School choice: The best criminal justice reform
Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
Greg Forster, Ph.D.
How would you like to stop thousands of vulnerable kids from becoming criminals?
And do it by enacting a policy that’s proven to work, and has consistent 65 percent to 70 percent public support, bringing together Americans of all colors and creeds? The best criminal-justice reform is to prevent kids from getting on the wrong side of the law in the first place, and the way to do that is hiding in plain sight: school choice.
“Criminal justice reform” is a phrase that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Like the overwhelming majority of Americans, I’m strongly in favor of the right kind of criminal justice reform, and strongly against the wrong kind.
The sticking point is that Americans mostly don’t agree on which reform policies are the right ones.
In a highly polarized country, political movements have to make a choice.
The organizations that want to raise a lot of money without accomplishing anything will focus on inflaming divisions, keeping us stuck in endless 50/50 trench warfare so we’ll keep sending them checks to carry on the fight.
The organizations that want to get something done will look for policy opportunities that allow them to bring 65 percent or 75 percent of the country together around doing the right thing.
It’s not hard to find the fundraisers in criminal justice reform. On the left, they’re the ones who shout “defund the police!” On the right, they’re the ones who shout “when looting starts, shooting starts!”
And both sides then evade responsibility by claiming that they don’t literally mean what they say — a double game that allows them to raise money by appealing to base, vicious sentiments and then wash their hands of the consequences.
But there are criminal-justice reform policies that attract broad consensus. And there are plenty more that could attract broad consensus with the right kind of campaign. My personal favorites are ending the flagrantly unjust judge-made rule called qualified immunity, which makes it effectively impossible to punish police officers who break the law, and ending the legalized theft that is civil asset forfeiture.
I also think body cameras for police, in spite of the downsides, are worth it. And I’d like to see states clean up their public reporting of justice-related data, which generally are as clear as mud. Better pay for officers should also be on the table — if we want better policing, we should put our money where our mouths are.
These policies take seriously the fact that we give police a lot of power, and power does tend to corrupt. Everyone needs to do their work within some kind of effective accountability structure. But these approaches also empower the majority of police who are clean to do their jobs better.
Unfortunately, clearing a path to most of the really constructive reforms will require us to rein in the power of police unions. It can be done, if we have the will, and it should be done — government employees shouldn’t be unionized in the first place, since there’s no market discipline to counterbalance the unions’ unlimited pursuit of their own selfish interests, and it’s especially wrong for them to unionize against public safety. But there’s no denying that it would be a tough fight, which is why so far we generally haven’t bothered to try it.
The good news is that there’s a criminal-justice reform we can enact without having to fight the police unions: expand school choice.
Better academic outcomes are not the only proven benefit from policies that allow parents to direct their children’s educational funding to the school of their choice.
Six rigorous empirical studies have found that school choice policies reduce crime, and no studies find the opposite.
Some of them study charter schools, which don’t empower parents as much as private-school choice does, but the principle is the same. Two studies of the private-school voucher program in Milwaukee, not far from where I live, found that graduates of the program were less likely to be convicted of crimes in their twenties. And don’t say that’s because the program attracts the less vulnerable students — in Milwaukee, as in most cities, school choice serves mostly poor and minority students.
In any event, the studies compared matched student populations with similar backgrounds.
It’s not hard to see why school choice is proven to reduce crime. Putting parents back in charge of education is the key to educating children as if they were human beings, not economic widgets or political footballs. Education is preparing a whole person for a whole life — that’s just what the word means. Only parents can rightly control the process of preparing a whole person for a whole life, because child-rearing is a parental function. Schools can carry out that function, but they can only do it rightly if they answer to the people who are supposed to be in charge of it.
When parents aren’t in charge, schools can’t treat students as human beings. The monopoly system turns schools into industrialized machines. That’s not because the teachers and principals are bad. It’s just the way the system has to work as long as it’s a government monopoly, no matter how well-meaning the people inside that system might be.
Other reforms seeking to help kids in failing schools always founder on the rocky shoals of the government school monopoly’s resistance to reform.
All monopolies resist reform. They’re monopolies, that’s what monopolies do.
Break the monopoly, and schools suddenly remember that they exist to serve students, not politicians and special interests.
Unlike police unions, the unions representing education special interests have been losing power for a decade. That’s partly because they’ve lost a long series of public relations battles — everyone now knows that they don’t speak for education, and they don’t even speak for their own members.
They just want to grab money, and they don’t care about destroying children’s lives to do it. And it’s partly because they’ve lost a long series of public policy battles, with private school choice and new restrictions on unjust union exploitation of their own members having been enacted in most states.
We now have private-school choice programs in 30 states — a supermajority.
We hear a lot about the “school-to-prison pipeline.” Well, school choice is literally the only policy with a proven track record of doing something about that problem. It’s time to put up or shut up.
NOTE: Greg Forster (Ph.D., Yale University) is a Friedman Fellow with EdChoice. He has conducted numerous empirical studies on education issues, including school choice, accountability testing, graduation rates, student demographics, and special education. His essay from Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs [https://ift.tt/3vJcaRZ] is reposted here, with permission. The author of nine books and the co-editor of six books, Dr. Forster has also written numerous articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, as well as in popular publications such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. His latest book is Economics: A Student’s Guide (Crossway, 2019).
School choice: The best criminal justice reform Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
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OKLAHOMA CITY – State Rep. Forrest Bennett recently joined the Oklahoma Legislature’s Sportsmen Caucus as a House co-chairman.
The goals of the Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus are to cultivate bipartisan relationships while working to protect and promote outdoor activities from hiking to hunting. The caucus goals are as much about conservation as they are about supporting local economies.
“There are small towns across the state that rely on seasonal outdoor activities like fishing or boating,” Bennett, an Oklahoma City Democrat, said. “I look forward to finding ways to promote these activities and the communities they support.”
Bennett was nominated by fellow caucus co-chairman, Rep. Kevin Wallace. They hope to work together to foster better bipartisanship, while also focusing on ways to support the goals of the caucus.
“I’m grateful to Chairman Wallace for asking me to join as co-chair,” Bennett said. “I look forward to building stronger relationships through caucus activities outside of the Capitol, and I’m optimistic that it will lead to more and better bipartisan solutions.”
State Rep. Forrest Bennett of Oklahoma City joins Sportsmen’s Caucus as co-chair Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK Starting to get down in the weeds Spring Allergies but rays of sunshine for Managed Care advocates?3/14/2021 Pat McGuigan, special to the Southwest Ledger
OKLAHOMA CITY – High winds and the Sooner State’s well-known springtime assault of windborne allergies are on the minds of many Oklahomans, including health care providers, analysts, legislators and medical professionals.
Like spring itself, even as undeniable signs of hope emerge about the course of the worldwide 2019-2021 Pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), daily work with irritated eyes and congested systems might drive some to distraction on anything other than immediate essentials of occupational labor.
But in and around the State Capitol, it’s hard to miss another sign of the times.
The Oklahoma Health Care Authority, with Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt’s concurrence, set the table for a major argument in late winter with the announcement that four providers would be tapped to administer the state Medicaid program, beginning this fall.
Winners (or losers, depending on an analyst’s perspective) of the first round in what will likely be a long fight were UnitedHealthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma, Humana Healthy Horizons and Oklahoma Complete Health.
The quartet could assume management of Medicaid (including voter-approved expansion) on October 1.
The idea has determined critics. Emma Morris of the Oklahoma Policy Institute said, in a March 4 blog post, that “The Oklahoma Legislature is now the only entity that can protect the management of Oklahoma’s historically efficient, nationally recognized SoonerCare program from being hastily outsourced to private companies.”
The most notable counter to the HCFA/Stitt effort came from the powerful Oklahoma State Medical Association (OSMA). The association decried “outsourcing” of Medicaid and began maneuvering for what could be one of the most significant “Clash of the Titans” battle at the state Supreme Court in modern history.
Ray Carter of the Center for Independent Journalism, analyzed the early maneuvering of the OSMA and allies such as the Oklahoma Health Association (OHA) in a February 17 news story. He pointed out that “while the OSMA and OHA have both opposed managed care, neither group has identified any other way to control the spiraling costs of Medicaid, which has been consuming an ever-larger share of state tax dollars and may now see explosive growth due to expansion of Medicaid to include able-bodied adults.”
Carter further reported that while roughly three dozen state legislators have critiqued the selection of the quartet of providers, “none have offered an alternative means of cost control.” Stitt and the OHCA insist that oversight of patients in the Medicaid system would assure not only cost efficiencies but better patient outcomes.
As both Carter and this reporter have chronicled for years, other than public education, the state’s tax-financed health care systems are the major cost-drivers for government. From Carter’s reporting:
“From 1999 to 2019, total expenditures on Medicaid in Oklahoma — adjusted for inflation and including both state-and-federal dollars — surged from $2.33 billion to $5.6 billion.”
A new peer-review study touted summarized strong results in combating COVID deaths for a sample of nearly 39,000 Floridians in a Managed Care program.
The analysis from the American Journal of Managed Care found, according to a press release, that Cano Health’s “population health management program reduced COVID-19 mortality by 60 percent, compared to a mirror group of Florida patients.”
The “retrospective cohort study” included 38,193 MCPs (Managed Care Patients) in the Sunshine State who were monitored, the AJMC report said, “for COVID-19 incidence, hospitalization, and mortality.”
That cohort was “compared with a mirror group from the state of Florida.”
The abstract summary of reported results is striking: “The mean (SD) age among the MCPs was 67.9 (15.2) years, and 60 [percent] were female. Older age and hypertension were the most important factors in predicting COVID-19. Obesity, chronic kidney disease (CKD), and congestive heart failure (CHF) were linked to higher rates of hospitalizations. Patients prescribed off-label outpatient medications had 73 [percent] lower likelihood of hospitalization (P<.05). Compared with the mirror group, MCPs had 60 [percent]lower COVID-19 mortality (P<.05).”
Cano offered up its press release (with the study linked) on March 4.
The stage is set for an argument that seems never-ending. But the first stage resolution of the current debate will be resolved, one way or another, in time for Medicaid expansion (which passed with the narrowest margin of any constitutional referendum in state history).
Medicaid expansion was a close call in Oklahoma. It’s unlikely management of that expansion will be a slam dunk.
Note: This analysis first appeared in the Southwest Ledger, March 11, 2021 print edition and online: https://www.southwestledger.news/ Southwest Ledger, 7602 US Highway 277, Elgin, OK 73538, (580) 350-1111. It is reposted here with permission.
Starting to get down in the weeds – Spring Allergies, but rays of sunshine for Managed Care advocates? Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
Pat McGuigan, February 1994
In John's Gospel, there is that poignant moment when a reluctant Pontius Pilate, about to send Jesus of Nazareth to his death, rebukes the Galilean with the question: "What is truth?" (John 18:38 KJV) Relying too much on reason, Pilate was unable to find faith, and thus unable to know truth.
After reading Michael F. Steltenkamp's biography of an enigmatic symbol of Native American spirituality -- Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala (University of Oklahoma Press, 211 pages with index and bibliography, $19.95) -- one concludes with reasonable certainty that at some point in his last five decades, Black Elk studied that encounter between one of this world's rulers and the ruler of all.
Perhaps he even preached on it. If he could speak today, what lessons on truth might Black Elk give Americans of all ethnic backgrounds?
This book persuades that his message would be controversial, shocking those who consider Black Elk of the Lakota Sioux a precursor of New Age sensibilities and religion.
As Steltenkamp reports, Black Elk was "Born when buffalo was still the staple of Plains tribes" and "he shared in the victory of Little Big Horn" (1876) – when the Sioux and allies under Sitting Bull defeated the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry under Gen. George Armstrong Custer. Black Elk was a key figure in the 1890 "ghost dance" movement, a final, largely spiritual resistance which ended at Wounded Knee, in a massacre Black Elk could describe powerfully decades after the fact.
The neo-pagan vision of Black Elk is mostly drawn from two studies which have been treated as if they were original source materials: John Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux (1932) and John Epes Brown's The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux (1953).
Steltenkamp's book (released in September 1993) is sure to spark controversy among serious historians of the American West. This book may leave in tatters the reputation of Neihardt, a poet who, on the basis of lengthy interviews with the subject, wrote Black Elk Speaks.
As Sam Gill noted in his Oct. 31 review for The New York Times, "Neihardt's treatment focuses on the first 25 years of Black Elk's life, ending with the tragedy at Wounded Knee. Black Elk, as Neihardt presents him, is a pathetic man whose past has been lost and whose future is impossible. " But as Steltenkamp observes, The real Black Elk lived until 1950: "Neihardt and Brown both erred by depicting him solely as a 19th-century figure. " In "amazement, I learned that Black Elk had preached Christian doctrine to his people for the greater part of his life and that he had been formally invested with the office of catechist. "
Black Elk, The Christian
Black Elk converted (in 1904) to Christianity as taught by Jesuit missionaries. He preached that Catholic faith to fellow Sioux, as well as other tribes, until his death.
This is not merely an issue of historical nit-picking. Emotional words from Neihardt's 1932 book provide the ending of the 1971 best-seller, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” Yet Steltenkamp, with magnificent restraint in his references, indicates that many of the words attributed to the holy man cannot be found in extant transcripts of the original Neihardt-Black Elk interviews.
(Tulsan Wes Studi, the actor of Cherokee ancestry, in the early 1990s dominated the nation's screens as the title character of the film, "Geronimo. " One of Studi's first successes was a staging of "Black Elk Speaks" which also starred Will Sampson and David Carridine.)
Thus, the contemporary image of Black Elk is based, in Steltenkamp's charitable characterization, on "the poetic craftsmanship of John Neihardt. " It is possible for readers inclined to harsher judgments about Neihardt's sense of responsibility to history to feel more kindly toward Joseph Epes Brown, who -- in a letter -- encouraged Steltenkamp's search for the truth: "I have felt it improper that this phase of his life was never presented either by Neihardt or indeed by myself. I suppose somehow it was thought this Christian participation compromised his 'Indianness,' but I do not see it this way and think it time that the record was set straight. "
Stories from Pine Ridge
The resigned Black Elk of Neihardt's book contrasts comprehensively with the hopeful Black Elk of Steltenkamp's book, drawn from interviews with those who knew and loved him, voluminous references to original and secondary sources, and publications from South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation, where the holy man lived most of his life.
His daughter, Lucy (Black Elk) Looks Twice, was an ardent Christian who regarded the violent 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee -- when members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) evoked Black Elk's name -- as unworthy of her father's memory. In her own way, however, she eventually reconciled to the image of her father presented in ‘Black Elk Speaks.’
At the end, Black Elk was not obsessed with a world dead and gone, but worried about the pathological behavior he saw growing among young Indians at Pine Ridge. He was confident about his own fate, however. He told Lucy he believed God would send a sign that his exhortations to Christian faith and behavior were the proper path for the people.
A Night of Signs?
Many believe that when he died on Aug. 17, 1950, signs were indeed given. John Lone Goose, one of his friends, remembered "that night very well, and those bright stars. ... God sent those beautiful objects to shine on that old missionary. ... The night was still and warm with nothing fearsome about it - just quiet and nice. God was with us at that time. " Many others recalled Black Elk's night of passage. William Siehr, a Jesuit brother at Pine Ridge since the 1930s, attended the wake.
About 10:30 p.m., "When we left the place, we noticed that light. The sky was just one bright illumination. I never saw anything so magnificent. I've seen a number of flashes of the northern lights ..., but I never saw anything quite so intense as it was that night. " He continued, "the whole horizon seemed to be ablaze. That's the first and the only time I ever saw anything like it. " He wondered "at the immensity" of the display, which he described as "almost like fireworks" in the sky.
There is a logical explanation for all of this, but the words of William Shakespeare ("Julius Caesar," Act II, scene 2) come to mind: "When beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."
In Steltenkamp's book of unusual depth, itself an act of charity, we beggars meet the Black Elk we never knew.
Note: McGuigan wrote this February 1994 review during his time as chief editorial writer for The Oklahoman, the state’s largest daily newspaper.
Black Elk Speaks ‘new’ Truth: Reviewing ‘Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala’ Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK More notable Oklahoma Senate forwards to House: Medical parole reform OHLAP expansion to juniors3/14/2021
Staff Report
OKLAHOMA CITY – March 8-12 was a busy work week at the State Legislature. Under the dome, the Senate sent to the lower chamber a pair policy objectives aiming to ameliorate underlying social challenges for certain groups in the state. A measure reforming criteria for applicants seeking medical parole received full Senate approval Wednesday. Senate Bill 320, by Sen. Jessica Garvin, R-Duncan, provides for the medically frail and vulnerable to receive consideration in medical parole proceedings, also known as compassionate release. “Our prisons are at 107 percent capacity. In addition, Oklahoma’s prison population is aging quickly with many over 65 — a large portion of that group has medical conditions that prevent them from being able to take care of themselves on a daily basis. This puts them in danger, causes more work for already understaffed prisons and is a tremendous cost to the state,” Garvin said. “This is fiscally responsible legislation that creates commonsense guidelines for who can apply for compassionate relief parole. Once an individual qualifies to apply, they still must go through a board review to determine if they should be released on parole. This is a much-needed change for these frail individuals and our prison system.” S.B. 320 defines medically frail as someone who has a medical condition that prevents them from performing two or more activities of daily living independently. It defines medically vulnerable as someone with one or more medical conditions that would make them more likely to contract an illness or disease while incarcerated that could lead to death or cause them to become medically frail. The measure specifies the medical conditions that place an individual in the medically vulnerable category. “Oklahoma’s current medical parole statute has been interpreted to mean that only those near death or dying can be considered for early release, leaving behind a large population of individuals with chronic, debilitating illnesses who are no longer a threat to public safety,” Garvin said. According to DOC, only 12 people in Oklahoma’s prison system were granted medical parole in 2020. A medical determination will remain a three-step process with a prison medical provider and DOC’s director and medical director all agreeing on the assessment. The DOC director would then request that a person be added to the medical parole docket before the Pardon and Parole Board (PPB). Garvin said she worked with law enforcement, district attorney’s and judges along with DOC officials in drafting the bill. S.B. 320 will next be considered in the House. Another legislative press release touched on another policy objective to improve life for a targeted population. Narrative in a release from Senate staff related that “Hundreds of Oklahoma students complete their college degree each year thanks to the financial assistance provided them through the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program (OHLAP), a scholarship program that provides free tuition to state colleges and universities for certain qualifying students.” Under current legal provisions, the release sent to CapitolBeatOK and other state news organizatios pointed out, “students must be an Oklahoma resident, have a federally adjusted annual gross family income of $55,000 or less, and enroll in OHLAP in the Eighth, Ninth, or Tenth Grade.” Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, wants to further expand the program by allowing homeschooled 16-year-olds or public and private school students to enroll as juniors, which he hopes to accomplish with Senate Bill 132 that passed unanimously out of the Senate late last Tuesday (March 9). “While some students know at a younger age that they want to go to college, for others it’s a decision made later in high school. OHLAP was created to ensure more students have the opportunity to get a college degree regardless of their financial situation, and Senate Bill 132 is an effort to help those students who decide to pursue a higher education their junior year,” Bullard said. “The program isn’t currently being fully utilized, so kids are missing out on this incredible scholarship opportunity, and we have to do all we can to make sure their dreams of getting a college degree come true. I’m grateful for the overwhelming support in the Senate, and I hope the House joins us in further helping Oklahoma’s students by expanding Oklahoma’s Promise,” Ballard said. There are currently about 30,000 high school students enrolled in the program and around 15,000 students attending college on an OHLAP scholarship. Bullard believes that allowing students to join the program their junior year will help increase participation in the free tuition program. As a result of Senate passage, the measure now goes to the House of Representatives where Rep. Rhonda Baker, R-Yukon, is serving as the author. More notable Oklahoma Senate forwards to House: Medical parole reform, OHLAP expansion to juniors Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK Senate Acts: Bullard advances Religious Freedom Act Standridge bill targets social media censorship3/14/2021
Staff Report
OKLAHOMA CITY – Last week at the state Legislature, two Republicans guided to Senate approval measures with widespread support and grassroots advocacy.
On Thursday (March 11), the Senate voted overwhelmingly to protect churches as essential in the state of Oklahoma. Senate Bill 368, by David Bullard, R-Durant, creates the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act, prohibiting declaration of religious institutions as nonessential.
The full Senate also approved legislation by Sen. Rob Standridge allowing social media users to sue for damages against any social media website that censors a user’s political or religious speech. Standridge’s Senate Bill 383 would eliminate selective censorship of opinion on social media and seek to ensure free speech is treated fairly.
Concerning his measure, Sen. Bullard said in a press release sent to CapitolBeatOK.com and other news organizations, “The U.S. Constitution guarantees our freedom of religion and clearly states that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof’,” Bullard said. “Unfortunately, many churches around our state and nation were unconstitutionally mandated to limit their religious services and told what they could and couldn’t do in their own buildings. We must fight for our freedom and our faith, and I want to thank the Senate for joining me in protecting Oklahomans’ rights.”
S.B. 368 prohibits any governmental entity from declaring or deeming a religious institution and any activity directly related to the institution’s discharge of its mission and purpose to be nonessential. Additionally, it prohibits the closure of such institutions for health or security purposes if those actions are greater than what is imposed on any private entity facing the same or similar health or security conditions.
The bill will next be heard in the House where Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, is the principal House author.
As for the anti-censorship measure, Sen. Standridge said in a separate release, “Oklahomans throughout the state are fed up with liberal, multi-billion dollar tech companies trying to promote their ideology by censoring and deleting posts supporting conservative views. The free exchange of ideas is being suppressed, and it flies in the face of our right to free speech. Citizens should be able to have an opportunity to pursue civil recourse.”
Under S.B. 383, users in the state could sue any owner or operator of a social media website that purposely censors a user’s political or religious speech. The measure applies to deleted posts or the use of algorithms to suppress such speech.
Websites would be immune from liability if any censored posts called for immediate acts of violence or enticed criminal conduct. It would also exempt posts involved in bullying minors, false impersonation or those from an inauthentic source. The measure does not apply to individual users who censor the speech of other users.
Users above the age 18 could seek damages of a minimum of $75,000 per intentional deletion or censoring of that user’s speech, along with actual damages and punitive damages if aggravating factors are present. The prevailing party may also be awarded costs and reasonable attorney fees.
S.B. 383 now moves to the House of Representatives for further consideration. Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, is principal House author of S.B. 383.
For both the House and Senate, last week was (with limited procedural exceptions) the deadline for the respective chambers to advance proposed new laws for initial consideration in the other.
Note: Patrick B. McGuigan contributed to this report.
Senate Acts: Bullard advances Religious Freedom Act, Standridge bill targets social media censorship Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK Staff Report OKLAHOMA CITY – Play-based learning is a step closer to becoming an integral part of Oklahoma’s early childhood education experience as the Oklahoma Play To Learn Act overwhelmingly passed the House on Tuesday (March 9) after a vote of 76-16.
www.CapitolBeatOK.com Play to Learn Act Passes House, becoming eligible for Senate consideration Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK Staff Report
OKLAHOMA CITY – Legislation to streamline the process for juvenile record expungements passed the House on Monday (March 10) with a bipartisan vote of 86 to 9.
According to a press release from legislative staff, sent to The City Sentinel and other news organizations, House Bill 1799, authored by Rep. Nicole Miller, R-Edmond, “would encourage the juvenile, their parents or guardian, or their attorney, to seek juvenile expungement. This would allow Oklahomans to begin the juvenile record expungement orally or through a written petition at the time the case is being dismissed, instead of waiting until they turn 21.”
Rep. Miller explained further, “Many people believe that juvenile records are automatically confidential. This legislation would simplify the process for Oklahomans to have their juvenile records sealed.”
Rep. José Cruz, D-Oklahoma City, a coauthor of the legislation, said H.B. 1799 is a chance to remove obstacles for Oklahomans trying to succeed, while also prioritizing public safety.
“This legislation doesn’t change the circumstances in which a court can access expunged records,” Cruz said in the House release.
“What it does is remove barriers to employment, education, and housing. To a lot of Oklahomans doing their best to improve their circumstance, this policy change could be the difference in failure and success.”
As a result of this week’s votes, H.B. 1799 became eligible to be heard on the Senate floor.
www.City-Sentinel.com
Juvenile Expungement Legislation Passes Oklahoma House of Representatives Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
Staff Report
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma House of Representatives on Wednesday (March 10) overwhelmingly passed House Bill 1679, sending to the state Senate the proposal, also known as the “Sarah Stitt Act.” Oklahoma House of Representatives Unanimously Approves Sarah Stitt Act, Sen. Weaver to shepherd in state Senate Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
Staff Report
OKLAHOMA CITY – A release from the Senate communications staff affirmed, “Low turnout is far too common in local school board elections, but that trend would change thanks to a bill approved Wednesday (March 10) by the Oklahoma Senate.”
According to the release sent to CapitolBeatOK.com and other news organizations, Senate Bill 962, from Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, would align school board election dates with the dates of primary and general election dates for county, state and federal offices. (http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2021-22%20FLR/SFLR/SB962%20SFLR.PDF)
Treat said low turnout in school board elections is due to those elections happening outside of the traditional election season dates.
“Participation in local school board elections is woefully inadequate. That’s troubling because school boards have the greatest impact on our communities and our state’s future,” said Treat, R-Oklahoma City.
“Aligning school board general elections with county, state and federal general elections will bring increased voter participation in these important local elections that help determine the direction and governance of our schools.”
S.B. 962 now advances to the Oklahoma House of Representatives where the primary House author is Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka.
Senate approves bill aimed at increasing voter participation in school board elections Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK |
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