Small: OSSAA abuses merit lawmakers’ response

OSSAA abuses merit lawmakers’ response

By Jonathan Small

Oklahoma law allows “open transfer,” meaning any student in Oklahoma can attend any public school with room. But the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) too often prevents transfer students from playing sports, effectively undermining the open-transfer law. OSSAA board members, who are mostly school superintendents, often see “recruiting” whenever a competitor school might get transfers.

The OSSAA recently barred four teenage boys from playing basketball for Glencoe, alleging recruitment because the boys have long known new Glencoe basketball coach Garrett Schubert and his son, Maddox.

The OSSAA’s Board of Directors voted 12–0 to declare the four boys ineligible. The boys’ families filed a lawsuit on Aug. 14.

Small: Protecting pension progress

Protecting pension progress

By Jonathan Small

Oklahoma was once ranked among the worst states in the nation when it came to the financial stability of our state pensions. That meant many state workers, including teachers, were at risk of reaching retirement without sufficient income to live out their golden years in comfort.

Fortunately, reforms that took full effect roughly a decade ago have now made Oklahoma a national model.

“What you did, starting in 2010 all the way to now, really is the gold standard for other states to look at,” said Caren Lock, a managing director with TIAA-CREF, a national financial services firm.

Small: If you hate the poor, raise the minimum wage

If you hate the poor, raise the minimum wage

By Jonathan Small

The gap between intentions and outcomes can be vast in politics, as the push to raise Oklahoma’s minimum wage demonstrates.

Proponents say they want to help struggling citizens at the bottom of the state’s economic ladder. But in practice, their wage-policy preference yanks that ladder out of the hands of those low-income workers, leaving them not only poor but also with far less opportunity for future advancement.

Why? Because the market still sets worker rates even when government planners pretend otherwise. If a minimum wage exceeds market value, it forces employers to simply reduce hiring, shift to automation, or move jobs to more business-friendly climates.

If you doubt it, look at California.

Small: On teacher pay, perception and reality often clash

On teacher pay, perception and reality often clash

By Jonathan Small

In a press release issued earlier this year, House Democratic Leader Cyndi Munson of Oklahoma City declared that Oklahoma ranks “last in the region for teacher pay.”

That claim may align with longstanding stereotype, but not with reality. By any measure, Oklahoma teacher pay is not the last in the region nor anywhere near the bottom. And nationally, our average teacher pay is in the middle-tier of states.

It’s not “right wing” entities making that claim, but data from liberal entities including the National Education Association (NEA), a teachers’ union, and the Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA), a lobbying entity employed by public schools.

Small: Court finds McGirt ruling has limits

Court finds McGirt ruling has limits

By Jonathan Small

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which held that the pre-statehood reservation of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation was never formally disestablished for purposes of federal criminal law, created vast uncertainty, particularly as other “reservations” were discovered.

The question facing Oklahomans: Would McGirt provide tribal governments with civil authority over the state and non-Indians?

Thankfully, the Oklahoma Supreme Court has now answered, “No.” Otherwise, McGirt would have created economic chaos and worse by cementing Oklahoma as place where there would be two sets of rules based on race, geography, demographic or political classification.

Small: Work requirements a win for taxpayers

Work requirements a win for taxpayers

By Jonathan Small

“Work” may be a four-letter word, but it’s not an obscenity. You wouldn’t know that based on the reaction of many liberals to the new work requirements for Medicaid.

To stay on Medicaid, the new law requires able-bodied adults with no children to spend only 80 hours per month either working, going to school, participating in a work program, or doing community service.

If you’re thinking, “That’s doesn’t seem too hard,” you’re right. To suggest these extremely lenient work requirements are draconian is nonsense.

Small: Court finds discrimination is wrong

Court finds discrimination is wrong

By Jonathan Small

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that discrimination is wrong. That may surprise Ibram Kendi disciples but not any Oklahoman with an ounce of common sense.

(Kendi is the author of “How to be an Antiracist” and notoriously declared that “racial discrimination is not inherently racist” and the “only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.”)

Marlean Ames, a white woman, began working for the Ohio Department of Youth Services in 2004. In 2019, she applied for a management position that ultimately went to a lesbian woman. The agency subsequently demoted Ames from her role as a program administrator and hired a gay man to take her place. Ames sued the agency, alleging she was denied the management promotion and demoted because of her sexual orientation.

Small: Congress should end tax loophole for foreign businesses

Congress should end tax loophole for foreign businesses

By Jonathan Small

The “double drawback” loophole is a technical policy within federal trade law that is not widely known, yet it has a surprising connection to Oklahoma. The repeal of this loophole was included in the version of the One Big, Beautiful Bill that passed the House, but is missing from the Senate version of the bill.

That needs to change.

Here’s how the loophole works.

OCPA urges regents to end discredited training for teachers

OCPA urges regents to end discredited training for teachers

OKLAHOMA CITY (June 19, 2025)—Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs President Jonathan Small today called on Oklahoma’s college regents to end the use or promotion of teacher-training programs that rely on the discredited “three-cueing” method, which teaches children to guess words based on associated pictures rather than sound them out phonetically.

The three-cueing method has been criticized for years as research has shown it does not help children become literate, and in 2024 Oklahoma law was updated to explicitly prohibit the use of three-cueing instruction in state public schools. Many other states have also banned three-cueing.

Small: No need for college tuition increases

No need for college tuition increases

By Jonathan Small

This year, legislators provided more than $1 billion in appropriations to Oklahoma colleges and universities. That negates any need for tuition increases. The question is whether university leaders will admit it (which, as of this writing, is NOT happening at the University of Oklahoma).

Unfortunately, college leaders don’t have a good track record of prioritizing affordability.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of college tuition/fees increased nationally by 1,518 percent from 1977 to 2024, which is close to twice the rate of inflation.

Small: Taxpayers shouldn’t subsidize idleness

Taxpayers shouldn’t subsidize idleness

By Jonathan Small

Oklahomans don’t mind providing a helping hand to those in true need. What they hate is paying for others’ idleness. In the view of Oklahomans, those who can work, should work.

That’s one of the major problems with the 2020 decision to expand Oklahoma’s Medicaid program to include able-bodied adults with no children, rather than confine the program to children, low-income pregnant women and the disabled.

That expansion has diverted hundreds of millions of state tax dollars away from other uses in the years since, and the price tag could explode by as much as $700 million per year if federal officials alter the state match for those able-bodied adults to roughly the same level as the state match for disabled people on Medicaid.

OCPA column: A successful session

A successful session

By Jonathan Small

The 2025 legislative session has provided many policy wins for Oklahomans, and it is evidence of the intentional efforts by lawmakers to pass meaningful reforms.

The success of this session owes much to the leadership of Gov. Kevin Stitt, House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, and Senate Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, as well as the hard work of many lawmakers.

House Bill 2764 cuts Oklahoma’s top income-tax rate from 4.75 percent to 4.5 percent and puts the income tax on a gradual path to zero. This will help Oklahoma remain competitive with other states while encouraging more investment and job creation in Oklahoma. State Sen. Micheal Bergstrom and state Rep. Mark Lepak, in particular, deserve credit for their work on this issue.

Small: A big win for children with special needs

A big win for children with special needs

By Jonathan Small

Since its creation in 2010, the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities (LNH) program has provided a lifeline to families whose children have special needs and cannot receive appropriate educational services in their local district.

Under longstanding Oklahoma law, local school districts receive additional state funds for each child with special needs. But that doesn’t always mean the extra money is used effectively. In the worst instances, public schools have effectively pocketed the extra cash without providing real benefit to the child with special needs.

That’s why the LNH program allows parents to use state funds allocated for their child’s education to pay for private-school tuition. The scholarships range from $4,196 to $22,236, based on a child’s diagnosis.

Small: The political fringe should not control petition process

The political fringe should not control petition process

By Jonathan Small

Supposed advocates of “good government” often decry low voter turnout, arguing that more citizens need to be involved in our political process.

Yet, for some reason, many of those same advocates hold a very different view when it comes to Oklahoma’s initiative petition process. When efforts are made to put a question before all Oklahoma voters, they are fine with largely excluding the vast majority of the state from the petition process.

Fortunately, state policymakers are not so shortsighted.

Small: Standing still is a poor strategy in state competition

Standing still is a poor strategy in state competition

By Jonathan Small

In politics, there is an unfortunate tendency among lawmakers to pass significant policy reforms … and then rest on their laurels.

Unfortunately, one year’s progress does not translate into permanent victory, as can be seen in the latest edition of the “Rich States, Poor States” report authored by economists Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Jonathan Williams.

The report ranks states in a variety of categories, including tax rates, workers’ compensation costs, and the number of public employees, among other policy variables.

In the latest edition, Oklahoma fell out of the top 10 states.

Small: Oklahoma needs regulatory reform

Oklahoma needs regulatory reform

By Jonathan Small

A major focus of this year’s legislative session centers on reducing excessive government regulation.

House Bill 2728, by state Rep. Gerrid Kendrix and state Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, would create the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2025.

Under the bill, any state agency rule with an economic impact of $1 million or more over a five-year period would face extra scrutiny and oversight from the Legislature.

Yet some question why Oklahoma needs this reform. The answer is simple: Because Oklahoma state agencies are as prone to overreach as government agencies in other parts of the country.

Small: Who’s funding lawsuits in Oklahoma?

Who’s funding lawsuits in Oklahoma?

by Jonathan Small

Everyone pays the cost of abusive tort lawsuits. The average cost of tort litigation to each Oklahoma family is $2,930, according to a report by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform.

One rapidly growing kind of lawsuit is “mass torts,” where plaintiffs’ lawyers claim that thousands of customers have been harmed. The strategy is to file as many cases as possible and flood the zone against the defendant business—and to overwhelm the courts. This provides frivolous cases cover, and it creates abusive pressure on defendants to settle.

Small: Time to fix court’s mistake on damage cap

Time to fix court’s mistake on damage cap

By Jonathan Small

This month, Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed a new Oklahoma Supreme Court justice, filling a position vacated when Oklahoma voters ousted longtime liberal incumbent Justice Yvonne Kauger last November.

Kauger was the first Oklahoma Supreme Court justice removed by voters in state history. That action came amidst growing voter dissatisfaction with the court’s increasingly liberal bent in recent years.

Among the most notable examples of that trend is a bizarre 2019 ruling striking down the state’s $350,000 cap on vague noneconomic-damages awards in lawsuits. Under that law, Oklahomans could sue for unlimited actual damages, such as lost wages, medical expenses, and lifelong costs from an injury. The bill simply capped the noneconomic-damages portion of lawsuits, an area notorious for “jackpot” justice awards that can far outpace economic reason.

Yet the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down that law, declaring it a “special law” since the cap applied in cases “where the plaintiff survives the injury-causing event, while persons who die from the injury-causing event face no such limitation.” (The Oklahoma Constitution prohibits capping noneconomic damages in cases involving death.)

The plaintiff in that case reportedly received $9.7 million in payment for an on-the-job accident but wanted millions more in “noneconomic” damages as well.

The negative impact of the court’s activist ruling has been significant.

In July 2019, a few months after the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling, the American Tort Reform Foundation ranked Oklahoma among the nation’s 10 worst “judicial hellholes.” The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision on noneconomic caps was one factor cited.

“The Economic and Fiscal Impact of Excessive Tort Costs on Oklahoma,” a study commissioned by the State Chamber Research Foundation and conducted by the Perryman Group, found that excessive tort costs have translated into the loss of $3.7 billion in state gross product each year and almost 32,000 jobs in Oklahoma.

The study estimated the share of state economic losses tied to the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s 2019 decision totaled nearly $2.7 billion in gross product from 2020 to 2023.

However, only one sitting justice remains who was among the majority that struck down the cap in 2019. A new court may look more favorably on the idea. Lawmakers should reinstate the cap, which is sensible and commonly used nationwide.

Eight other states have caps on broad noneconomic damages, while 26 states cap noneconomic damages in medical-malpractice cases. Furthermore, those laws typically exempt cases involving reckless disregard for the rights of others, gross negligence, fraud, or intentional or malicious conduct.

It’s time for Oklahoma to again cap noneconomic damages. Those injured as the result of others’ action would still have access to full financial restoration, but the cap would provide financial certainty for businesses and encourage more investment in Oklahoma.

That’s a win-win for everyone.

Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

Small: State tax competition is fierce

State tax competition is fierce

By Jonathan Small

Oklahoma is generally perceived as a lower-tax state, but unfortunately our tax on work and investment—the personal income tax—remains among the highest in the region and (increasingly) across the country.

That’s a problem because the income tax has outsized, negative impact on investment and job creation.

Oklahoma’s personal income tax has been cut from 7 percent in the 1990s to 4.75 percent today, but other states’ leaders are not twiddling their thumbs.

OCPA praises approval of initiative-petition reforms

OCPA praises approval of initiative-petition reforms

OKLAHOMA CITY (April 8, 2025)—Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs President Jonathan Small today praised members of the House Elections and Ethics Committee for advancing common-sense initiative petition reforms.

“Senate Bill 1027 would increase public transparency and also require that proposed ballot measures receive support from Oklahomans across the state before being placed before voters,” Small said. “These are common-sense reforms with broad appeal. House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, state Senator David Bullard, and Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, in particular, deserve praise for taking on this important issue. It’s notable that the main opponents of these reforms want Oklahoma to adopt a California-style election system that has often excluded Republicans from statewide elections in that state. Sometimes, you really can judge a man by his enemies.”