Skip to main content

10 New Years Resolutions for Oklahoma


The new year brings with it the promise of new beginnings. A chance to reset. To do better. In that spirit, 1889 offers the following resolutions to policymakers across the state. 


1. Reduce occupational licensing
This originally read “End (or greatly reduce) occupational licensing,” but let’s be a little more realistic. If Oklahoma would even start moving the right direction (that is, shrinking the number of occupations for which a license is required, instead of growing it), it would be a huge win for the state. It would improve the overall economy. It would allow more people to find a job they are good at. Government rarely gets a shot at such an obvious win-win. 

2. Reduce the number of branches of government to a manageable number. 
We will follow John Adams’ lead and suggest only three – legislative, executive, and judiciary – and recommend getting rid of the TSET, the Corporation Commission, and the host of other independent agencies with unelected oversight in Oklahoma. Agencies with no accountability to the executive or the legislature end up forgetting they are ultimately accountable to voters and taxpayers. When they don’t have to convince the legislature to fund them every year, and don’t answer for their jobs to the governor, agencies run amok and pursue their own goals. 

3. Teach students to read.
As 1889 has previously written, the evidence shows that phonics works for (nearly) every student. Whole word instruction does not. 

4. Open up school choice for all. 
We know that competition brings out the best in businesses. Why should schools be any different? And why should state funding be used to prop up failing local school districts? Let parents decide what school is right for their kids - whether it’s their local public school, a school in a nearby district, charter, or private. 

5. Prioritize classrooms when creating school budgets.
Research shows that past a certain minimum funding threshold, additional education dollars do very little to improve education outcomes, unless they are properly directed. There does not need to be a separate non-teaching employee for every teacher. 

6. Encourage high school students to graduate with 60 hours of college credit through policy changes.
This is the lowest hanging fruit on this list. Between Advanced Placement, CLEP, and online schools offering dual enrollment, every interested student should be able to leave high school with an associate’s degree, saving two years of tuition and getting them into the work force two years earlier. 

7. Fix the courts.
We’ve written about this one a lot. It starts with selecting the right judges. This requires a better selection method, including public access to the process and the right selection criteria, such as a commitment to interpreting the law, not creating policy. 1889 Institute favors a selection method based on the federal method where the governor nominates and the senate confirms, with a single, long term - somewhere in the range of 18 - 20 years. 

8. Stop gambling on ways to bring the next big big thing to Oklahoma.
By the time plodding bureaucrats get the next big thing, developed elsewhere, to come here, its pinnacle has already passed. Instead, make the state welcoming to all businesses. Create low tax rates with a broad bases. Preferably, eliminate the work-discouraging income tax. Taxation discourages the taxed activity. Production is hard. Consumption is easy. Taxing consumption will interfere less in the free market - consumers are less likely to under-consume because consumption is easy. 

9. Reject Obamacare Medicaid expansion.
How could anyone look at the mess Obamacare has created in other states and in the national economy and say “Yes, I want more of THAT!”? 

10. Set measurable goals for outcomes when creating or renewing spending programs.
Assume for a minute that eventually we really do run out of other people’s money. Shouldn’t we prioritize spending programs that do what they’re supposed to? Isn’t a good way of knowing which programs work to attach measurable outcomes to the spending, and measure those outcomes year after year? And wouldn’t it make sense to kill programs that don’t work or don’t work well enough to justify their cost? 

Oklahoma, we can do better this year.

Mike Davis is Research Fellow at 1889 Institute. He can be reached at mdavis@1889institute.org.


Popular posts from this blog

The Truth About COVID-19: Better Than You Think

As the media turns its attention back to COVID-19, there is a renewed push to shut down the economy. Some states have even begun to scale back reopening plans for their economies; others continue to delay opening. It is essential to look past their catastrophizing and focus on the facts of COVID-19. One fact to consider: while testing has risen 23%, the rate of positive results has only risen 1.3 percentage points to 6.2%. Even as alarmists point to the rise in cases, they still admit that the boost in testing has played a role in the rise in the total number of known cases. Therefore, the total number of positive cases is not of much use in this case, as it only paints a partial picture. The rate of increase in total positive cases is a more meaningful measure, and it has barely increased. Even more important is who is getting infected. The data show that recent cases are primarily younger people. But that’s a good thing; these are precisely the people that are key to building herd ...

Present Reforms to Keep the Ghost of State Questions Past from Creating Future Headaches

Oklahoma, like many western states, allows its citizens to directly participate in the democratic process through citizen initiatives and referendums. In a referendum, the legislature directs a question to the people — usually to modify the state constitution, since the legislature can change statutes itself. An initiative requires no legislative involvement, but is initiated by the people via signature gathering, and can be used to modify statute or amend the constitution. Collectively, the initiatives and referendums that make it onto the ballot are known as State Questions.   Recently, there have been calls to make it more difficult to amend the constitution. At least two proposals are being discussed. One would diversify the signature requirement by demanding that a proportional amount of signatures come from each region of the state. The other would require a sixty percent majority to adopt a constitutional amendment rather than the fifty percent plus one currently in place. ...

Cronyism: Feature, Not a Bug, for Used Car Dealer Licensing

Used car dealers in Oklahoma are governed by the Oklahoma Used Motor Vehicle and Parts Commission (UMPV). Like most licensing boards, it is made up of industry insiders. The UMVP's stated mission is to protect consumers from harm, but its structure and history indicate that its primary concern might be protecting licensed dealers from competition. This, of course, is the prime directive of all licensing boards. My recent paper deals with the licensing of used car dealers.   The person hit hardest by this is the hobbyist, especially in times of economic turmoil.   Imagine someone stuck at home due to coronavirus. We'll call him Frank. He can’t work due to the economic shutdown. Unfortunately, Frank’s lack of work does not mean he no longer has to put food on the table for his family. Fortunately for him, he is able to find a good deal on a used car that needs a little work. Frank has all the tools and garage space necessary to fix up the car and isn't violating any quar...

COVID Inspires Tyranny for the "Good" of Its Victims

The Christian philosopher, C.S. Lewis, once said, "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies." The moral busybodies C.S Lewis warns of reminds me of those who would have Americans give up their liberty to combat COVID-19.   A recent Oklahoman op-ed compared COVID-19 to World War II, stating that the number of deaths from COVID-19 is approaching the number that died fighting for this country and the freedoms it protects. This comparison is, of course, nonsense. This suggests that a virus with a high survivability rate is an equivalent threat to the Nazi and Japanese regimes that brutally murdered millions. The piece uses wartime rationing of meat and cheese, a sacrifice necessary to ensure men on the front lines had adequate nutrition, to justify Americans accepting counterproductive lockdowns in exchange for additional stimulus c...