StateImpact Oklahoma

Population growth, short housing supply and slow wage growth are threatening the city's affordability. Artists, who suffered lost gigs and fewer opportunities throughout the pandemic, are feeling the strain.

Federal relief money for the coronavirus has injected more than $1 billion into Oklahoma’s public schools. StateImpact’s Robby Korth reports that in many places, it’s giving schools a chance to catch up on much needed infrastructure improvements.

School board meetings used to be pretty boring. But now they’ve become a battleground over big political topics like the coronavirus and race. StateImpact’s Robby Korth reports with The Oklahoman’s Nuria Martinez-Keel on what’s happening at these meetings in Oklahoma.

A national food shortage means lunchrooms across Oklahoma are short on much of what they need to serve students. StateImpact’s Robby Korth reports on the efforts child nutrition employees make to ensure kids are fed.

As thousands of Oklahomans battled COVID-19 in ICUs earlier this year, hospitals’ demand for liquid oxygen skyrocketed. The strain highlighted supply chain and infrastructure challenges inside and outside the medical system.

Earlier this week, the ACLU announced it would lead a coalition of civil rights and educational groups suing Oklahoma over its controversial critical race theory ban in federal court. StateImpact’s Robby Korth talked with ACLU of Oklahoma legal director and attorney Megan Lambert about the legal action.

Host: Earlier this month Oklahoma School for the Deaf unveiled a fresh logo featuring their new Bison mascot. StateImpact’s Robby Korth reports the Bison name flips a new page in the storied history of Oklahoma’s school for deaf students. NEWSPAPER CLIPPING PAGE FLIP RK: John Reinenger is thumbing through a book of old newspaper clippings. The pages are from his days as a student at Oklahoma Schoo...

In a weekly update to state agencies, the Oklahoma State Department of Health warned that strain has led to cutbacks. It reads, in part, "Urgent care centers are reporting decreased hours or are shutting down due to inability to serve patient volume or redirect staff to other facilities to support increase in patients." Like all other health providers, the centers are experiencing staff shortages,...

Dr. Cameron Webb is the senior policy adviser on COVID-19 equity on the White House’s response team. After federal regulators approved Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for booster doses, Webb talked with StateImpact about who should get the third dose and why.

A growing number of schools around Oklahoma are starting to mandate masks in their hallways, with opt out provisions. StateImpact’s Robby Korth takes us inside the first public school in Oklahoma to require masks this semester.

Dr. Mary Clarke says there's an age-old problem: doctors don't talk about their own problems. She is the president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association. That group saw trouble coming. Doctors, who already tend to struggle with mental health, started dealing with something plaguing all of us for the past 18 months: the pandemic. Financial struggles, family separation and more created even...

Early childhood education is something Oklahoma has traditionally done well. But as parents fear the effects of COVID-19 on their youngest children, the state is seeing a steep drop in the number of students enrolled in Pre-K and kindergarten programs. StateImpact’s Robby Korth reports on the decline.

As the school year started in August, cases of COVID-19 among teachers and students grew across Oklahoma. StateImpact's Robby Korth and KOSU's Kateleigh Mills spoke with an Oklahoma City metro teacher named Anna about her experience catching the coronavirus and missing more than a week of classes.

About every other person in Oklahoma can't get dental insurance. Nonprofits scramble to fill in the gaps, caring for people who come in with broken teeth, painful abscesses and worse. State officials took a major step in ramping up access this year, opening preventative coverage to adults enrolled in SoonerCare.

The Biden administration lashed out at Oklahoma’s policies limiting mask wearing in a letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt and state schools superintendent Joy Hofmeister Wednesday. StateImpact’s Robby Korth sat down with Hofmeister to discuss its contents and Oklahoma City Public Schools’ masking requirement rules, Thursday. In a statement sent by a spokesman, Gov. Stitt says Oklahomans want to make their...

School is in session across Oklahoma, even as the pandemic continues to rage and the Delta variant impacts more and more children. Managing editor Logan Layden sat down with StateImpact reporters Robby Korth and Catherine Sweeney for a discussion on the disruptions already occurring. 

People who are personally affected when justice is denied will never think about the state's courts and law enforcement in the same way. StateImpact’s Quinton Chandler reports wrongful convictions can do long lasting harm and change how individual Oklahomans view the criminal justice system.

As the school year draws nearer, COVID-19 is not the only disease putting pressure on Oklahoma’s children’s hospitals. Across the state, kids are being admitted amid an unseasonable surge in respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. With demand already high, a back-to-school spike in COVID-19 could create a strain on pediatric beds.

Oklahoma is making a big bet on helping students in the wake of a year interrupted by the coronavirus with mental health supports. StateImpact’s Robby Korth travels to Poteau to report how the district is leveraging a $35 million program to hire hundreds of counselors in schools across the state.

An advisory group hired consultants to find structural solutions to some of the Oklahoma County's Detention Center's longest running problems.

More than 100,000 Oklahomans have already enrolled in the program, which provides health coverage to low-income adults.

House Bill 1775 was supposed to do a lot of things: Ban critical race theory, ensure white students aren’t shamed for actions of their ancestors and limit difficult conversations in the classroom. But the actual effects are unclear. StateImpact’s Robby Korth sat down with Oklahoma State School Boards Association attorney Brandon Carey to discuss what the new law means for educators and students.

An Oklahoma lawmaker's belief that an innocent man is on death row inspired him to call for the creation of a special unit to review death penalty convictions.

A school year like no other has now led to a summer like no other for Oklahoma students. StateImpact’s Robby Korth traveled to Stillwater to see how schools are incorporating fun and going back to basics to get students ready for a more typical fall.

When a constituent first came came in to advocate for needle exchange programming, Oklahoma State Rep. Carol Bush wasn't sure what to think. That didn't sound like the kind of policy likely to succeed in Oklahoma's deeply conservative statehouse. She and other supporters focused on the policy's public safety benefits and leaned on famous Republicans who have supported similar legislation, includin...