It’s a tricky situation for conservative lawmakers. They have created this narrative that’s it’s a bloated system and not a funding problem to distract from the actual issues. But they can’t even fix this made up “problem” because most of these lawmakers represent a lot of these rural districts. For most of these rural towns, the school system is the only remaining thing keeping these communities alive. There is no way these conservative lawmakers are going to touch that issue.
Think about it. Conservatives have held held the majority in every branch of govt for 15 years. If this was an actual solution, it would have been done by now. Ask yourself why they keep blaming administrative costs and done absolutely nothing about it. Not even one draft of a proposal.
They made up a false narrative that would rally their base and created talking point solutions with no real substance. The longer they can keep it going, the longer they hold their naive base together. They either know the answer and are afraid to say they were wrong, or they are just plain ignorant and stupid.... a dangerous combo.
Interesting that Oklahoma and Texas are not that far apart.
Interesting that Oklahoma and Kansas are that far apart.
"Some states shine in health care. Some soar in education. Some excel in both – or in much more. The Best States ranking of U.S. states draws on thousands of data points to measure how well states are performing for their citizens. In addition to health care and education, the metrics take into account a state’s economy, its roads, bridges, internet and other infrastructure, its public safety, the fiscal stability of state government, and the opportunity it affords its residents.
More weight was accorded to some state measures than others, based on a survey of what matters most to people. Health care and education were weighted most heavily. Then came state economies, infrastructure, and the opportunity states offer their citizens. Fiscal stability followed closely in weighting, followed by measures of crime & corrections and a state's natural environment."
They have the full breakdown on the link. I take these lists with a grain of salt anyways. I only found it while browsing through SLC development page on SSP forum.
At least there are a couple of well run Republican states with that being Utah and Nebraska.
^^^^ that’s a good point. That is weird.
North Dakota is a O&G state, and #15
Kansas really benefits from having the KCMO suburbs, including some of the most affluent ones, within the state. That typically helps the state tremendously in rankings. Imagine if DFW was a little farther north and suburbs like Plano and Frisco were in Oklahoma. That's what Kansas gets to benefit from.
As far as Texas, it's almost a tale of two states down there. The urban areas are booming, but the rural parts of the state pull a lot of weight as well and things aren't as rosy there.
I think it's a lot broader to explain than Kansas City. I think people in the entire central and northern plains know better how to make government work for them along with more individuals knowing how to run their own lives without becoming negative statistics. In Oklahoma try not to become a statistic.
Speaking of the urban/rural divide, one Republican Logan County Commissioner would like rural areas to have more representation by redoing how state senators would be represented, so there would be 77 of them, one for each county. He thinks that way the rural needs of the county commissioners would be taken more seriously. I think that scheme would only give rural people even more representation in an unfair way. I doubt urban voters in a statewide vote would approve it. If rural voters think their roads are worse than ever, then they need to yell louder to their legislators. Only a very small portion of the $230 million swiped from the County Road and Bridge Fund has been restored.
I’m not a keen observer of Kansas, but what I recall reading the last few years about their government indicated to me that Governor Sam Brownback and tea party forces had pushed through draconian tax and spending cuts that crippled education and other state services. They failed miserably, got voted out of office and the State Supreme Court is still overseeing the education system. They have just begun trying to move forward.
I don’t about that. I’m noticing the rural areas many of which throughout large portions of the state much like Florida are staring to turn into a huge low density metropolis comprised of exurb after exurb for 100s of miles with some large ranches in between. It’s really nice development and isn’t run down. Lubbock, Amarillo, San Angelo, and Texarkana seem to be some decent investment going on with infrastructure and freeways getting a lot of attention. This will surely be the case if Lubbock gets its way and see I-27 extended to I-20. San Angelo could be poised to see I-27 AND I-14 in the coming decades.
Author has likely read a lot about the resource curse.
Which to make a long theory short, resource extraction raises wages and tax revenues, but then everything else gets more expensive and no one works in anything but resource extraction, so parlaying those gains into something more than just resource extraction is difficult, then the resource runs out and everything collapses.
Why Oklahoma never created and refuses to create, an endowment with the severance taxes which would to essentially ensure the revenue will stay forever is mind boggling but whatevs I suppose.
A positive way for Oklahoma to be in the Top 10 for something:
I saw this the other day. Either the economy is slowing down around the country or Oklahoma is really doing good. I'm not an economist so I don't know which it is but I am glad to see Oklahoma's expanding GDP!
Or it could mean that the previous quarter wasnt that good, so any improvement appears to be really good. Its only a snap shot of 6 months, so its not like its a huge deal. But it is good news.
Also interesting that Oklahoma and Kansas are far apart in economic growth. Not counting DC, Oklahoma is ranked 14th while Kansas is 45.
https://apps.bea.gov/itable/drilldow...ill=1&nRange=5
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