklahoma at the moment.
But is there another lesson here besides the obvious benefits of more revenue? How about this: "As a general rule, states with a diverse tax revenue structure that includes a progressive individual income tax are better equipped to weather the fiscal problems caused by recessions. ... In general, the progressive individual income tax is a more resilient source of revenue during economic downturns ..."
The proof is the experience of those states that have no income tax. "Independent analysts have found that the fiscal crises in Florida and Nevada were exacerbated by the absence of an individual income tax in these states."
These policy analysts are not the first to come to such conclusions. But no matter how often these observations are repeated, they still seem to go ignored.
Odd though it may sound, the paralysis of our Legislature when it comes to tackling major issues just might work in our favor. There was intense fervor for eliminating tax credits and other incentives when the legislative session convened in February, but lawmakers to date have done almost nothing on that front. Same for the popular notion of consolidating agencies.
Now it's looking like they'll freeze up when it comes to making major tax cuts. Or at least we can hope.
STATE GOVERNMENT
Oklahoma legislative leader says work on Oklahoma budget should be done in two weeks
Oklahoma House Speaker Kris Steele says plans on Oklahoma's budget still call for a cut in the top personal income tax rate.
By Michael McNutt
The Oklahoman and Tulsa World
5/6/2012
With only three weeks left in this year's session, a budget agreement between legislative leaders and the governor should be worked out within two weeks, House Speaker Kris Steele says.
The package will include a cut in the state's personal income tax rate, said Steele, R-Shawnee.
"In addition to the income tax reduction proposal that we're working on, we're also considering not just this next year but several years," Steele said. "We're not trying to determine an income tax reduction based on one year."
But any cut for next year won't be as deep as some had proposed, and the idea of economic triggers that would lower the rate further in subsequent years still is being debated, he said.
Restoring funding?
Discussions on reducing the personal income tax rate are intertwined with developing the budget for the 2013 budget year, which begins July 1.
House Democrats say any cut in the personal income tax is too deep. Personal income tax collections produce nearly one-third of the budget appropriated by lawmakers, the Democrats say, and funding should be restored to many state agencies that have had to undergo budget cuts the past three years.
Those cuts came as the state dealt with declining revenues caused partially by the national recession and low energy prices.
"If they want to offer up a flat budget and everybody's gong to get essentially what they got last year, that's another cut to core services of government because nothing got cheaper over the last year," said House Minority Leader Scott Inman, D-Del City.
Steele said the top personal income tax rate has been reduced eight times since 1998, from 7 percent to 5.25 percent. The most recent drop occurred last year when it was reduced a quarter percent.
"We've been able to implement those reductions without jeopardizing funding for core services," he said. "I truly suspect that at the end of the day that's what we'll see come out of this session as well."
Core services have been identified as roads and bridges, public safety, education, human services and health. Those make up nearly 90 percent of the budget appropriated by lawmakers.
Steele said it's unknown whether any economic trigger for future years would be part of a personal income tax reduction plan. Triggers would cut the personal income tax rate by an additional percentage in any year in which the state met a projected amount of revenue growth.
Republican control
Democrats are outnumbered 66-32 in the House, which makes it difficult for them to be much of a roadblock to any budget approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature. Republicans have a 32-16 majority in the Senate, and Gov. Mary Fallin is a Republican.
"We continue to make the case that public education, infrastructure, transportation and health care is too important to the state of Oklahoma to pass unnecessary and damaging tax cuts during this economic time," Inman said.
Legislators this year are scheduled to adjourn May 25, and approving a budget is one of their main tasks.
Fallin and several GOP legislators have suggested cutting the top personal income tax rate of 5.25 percent next year as well as developing a plan to eliminate the income tax. But those proposals depend partially on eliminating economic tax credits, something they haven't done so far this session.
"To the degree that we're going to be able to clean up or eliminate various tax credits, we're not going to do all that I hoped that we would do in that regard," Steele said.
As a result, a cut of less than 1 percentage point in the rate is seen more likely than earlier proposals of up to 3 percentage points and hopes of eliminating the income tax, which brings in about 30 percent of the money lawmakers appropriate, have vaporized.
Other suggestions to make up for the approximately $2 billion in personal income tax include consolidating government services and seeking efficiencies as well as cuts in state spending.
Budget talks also include whether the state should issue a bond issue to repair and restore the state Capitol, which could be as much as $160 million. Backers of projects in Oklahoma City and Tulsa also are applying pressure to get approval for bond issues for those projects.
Many in the Legislature are hesitant to increase the state's bond indebtedness, but Fallin supports a $40 million bond issue for the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum in Oklahoma City.
Lawmakers have about $168 million more to spend this session than a year ago. The $6.6 billion available for lawmakers to appropriate was set in February by a state budget board that by law determines spending limits based on tax revenue estimates for the upcoming fiscal year by the Oklahoma Tax Commission.
"Instead of growing the budget, we ought to give that money back to the taxpayers of Oklahoma through tax relief," Steele said.
Lawmakers could have another $40 million to $140 million available through savings earned by consolidating government services and seeking efficiencies as well as some cuts in state spending.
Fallin wants to reduce Oklahoma's structurally deficient bridges from more than 700 to nearly zero by 2019; to do that she is asking legislators to raise the state's annual contribution to the Rebuilding Oklahoma Access and Driver Safety fund by $15 million each year beginning in 2013. She also wants to improve funding for county bridges.
Steele's legislation that requires felons leaving prison to undergo mandatory supervision and establish intermediary revocation facilities is projected to cost $3.67 million in the 2013 fiscal year. It's passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate and is awaiting the governor's signature.
The Department of Human Services is expected to need $30 million more in the upcoming fiscal year to fix its child welfare operations. Children in the agency's care have been harmed or killed and DHS workers had made mistakes that contributed to the tragedies. DHS plans to hire more workers to deal directly with children, set limits on child welfare workers' caseloads and pay those workers more. Some funds could be shifted around, but it's expected DHS will need a significant increase in funding.
Fallin in her budget proposal supported a bond issue to repair the Capitol and suggested lawmakers set aside $5 million in the upcoming fiscal year to pay for a $50 million bond issue. The architect has said the work could cost as much as $160 million.
Capitol repairs
House Democrats support making improvements to the Capitol, but oppose a bond issue.
"We believe the Capitol desperately needs repair, however taking out more debt when we've got nearly $2 billion in state debt to pay for it is wrong," Inman said. "If we wouldn't eliminate the income tax to the tune of $120 million, we could use a portion of that money to actually pay as we go and pay for the needed repairs on the Capitol."
Inman said he agrees with the governor on the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum.
If lawmakers approve a bond issue for the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum, Tulsa legislators will be pressing hard for a one-time $42.5 million bond issue for a proposed popular culture museum for downtown Tulsa.
Alex Weintz, Fallin's communications director, said if lawmakers approve a plan to fund the Tulsa center the governor would be happy to review it.
Legislature's race to the finish likely to be messy
By Randy Krehbiel
Tulsa World
5/6/2012
OKLAHOMA CITY - They won't just be making sausages at the state Capitol this month.
They'll be making blood sausages.
If, as is often said, the legislative process is messy and unappetizing, the last few weeks of a legislative session can be particularly discombobulating. Bills not already sent to the governor or discarded are sent through the whirring blades of conference committees to emerge, or not, as something often unrecognizable.
In conference committee, bills are sliced, diced, minced and mixed - sometimes with slightly gamey bits of bills long left for dead - and served up as something just palatable enough to pass the House and Senate.
The Legislature's May 25 adjournment deadline adds an urgency to the proceedings - and the suspicion that, just as one is never quite sure what is in the blutwurst, so the content of legislation thus produced can be rather obscure.
Taxes, appropriations and the budget
The biggest sausage still to be made is the appropriations agreement that determines how $6.6 billion in tax revenues will be spent.
That, in turn, depends on finalizing an income tax cut proposal, which may or may not include changes to a wide range of tax incentives, credits, deductions and exemptions. And, there is the matter of a proposed bond issue - or issues - to deal with Capitol repairs, the stalled American Indian Cultural Center and Museum in Oklahoma City and a proposed popular culture museum in Tulsa.
Unlike other bills, appropriations bills are not submitted to the general membership of the House and Senate until near the end of the session, and not until legislative leadership and the governor's office have agreed on the details.
Those details are worked out in closed meetings involving a handful of legislators and the governor's representatives, with legislative staff members and others providing technical expertise.
Although budget-making is slightly more open than it used to be - the House Appropriations and Budget Committee now meets in open session to discuss and vote on individual appropriations bills once they are written - it is still a secretive process. Few people outside of the majority party's leadership have much direct input, and the minority party has almost none.
As chairman of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee, Rep. Earl Sears, R-Bartlesville, is one of those insiders. He said he takes input from anyone who offers it and meets weekly with the A&B Committee, but says, "As A&B chair, I have more to say about it."
Some Legislatures have broken appropriations into scores of bills for individual agencies, but Sears said he expects one large general appropriations bill this year with several companion or trailer bills. The bills are then divided between the House A&B Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee to be introduced into the legislative process. The two committees together technically form a joint committee, but never meet as such. Each side votes on the bills separately before agreeing on a recommendation for the full House and Senate.
Other issues to be resolved
Although appropriations and budget are the biggest task, this year it may not be the most contentious. Republican leadership indicates it may have tax and budget deals done as early as this week.
But there are other unresolved issues to be worked out, including child welfare reform, water rights and planning, government reorganization and pensions.
At least nine child welfare bills have been referred to conference committee, including a proposed constitutional amendment abolishing the board that has governed the Department of Human Services since its inception during the 1930s.
Other proposals include making the Human Services director subject to legislative approval, a reorganization of child welfare, new laws for certification of child welfare workers and the outsourcing of foster care functions.
SB 1327 and 1328 authorize regional water planning districts and directs additional appropriations to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board for water quality and accessibility programs. Another bill would help small towns and rural water districts with needed infrastructure.
Bills raising the state pension fund contributions for employers and employees - most notably police and firefighters - also remain in limbo. So do several bills related to the consolidation of state agencies under the Office of State Finance.
Other issues of lesser priority to legislative leadership include HB 3056, which would require state funding of education's flexible benefits accounts, and two bills related to online education.
Several transportation bills remain in negotiation, including one to create a state transportation infrastructure bank.
Original Print Headline: Legislature's race to finish on time messy
Severe weather liability measure signed into Oklahoma law
The 'good Samaritan' law protects Oklahoma residents from possible lawsuits during severe weather.
By Michael McNutt
The Oklahoman
5/5/2012
Oklahomans will not face the risk of being sued by someone they let in their home or business during severe weather who subsequently gets hurt, based on a measure signed into law Friday.
Gov. Mary Fallin signed House Bill 2419, which eliminates civil liability for any businesses or people providing access to a safe place during severe weather as long as they are acting in good faith.
The measure takes effect immediately.
"We want to encourage neighbors to help neighbors, especially during severe weather, and that's what this law is all about," Fallin said.
"No one should have the fear of a lawsuit hanging over their head simply for opening their home or business to someone in need of shelter during a storm or tornado. This law protects citizens acting in good faith, and ultimately it may help us to save lives."
Fallin signed the measure a little more than two weeks after the House of Representatives failed to override a similar measure that she vetoed.
The Senate last month revised HB 2419 and voted 42-0 to pass it the day after the veto override of HB 2296 failed in the House. The House voted 89-2 Tuesday to pass HB 2419.
HB 2296 would have given liability protection to mobile home park operators who allowed residents to take shelter in their office during severe weather.
Rep. Eric Proctor, D-Tulsa, said he filed HB 2296 after an elderly constituent told him she had sought shelter in her mobile home park's office during a tornado but was turned away because of liability concerns.
Fallin said she vetoed HB 2296 because by lifting liability for mobile home park owners, the bill treated one group of business owners differently from all other business owners.
Also, it did not encourage businesses to provide a safe environment, she said.
"This process has been an exercise in cooperation between the governor's office and the Legislature that has given us a remarkably better bill than the one sent to my desk last month," Fallin said.
"I applaud our legislators for their dedication to providing a legal environment that is conducive to increased safety during inclement weather."
Fallin's veto occurred two days before a tornado struck Woodward on April 15 and killed six people, including mobile home park tenants. Had the governor signed the bill, it would not have been a factor because it would not have taken effect until Nov. 1.
HB 2419 was changed so the measure would take effect immediately upon her signature.
"This is especially significant as it will be in effect before this year's tornado season ends," Fallin said.
Shelving of school board election bill was right move by Legislature
By Karen Youngblood
The Oklahoman
5/5/2012
Often when Oklahoma's education bureaucracy opposes a measure at the state Capitol, our legislators think they must be on the right track. Sometimes I agree with them. Being on both our local school board and a conservative Republican, I know the education establishment tends to oppose those things they fear will change the status quo.
But conservatives and education leaders both got it right by shelving Senate Bill 1532, which would have moved local school board elections to November and forced other ill-considered measures.
Under the guise of solving perceived voter apathy at the local level with a one-size-fits-all solution from NE 23 and Lincoln, legislators were being asked to violate a sacred principle: Government works best the closer it is to the people it serves. While some school board elections in Oklahoma may draw scant interest, that outcome is based on local issues and local candidates. In my home district two years ago, a determined challenger defeated a strong incumbent by 20 votes in a spirited race. This year, five people sought a single open school board seat with the winner being chosen in a runoff. Local issues, local candidates and local priorities determine turnout, not state legislators trying to make local races look more like their own.
This legislation would have turned community-based servant leadership into something that looked more like partisan politics. By doubling the campaign time to seven months and by having races in the traditional November time frame to which the politicians are more accustomed, SB 1532 invited more partisanship.
I didn't run for the school board to further my political views. I ran to make my son's school better and to serve my community. When I finish serving, I won't leverage my position into a higher office; I'll step aside and let another community member serve. That is true of nearly every school board member I have ever known. By not pursuing SB 1532, conservatives chose community leadership over partisanship.
Most importantly, this measure was never vetted at the local level, didn't come from the local level, and did not enjoy any meaningful support among local school board members throughout Oklahoma. It had the feel of "Obamacare for Education" with its "we-know-better-than-you" conceit and its stealth-like political maneuvers to pass it so we could find out later what all is in it.
In addition, SB 1532 could have cost school districts more money, strengthened the existing education bureaucracy, lost all institutional memory if a full majority was replaced in a single election and empowered slates with non-student-focused agendas. Such is the result of attempting to fix a local problem that barely exists with an overreaching statewide approach.
This was one of those measures that created little public attention but would have empowered a far more partisan approach to local school governance. It is dead for this session but needs to go away forever. It is not conservative, won't solve any problems and would be a needless intrusion into local governance.
Youngblood is president of the Yukon Board of Education.
Some say Oklahoma should plan financially for next disaster
By Wayne Greene
Tulsa World and The Oklahoman
5/7/2012
Oklahoma needs to plan for rainy days - and the tornadic, icy and drought-ravaged ones as well, city and state emergency management leaders say.
For years, Oklahoma's Emergency Fund has built up a mounting pile of unpaid bills, leaving local government agencies holding the bag - sometimes for millions of dollars.
The emergency fund is used to pay one-eighth of certain government costs for dealing with disasters that have federal approval for assistance. The federal government picks up 75 percent of the cost.
But during recent tough economic years, which coincided with a lot of costly disasters, the Oklahoma Legislature didn't appropriate enough money to pay off the state's share. So local government agencies - including cities, towns, counties, public utilities and rural water districts - just had to wait for their reimbursements.
After prodding by Gov. Mary Fallin, the Legislature approved a $34.1 million supplemental appropriation earlier this year, which was enough to pay off all the bills, some of which went all the way back to 2007.
But Bixby City Manager Doug Enevoldsen says the Legislature should be doing more. The state should be thinking ahead because another disaster will occur sooner or later.
"Logic suggests and experience suggests that there's going to be additional disasters in the future, and wouldn't it be prudent to prepare for that in advance by beginning to provide for some additional dollars?" said Enevoldsen, who previously worked as a legislative budget aide and a top official in the Office of State Finance.
"I've seen it too many times, and my heart goes out to these communities that are suffering these disasters. I feel that there's got to be a better way," he said. "It creates immense fiscal stress on a community that's already under duress."
His suggestion: either a dedicated state funding source for the emergency fund or a routine annual appropriation to keep the fund liquid.
For about $4 million a year, he figures the state can build up a sufficient balance to fund its share of disaster costs.
"The governor this year and the Legislature have shown tremendous leadership in coming together and making that appropriation to catch up," Enevoldsen said. "The next step is to be proactive in appropriating dollars."
State Director of Emergency Management Albert Ashwood said that since 1953, only Texas and California have had more presidentially declared disasters than Oklahoma.
Since 2007, no state has had as many as Oklahoma.
Ashwood said appropriating money to the emergency fund before disasters occur is "absolutely good thinking."
It would allow the state to pay its share of recovery costs as fast as the federal government determines what they are, he said.
The last time the state was current with its share of emergency costs was Jan. 1, 2007, he said.
Federal law determines what costs can be reimbursed and restricts payments to only those emergencies with the greatest impact.
The recent tornado that struck Woodward, for example, was not sufficiently massive to trigger funding.
In approved disasters, the federal government picks up 75 percent of the approved costs. By decades-long tradition, Oklahoma splits the remaining costs with the local government that incurred the loss - 12.5 percent each.
The smaller the community, the more severe the financial stress of a disaster can be, said Collinsville City Manager Pam Polk.
In the 2007 ice storm, the city of 6,000 was essentially blacked out for weeks, she said.
The municipal electrical utility's three-man repair crew wasn't up to the enormous task, so the city contracted repair work at a huge cost, she said.
For a city with an annual budget of about $3.5 million and a utility authority budget of $7 million, it was an enormous financial stress, she said.
"We struggle with the budget and the finances," she said. "We did not have the money."
Collinsville borrowed money from a bank to pay off the ice storm recovery. The city got its federal reimbursement of more than $1 million but had to wait another 18 months for the state to come through with its share.
She said Enevoldsen's idea "definitely makes sense," and adds that she hopes Collinsville never ends up in such dire straits again.
"I hope it never happens on my watch again, anybody's watch really," she said.
Original Print Headline: State urged to develop plan to pay disaster aid
Signs of emerging prosperity in proposed budgets for Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County
The Oklahoman Editorial
5/7/2012
Debate centering on state revenues and tax cuts has been hard to miss this year, but fiscal matters at the city and county levels have mostly flown under the radar.
The state budget is stabilizing after years of cutbacks. Proposed budgets for Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County in the fiscal year that begins July 1 show signs of emerging prosperity. While we celebrate that prosperity, let's not lose sight of the fact that the government sector didn't create better times.
Oklahoma City's budget, heavily dependent on sales tax revenue, will be ample enough to support a projected 85 new jobs. Oklahoma County Treasurer Butch Freeman says the fiscal 2013 budget outlook is "healthier than I've seen it since I've been in Oklahoma County" - a span that started in 1993.
The perception is that county governments - but not city governments - survived the recession fairly comfortably. This isn't necessarily true. County Commissioner Ray Vaughn said the county has had 3 percent to 8 percent less money to work with each year for the past several years.
Oklahoma County is nearly alone among the state's counties in not assessing a sales tax. This would change if voters approve a measure for a new jail at an election that could be quite visible on the radar a year from now.
Statewide, sales taxes collected by the state, city and county governments were up 7.1 percent in April from the comparable month of 2011. Oklahoma City is using its gains to fashion a proposed budget of $952 million, up from $920 million in the current fiscal year. For Oklahoma County, improving conditions were enough to warrant employee pay raises. State employees appear to have no prospects for a raise.
Unlike city governments, county governments are dependent on property tax revenues. A referendum slated for the November ballot would cap increases in valuations for ad valorem assessments to 3 percent a year. The current cap is 5 percent. This would help taxpayers but could limit county government growth. A sales tax for the jail is a separate issue.
The property tax cap measure, which would apply statewide, will be an easier sell than the Oklahoma County-only jail sales tax. Meantime, it's been harder than we thought to sell a statewide personal income tax reduction. Tax cutters have met fierce resistance from special interest groups that benefit from tax credits and from average taxpayers who don't want to cede a beloved credit or deduction in exchange for a lower tax rate.
For state, county and city officials, making a budget during times when the economy is improving may be more pleasant than it is during downturns, but it's no easier. Pent-up demand for hiring, pay raises and capital expenditures will fill the radar screen at all levels of government. A limited supply of cash remains, however.
Still, the skies are getting bluer for government employees who have gone without raises for years. Let's all remember that government revenue gains are mostly due to the hard work of and spending by employees in the private sector. As they go, so goes the government.
Governor signs liability bill
The Journal Record
5/7/2012
OKLAHOMA CITY - A bill that would provide legal protections to businesses and individuals who allow residents to take shelter on their premises during tornadoes and other severe weather has been signed into law.
Gov. Mary Fallin on Friday signed House Bill 2419, which takes effect immediately.
In a statement, Fallin said no one should fear being sued for opening their home or business to someone seeking shelter during severe storms.
Fallin last month vetoed HB 2296, which sought to address liability concerns for mobile home park owners who opened their offices up as shelters.
State Rep. Eric Proctor, D-Tulsa, said he drafted the bill after a woman in his district who lived in a mobile home sought shelter at the park's office during a storm, but was turned away because of liability concerns.
COMMON EDUCATION
Better results through better listening
By Keith Ballard
Tulsa World
5/6/2012
During every school year, we find ourselves mourning students or employees who die suddenly. These tragic deaths remind us both how precious life is and how short it can be.
But, in my view, we don't grieve sufficiently when we lose students who drop out of Tulsa schools before graduating, nor for those who graduate but don't really have the knowledge and skills they need for a successful future.
Today's economy is global. What happens around the world - from oil prices to interest rates to technology breakthroughs - affects us quickly here in Tulsa. These days, the best predictor of individual economic success is the quality of his or her education.
None of us has lived in a time where education has been so important, not just to individuals but also to communities and states. At least in Tulsa, the community understands that.
We've spent an extraordinary amount of time listening to Tulsans in the last few years. We've heard from parents and teachers and taxpayers and the city's leaders and they all want the same thing - a great education for students. They get the link between learning and a better life.
We listened to Tulsa voters before they approved a $354 million bond in spring 2010 - historically, the largest in the state - to make sure our schools are excellent environments for learning. Last year, we listened to citizens who helped us think through how to choose schools that needed to be closed, and we continue to listen as we strive to make schools more efficient and accountable.
Listening to teachers
We listened to and worked with Tulsa's teachers to create a new evaluation system to provide the feedback teachers need to get better. This Tulsa system has been adopted by 419 school districts across Oklahoma (of the 460 that have declared) and is considered one of the best in the country.
We choose to work collaboratively. It is both my style and I think the preferred style of our community. We seek common ground, but we do not compromise in our pursuit of a rigorous education for all of Tulsa's students.
Tulsa is investing in its schools and its teachers. We've cut back the central office to keep as much money as possible in classrooms. We're creating a culture of performance and our performance is up; test scores are higher and so are graduation rates.
Tulsa Public Schools is doing well, but not well enough. We're not yet ensuring that all students get the education they need to succeed. We still lose too many students who drop out. Our teachers are good and getting better, but every student does not yet have the great teacher they deserve.
We are learning as an organization to do increasingly better. We want to provide a portfolio of schools that parents want to choose and students find academically engaging. When I came to Tulsa four years ago I was a skeptic of charter schools. But I listened and learned that good charter schools can help Tulsa broaden its offerings in a way that parents want and students need. We've also been willing to discontinue sponsoring charters that simply were not good enough.
Oklahoma, like most states, has adopted new higher academic requirements designed to ensure that students who meet these standards will be ready for college or careers after high school. I applaud that along with the state's greater focus on accountability for results.
Unfair labeling
But we would all be well served if the state would do a bit more listening than demanding, be more collaborative and be far more supportive. Here are three brief examples:
1) The state will begin assigning schools letter grades, and under this scheme schools will get grades ranging from "A" to "F." The approach is simple in appearance. It is also quite misguided. It will unfairly label many schools, and it certainly will not get teachers in "F" schools to work harder, smarter or better. Thanks to the state Board of Education for making key changes to this formula before its adoption.
2) The state announced it would take over a number of low-performing schools across Oklahoma including in Tulsa, despite efforts by districts such as ours to turn those schools around. Again, the idea makes for a better press release than it does for educational results. We've convinced the state instead to "partner" with us in striving to improve McLain High School.
3) For the last couple of years, Oklahoma has cut funding for schools. (In three years, we've lost about $20 million in state funding). We did the hard work of reducing teaching staff by 225 positions and administrative staff by 130 positions in 2010-11. TPS was able to avoid further lay-offs by using federal stimulus money, which has now run out. Although the state promised to restore the funding when the economy improved, which it has, Oklahoma City is now reneging on that promise. The result for Tulsa will be at least 75 fewer teachers next school year resulting in bigger classes.
I've been an educator in Oklahoma for four decades. I understand how critical it is to set high expectations for students and offer them great teachers. Our work in Tulsa is to create a system of schools efficiently organized for high performance, to invest in the people who work in our schools and to provide increasing levels of customer service.
We will be able to succeed because we have the support of the Tulsa community. That support is sustaining for those of us who work in the Tulsa schools and invaluable when it is necessary to take on those in Oklahoma City who fail to see the value of great schools as the right investment in our future.
Keith Ballard is superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools
Schools need to educate students on warning signs of suicide
By Kelly Nutter
The Oklahoman
5/5/2012
The devastating news of youth suicide and an alarming increase and string of deaths by suicide this year have turned a typically private situation into front-page news.
Most Oklahomans know someone who died by suicide. Oklahoma ranks 12th in the nation in deaths by suicide, which is the second-leading cause of death for Oklahoma youth ages 10-24. In HeartLine's Healthy Education for Life Program, which is free for schools, 25 percent of students are self-identifying as at-risk for depression or suicide. Further, most young people who die by suicide tell someone or provide warning signs before attempting it.
Suicide is the most preventable form of death, and education is the key to prevention. So why are we afraid to talk about it?
Bringing prevention education to schools isn't easy. Administrators struggle with the stigma of suicide. Much like the previous notion of sex education, the belief is that if we talk about suicide, we will "give students the idea" or cause them to attempt it. Among their other fears is the perception that parents will hold the school accountable if a child dies by suicide after they get prevention training.
Talking about suicide neither causes it nor gives someone the idea. It allows a difficult topic to be discussed and an opportunity for people who are hurting to reach out for help. We know that callers to Oklahoma's 1-800-SUICIDE and 1-800-273-TALK help lines are at a decreased risk for suicide after talking to a crisis specialist.
School officials also express concern for liability if a student dies by suicide. Legally, schools can't be held liable for a student's suicide by providing prevention education. In fact, it would speak well of the school to show that it had provided suicide prevention education versus not addressing the topic at all. School officials who adopt this training can feel confident that they've given students information and support.
Administrators often hold onto these fears until they lose a student to suicide. This tragic loss makes the issue of suicide all too real to them, the parents and community; the need to address the topic with students is then realized. Why do we react in the aftermath of a suicide, or multiple suicides, but fail to take the necessary steps to prevent the loss of life beforehand?
Some school districts, such as Norman, have been advocates for prevention education for years. Progress is being made in Edmond because Susan Parks, public information officer of Edmond Public Schools, is pushing for preventive measures. Suicide prevention programs should be required across the state. Schools should see the value in prevention education that teaches students how to identify suicide warning signs, how to get help personally or for a friend, and directs them to appropriate resources.
Let's not wait for the next young person to die before we require schools to educate students on the warning signs of suicide and how to get help.
Nutter is executive director of HeartLine (www.heartlineoklahoma.org).
ARTICLES SUBMITTED BY OUR INSTITUTIONS
House votes to change name of Ardmore Higher Ed Center
By Debbie Sander
The Ardormeite
5/4/2012
Legislation approved today by the Oklahoma House of Representatives would change the name of the Ardmore Higher Education Center to the University Center of Southern Oklahoma.
Senate Bill 1111 will allow the name of the education center to reflect the student its serves from all over Southern Oklahoma, said state Rep. Pat Ownbey.
Before we inserted language to make the Ardmore Higher Education Center a Southeastern Oklahoma State University branch campus, our original Ardmore Higher Ed bill simply changed the name, which was a request of Ardmore Higher Education officials, said Ownbey, R-Ardmore. ³We¹ve put that name-change language into Senate Bill 1111 to get that original request accomplished, since we have been unable to get the branch campus bill signed into law. Dr. Steve Mills, Ardmore Higher Education
Center director and CEO, knows this is just the first step.
A name change to the University Center of Southern Oklahoma would be a benefit for our center and what we do here, Mills said. Hopefully it can help with the economic development of our community. Ardmore Higher Education Center is the last institution of its kind in the state to still be called a higher education center.
University center is a term that better expresses what we do here, he said. We¹re proud to be in Ardmore, but we have a lot of students from the greater Ardmore area, too.
Senate Bill 1111 will return to the Senate, where lawmakers can either vote to accept House amendments and send it to Gov. Mary Fallin or vote to send the bill to conference committee.
Graduation is family affair for Mitchells
By Tyrell Albin
Lawton Constitution
5/4/2012
Tonight at Cameron University's graduation ceremony, a Lawton family will reap its harvest of years of hard work and dedication to academic excellence.
Five members of the Mitchell family - Calvin Mitchell, Brenda Preston-Mitchell, Dominique Lydell Mitchell, Shavonna Danyelle Mitchell and Jennifer Lynne Mitchell - will walk across the stage and officially claim their degrees.
Calvin, his wife Brenda and their daughter Jennifer have all earned master's degrees in psychology; their son Dominique will receive a bachelor's degree in English; and their daughter Shavonna will get an associate degree in biology.
Education has always been a priority for the Mitchell family. Calvin and Brenda Mitchell's oldest daughter, Alycia Mitchell-Kinchloe, is a lawyer in Philadelphia. Their youngest daughter, 16-year-old Carryssa, is already making plans to become a medical doctor.
"My mother and father are both from the inner city of Philadelphia and, unfortunately, coming from that area, the way they were brought up, they didn't have the opportunity to go to college when they were my age and younger," Dominique Mitchell said. "As a result, my father had to join the military to get his family out of that environment - and he did so, and served for 25 years. He always made sure that when he had the opportunity to go to
school, he would do it. And he instilled that in us, to get our education. That is valuable, something that will benefit you and cannot be taken away."
Calvin Mitchell, who is the pastor of Grace and Truth Kingdom Harvest Church, said it is an awesome feeling to have his wife and children graduate with him.
Calvin and Brenda Mitchell grew up together in Philadelphia and have shared their lives since, so it is a special milestone for them to get their master's
degrees at the same time, he said.
"It's a blessing," he said. "And to see our children follow suit, it's just a double blessing."
Brenda Mitchell said the long years of so many family members being in school have been financially challenging for everyone, but worth it.
"It's been rewarding, just to see them so gung-ho to go through with it," she said.
Shavonna Mitchell said she is following in the footsteps of her parents.
"My dad always told me education is very important and not to stop," she said.
Jennifer Mitchell said it was fun to share notes and be involved in study groups with her family. She took statistics with her parents, which was an interesting experience. She said all three of them excel at math and are competitive people, so they were constantly striving to outdo one another in the class.
The family is planning a large cookout to celebrate, Calvin Mitchell said. The oldest daughter will be visiting from Philadelphia to see the graduation and join in the festivities.
For more news from Oklahoma's public colleges and universities, click on a link below:
Ardmore H.E.C. <http://www.ahec.osrhe.edu/>
Cameron <http://www.cameron.edu/community_relations/presspg.html> *
Carl Albert <http://www.carlalbert.edu/>
Connors <http://www.connorsstate.edu/>
East Central <http://www.ecok.edu/news> *
Eastern Oklahoma <http://www.eosc.edu/>
Langston <http://www.langston.edu/>
Murray <http://www.mscok.edu/>
NEO A&M <http://www.neo.edu/>
Northeastern <http://www.nsuok.edu/News.aspx> *
Northern <http://www.north-ok.edu/>
Northwestern <http://www.nwosu.edu/> *
OCCC <http://www.occc.edu/news/archive.html?2011> *
OPSU <http://www.opsu.edu/News/> *
OSRHE <http://www.okhighered.org/news-center> *
OSU <http://osu.okstate.edu/news/> *
OSU-OKC <http://www.osuokc.edu/news/releases> *
OSU Institute of Technology-Okmulgee <http://www.osuit.edu/news_and_events/> *
OSU-CHS <http://www.healthsciences.okstate.edu/communications/press_release/2011/index.cfm> *
OSU-Tulsa <http://www.osu-tulsa.okstate.edu/news/newslist.asp> *
OU* <http://www.ou.edu/web/landing/news_and_events.html>
OUHSC <http://ouhsc.edu/pressroom.asp> *
Redlands <http://www.redlandscc.edu/>
Rogers <http://www.rsu.edu/news/2011/index.asp> *
Rose State <http://www.rose.edu/rose-state-news> *
Seminole <http://www.sscok.edu/>
Southeastern <http://www.se.edu/news/2011/> *
SWOSU <http://www.swosu.edu/news/index.asp> *
TCC <http://www.tulsacc.edu/15042/> *
UCO <http://www.uco.edu/ur/news.asp>
USAO <http://www.usao.edu/news> *
Western <http://www.wosc.edu/>
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