Legislative psychosis
Published in TULSA WORLD on Sunday, June 19, 2016
http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/opinionfeatured/lawrence-a-baines-legislative-psychosis-has-state-acting-irrationally/article_7d67d604-b520-5baa-ba7d-76fe97b61da1.html
The Medical Dictionary defines psychosis as a "mental illness typically characterized by impaired functioning and a nonexistent sense of objective reality." Lately, signs of psychosis have become rampant in the state legislature, indicating a consistent "nonexistent sense of objective reality."
According to the Oklahoma Policy Institute, recent tax cuts mean that an Oklahoman who had an income of 100 million dollars paid almost 2 million dollars less in taxes this year.
Coincidentally, the budget for Child Care Services, which "helps ensure trained supervision, nutrition and education for children" and helps children who are "abused, neglected or exploited," has been cut by about 2 million dollars for 2015. Thus, one way to view recent legislation is that, to give the man who made 100 million dollars an extra couple of million bucks, money had to be wrested from Oklahoma's neediest children.
Despite the lack of legislative support, public schools in Oklahoma have one of the highest graduation rates and one of the lowest dropout rates in the nation. But, rather than pay teachers a fair wage or adequately fund schools, the legislature has continually slashed education funding. Oklahoma ranks #1 in the nation in terms of cuts to public education since 2008, significantly ahead of #2 Alabama. Oklahoma remains near dead-last in terms of teacher pay and per pupil expenditures.
However, public schools are still pretty good, and as a result, Oklahoma has one of the lowest rates of private school enrollment in the United States, less than 5%. Because so few Oklahomans enroll in private schools, the legislature rallied around a bill to promote private school enrollment. Senate Bill 609 would have required the state to pay rich parents millions of dollars to put their children in private schools. In this way, state legislators seem determined to incur more debt while actively undermining public schools, which educate more than 95% of Oklahomans.
Meanwhile, the Road Information Project estimates that 23 percent of all Oklahoma bridges are "structurally deficient or functionally obsolete" as the deterioration of the Lexington-Purcell Bridge (James Nance Bridge) and the collapse of the May Avenue Bridge over the Northwest Freeway vividly illustrate.
To address the $11 billion in backlogged repairs to the state's roads, legislators swiftly sprung into action by drafting Senate Bill 1619, which would have required schools to provide additional bathrooms for students who did not want to share bathrooms with their transgendered classmates. Although only three tenths of one percent of students actually consider themselves transgender, and the other 99.7% of students consider themselves either male or female, apparently the transgender bathroom bill took precedence over less important matters, such as schools and roads.
Finally, because the state's college tuition is among the lowest in the nation and because enrollments are at historic highs, the legislature decided it was time to cut funding for higher education. Again.
Legislative Psychosis is a dangerous, but not fatal affliction. It is curable through the intervention known as "the next election."
Published in TULSA WORLD on Sunday, June 19, 2016
http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/opinionfeatured/lawrence-a-baines-legislative-psychosis-has-state-acting-irrationally/article_7d67d604-b520-5baa-ba7d-76fe97b61da1.html
The Medical Dictionary defines psychosis as a "mental illness typically characterized by impaired functioning and a nonexistent sense of objective reality." Lately, signs of psychosis have become rampant in the state legislature, indicating a consistent "nonexistent sense of objective reality."
According to the Oklahoma Policy Institute, recent tax cuts mean that an Oklahoman who had an income of 100 million dollars paid almost 2 million dollars less in taxes this year.
Coincidentally, the budget for Child Care Services, which "helps ensure trained supervision, nutrition and education for children" and helps children who are "abused, neglected or exploited," has been cut by about 2 million dollars for 2015. Thus, one way to view recent legislation is that, to give the man who made 100 million dollars an extra couple of million bucks, money had to be wrested from Oklahoma's neediest children.
Despite the lack of legislative support, public schools in Oklahoma have one of the highest graduation rates and one of the lowest dropout rates in the nation. But, rather than pay teachers a fair wage or adequately fund schools, the legislature has continually slashed education funding. Oklahoma ranks #1 in the nation in terms of cuts to public education since 2008, significantly ahead of #2 Alabama. Oklahoma remains near dead-last in terms of teacher pay and per pupil expenditures.
However, public schools are still pretty good, and as a result, Oklahoma has one of the lowest rates of private school enrollment in the United States, less than 5%. Because so few Oklahomans enroll in private schools, the legislature rallied around a bill to promote private school enrollment. Senate Bill 609 would have required the state to pay rich parents millions of dollars to put their children in private schools. In this way, state legislators seem determined to incur more debt while actively undermining public schools, which educate more than 95% of Oklahomans.
Meanwhile, the Road Information Project estimates that 23 percent of all Oklahoma bridges are "structurally deficient or functionally obsolete" as the deterioration of the Lexington-Purcell Bridge (James Nance Bridge) and the collapse of the May Avenue Bridge over the Northwest Freeway vividly illustrate.
To address the $11 billion in backlogged repairs to the state's roads, legislators swiftly sprung into action by drafting Senate Bill 1619, which would have required schools to provide additional bathrooms for students who did not want to share bathrooms with their transgendered classmates. Although only three tenths of one percent of students actually consider themselves transgender, and the other 99.7% of students consider themselves either male or female, apparently the transgender bathroom bill took precedence over less important matters, such as schools and roads.
Finally, because the state's college tuition is among the lowest in the nation and because enrollments are at historic highs, the legislature decided it was time to cut funding for higher education. Again.
Legislative Psychosis is a dangerous, but not fatal affliction. It is curable through the intervention known as "the next election."