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On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to hold an interim study on tuition and fee increases within our university system in Oklahoma. Due to time constraints, it was broken into two meetings, the second of which will conclude next Tuesday at the Capitol at 11 A.M. should you wish to attend.
It was stated by staff from the State Regents that 236,000 students are currently enrolled in the higher education system in Oklahoma. Numbers given by them show the amount for appropriations for financial aid is roughly $91 million for FY 2009, which comes out of our $7 billion budget. Roughly half the state budget currently goes to educational programs. This was an area the committee certainly felt needed to be addressed. We also saw that veterans and military personnel in combat situations are often affected by income caps placed on Oklahoma’s Promise qualifications. Oklahoma’s Promise is the program used to fund state assistance to students with income needs and who meet certain academic requirements. This was amended this past legislature to fund these scholarships before any other program can be given state dollars. We will be reviewing this since only tuition can be covered through this and no fees are allowed to be paid from this program.
Another event I had the opportunity to attend was the wrap-up breakfast of the Oklahoma State School Board Association and Cooperative Council of Oklahoma School Administration. Read more…
By Rep. Jason Murphey
How can you tell the difference between those politicians who have sold out and bought into the “government as usual” status-quo, and the elected officials who remain representatives of the people? During past columns, I have described two of the criteria that I have formed, based on observing the political process. In my next two columns, I would like to explain the third, and I believe most important, criteria that best defines the difference between these two groups.
In recent years, local, state and federal government has placed a heavy burden of taxation on the people in Oklahoma. You might think that having all of these financial resources would mean that the government would not ever have to ask the people for more funding.
In the free market, the consumer rewards those businesses that do a good job by buying their products. Businesses are thus rewarded for having the best products at the lowest possible prices. And those who work in the business world are forced to work hard and perform well for their consumers. If they stop working hard, the result will be that consumers will stop buying their products and those businesses will cease to exist.
In the government world, those who run the government do not have to react to free market forces. Consumers (we, the people) are forced to use government services no matter what the quality is — and we are also forced to pay the bill. Even if the government does not perform to our satisfaction, it will still exist; and rarely does the price of government go down. Read more…
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