Op-ed: Oklahoma must stop forcing students into DEI Classes

Oklahoma Must Stop Forcing Students into DEI Classes 

By Timothy K. Minella 

 

President Donald Trump has demolished federal subsidies for radical “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programming. But until state lawmakers in Oklahoma act as well, students will still be forced to take courses intended to indoctrinate them in the poisonous ideology behind DEI.  

Oklahoma’s public universities are not immune from the destructive effects of DEI. In December 2023, Governor Kevin Stitt issued an executive order prohibiting discriminatory DEI programs at public universities in Oklahoma. President Trump’s recent executive orders targeted these discriminatory practices at the federal level. But despite these welcome actions, DEI still maintains a strong and toxic presence in Oklahoma’s universities through course requirements that force students into politicized DEI courses simply to obtain a degree. 

Column: SB734 is a prescription for lower-quality care

Price Controls Are Bad Medicine for Vulnerable Americans
by Naomi Lopez and Rafael Fonseca, MD

Senate Bill 734 would establish price controls on cutting-edge drug treatments, making it illegal for any health plan to purchase drug treatments where the price exceeded a government-determined reference price. This would apply to state government programs, as well as all private employer-sponsored health plans that cover Oklahomans. These price controls would be based on drug prices found in Canada, a country that explicitly rations care under its socialized medicine system to keep costs down. Put simply, that system is an innovation-killer — and should Senate Bill 734 become law, Oklahomans will be getting a prescription for lower-quality care.

While it may sound appealing to reduce the cost of prescription drug treatments, this proposal would be doing so at the expense of access to the newest, most effective drug treatments. In Canada, a new treatment cannot be sold for more than other drugs in the same therapeutic class, even if it results in better health care outcomes or avoids other costly interventions like surgery and hospitalization. That means that access to the newest treatments are often delayed for Canadian patients by months or, in some cases, years.

1889 Institute, Goldwater Institute publish alternative to occupational licensing

1889 INSTITUTE, GOLDWATER INSTITUTE JOINTLY PUBLISH PAPER

There’s a better way to ensure occupational quality—without relying on the government.

OKLAHOMA CITY (November 15, 2018) – Today, the government plays the role of granting occupational licenses to professionals, supposedly to protect consumers and ensure quality services. But as a new paper jointly published by the Goldwater Institute (Phoenix, AZ) and the 1889 Institute shows, there’s a better, modern alternative to the government-run system that benefits consumers and professionals alike.

In their new report, A Win-Win for Consumers and Professionals Alike: An Alternative to Occupational Licensing, Byron Schlomach, director of the Oklahoma-based 1889 Institute, and the Goldwater Institute’s Christina Sandefur and Dr. Murray Feldstein explain that private certification would produce information benefits for consumers and service providers without the existing government monopoly on licensing.

“If you’ve ever used Yelp to find a good restaurant, or Angie’s List to find a good plumber, then you know how important it can be to get accurate information about sellers and products. Occupational licensing is supposed to provide that—a confirmation that the seller will provide a reliable product or service—but that often doesn’t happen without other costs, like reduced supply, higher prices, and compromised quality,” Schlomach said.

The paper proposes private certification as an alternate solution to government licensing. Private certification provides the best of all worlds: It protects consumers from fraud, encourages the creation of reliable sources of shorthand information to help both professionals and consumers, and it gives privately certified sellers the incentive to keep their quality high in order to keeps their certification credible.

A model bill included in the paper offers a voluntary system to complement the existing traditional occupational licensing process. It would allow private certifying organizations to register with the state, privately certify individuals to practice an occupation according to the organization’s practices, and employ modern technology, including consumer-rating systems using smartphone applications, to protect consumers. Such a system would create an element of competition, allowing certifying organizations to vie to provide the highest-quality credential.

The paper can be found here, with additional work on occupational licensing here.