StateImpact Oklahoma

Many educators in Oklahoma say the teacher walkout awakened them to the importance of staying informed, and voting. Now, these teachers, principals and school officials are not only working to educate themselves, but are also organizing into groups with the goal of enacting widespread political change.

Air ambulances take patients to the nearest hospital, which often means crossing state lines. But a legal quirk means paying for a life-saving flight can lead to financial ruin.

Oklahoma police and medical marijuana supporters are arguing over State Question 788 — a question on Tuesday’s primary election ballot that could legalize medical marijuana. Advocates say marijuana can be powerful medicine. Police are worried legalization will threaten public safety.

This past legislative session lawmakers passed a $430 million tax package in order to fund teacher pay raises. Now a group called Oklahoma Taxpayers Unite is working to overturn the tax increases. This has created a lot of uncertainty for school leaders who now wonder if they'll be able to afford the teacher raises they fought so hard for.

Gov. Mary Fallin on May 15 vetoed legislation that local sheriffs hoped would mean more money they say is owed to county jails. The veto is the latest volley in a long dispute over the local cost of the state’s corrections system that dates back to at least 2001.

Babies who start out life with a long hospital stay are especially vulnerable to secondhand smoke. A new program at one children’s hospital in Oklahoma focuses on changing attitudes, not placing blame when they ask parents a simple question: ‘Do you smoke?’

For some Oklahoma educators, the fight for more school funding didn’t stop when the teacher walkout ended. Many of them are now running for office in what’s shaping up to be a very busy election year. A record-breaking 794 people filed for various state offices — including at least 80 teachers that are promising to make school funding a priority.

Unlike some surrounding states, Oklahoma’s inmates can decide whether or not they want to be considered for parole. Roughly two out of three parole-eligible inmates choose not to go to their parole hearings, effectively disqualifying them for early release. State officials say this contributes to prison overcrowding and hurts inmates’ chances to avoid new convictions after they are released.  

An Oklahoma science teacher gave his high school students a challenge: Think outside the box and question common knowledge. One student did just that — and made a scientific discovery that changes some of chemistry’s most basic principles.

In June, Oklahomans will vote on medical marijuana, and many people are asking - how has this worked in other states? StateImpact reporters discuss some of the big questions people have about medical cannabis legalization, and what effects it’s had in other states.

The state’s market for engineering and technology jobs is growing, but Oklahoma students lag behind national averages on science and math test scores. Researchers say one way to fix this gap is training science educators to do more than teach the facts — and to think beyond the textbook.

Oklahoma wants to go where no state has gone before: Executing death row inmates with nitrogen gas. Officials say nitrogen will bring quick, painless deaths, but the research is slim — and it has never been used in U.S. executions.

It’s hard to get basic health care like shots and x-rays in rural Oklahoma. The federal government considers all but one of the state’s 77 counties to have a primary care shortage. The problem is driving a legislative effort to allow highly educated nurses to fill that gap — but doctors and nurse practitioners are butting heads on who is qualified to help.

The Oklahoma teacher walkout and educators’ demands for more school funding dominates the news. It's unclear if lawmakers are willing to meet those demands and quell daily protests. One lingering question: If schools get more money, what happens to other state agencies and workers who need funding, too?

After months of gridlock and failed deal-making, the Oklahoma House and Senate have passed a nearly $450 million tax package designed to fund raises for teachers and avoid statewide school closures. Gov. Mary Fallin said she’ll sign the tax package, which fell short of teachers’ demands. Educators still plan to march at the Capitol April 2 to pressure lawmakers to spend more on schools and public...

Oklahoma church members are flocking to training classes led by state security experts and considering carrying guns. At the same time, state lawmakers are considering legislation to extend legal protections to churchgoers who use lethal force.

New research suggests people with intellectual disabilities are being turned down for organ transplants because of their disability. A growing effort to take human bias out of the decision highlights a little-known area of medicine.

Many Oklahoma educators are fed up with state lawmakers who have promised teacher pay raises for years but have failed to actually deliver. At their wits end, these teachers are now planning to walk out of their classrooms to push legislators to act.

For more than a decade, Oklahoma embraced the wind industry with both arms and a suite of incentives and tax breaks. The state is now the country’s No. 2 wind producer but an oil crash and budget crisis has pushed lawmakers to pull back the economic welcome mat.

In Oklahoma, there are about 6,000 people protected under the DACA policy. An 18-year-old high school student named Suzeth is one of them.

Oklahoma’s prisons are bursting at the seams. A state task force charged with reforming the state’s justice system discovered that thousands of new inmates are locked up for violating the terms of their probation. To slow prison growth, the group recommended making prison a last resort for probation and parole violators.

About 7.8 percent of babies born in Oklahoma are low birth weight, which translates to roughly 4,000 of 50,000 annual births, Kinney says. Many of the babies don’t have a significant health problem, so their weights likely could have been improved by outside factors, like money. Research suggests increasing the minimum wage could lead to few low-birth-weight births.