John Thompson
| Guest Columnist
There have been so many recent headlines about Oklahoma’s rankings in terms of quality of life that it is difficult to keep them all straight. Some of these ratings are imperfect, but they certainly are a cause for alarm. A few give reasons for hope, some point to a clear path for improvements, but other headlines, such as the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, reveal a recipe for disaster.
The most encouraging news involves Oklahoma City, which U.S. News and World Report ranked as the nation’s 16th best place to live. OKC has the nation’s 10th fastest-growing housing market. And, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt “highlighted plans to bring the 2028 Olympics to the city, new development in south OKC and efforts to end homelessness,” and gave a “shout-out” to the Oklahoma-based film industry. Holt, a Republican, has also praised the Biden administration, as well as then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which has invested more than $100 million of federal funds in Oklahoma City.
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Other great news was reported in the Journal Record’s “Oklahoma Boasts the Lowest Cost of Living in the U.S.” It explains that Oklahoma housing costs are nearly 1/3 less than the national average, thus “drawing homebuyers from other states for the past few years, especially employees who can keep their job on the coasts and work remotely.”
And another U.S. News and World Report survey ranks the state 23rd in its economy, 26th in fiscal stability and 26th in opportunity. But Oklahoma has done a terrible job in investing in opportunity for all, which is something we could afford to do. We rank 49th in education, which is an essential investment if we want to maintain the influx of talent into the state. We also rank 49th in health care, which is one reason why Oklahoma ranks so low (44th) in life expectancy.
Oklahoma is blessed with wonderful nonprofits that advocate for science-based, humane social and public health policies that the Legislature and the governor refuse to properly fund. For instance, in the 2024 KIDS COUNT® Data Book Oklahoma ranked 46th overall for child well-being, 39th in economic well-being, 40th in family and community context, 45th in health and 49th in education.
Moreover, Oklahoma ranked in the bottom 10 on eight of 16 indicators:
Percent of children in povertyPercent of fourth-graders who scored below proficient reading levelPercent of eighth-graders who scored below proficient math levelPercent of high school students not graduating on timePercent of children in families where household head lacks a high school diplomaPercent of children without health insurancePercent of children and teens ages 10 to 17 who are overweight or obeseTeen birth rate
And WalletHub ranks Oklahoma as the eighth-worst state for working moms.
Oklahoma has also done an awful job of regulating industries and protecting people from climate change. Our state government seems to ignore predictions that Oklahoma is ranked fourth-worst in terms of drought threats. And Oklahoma City scored an 88 out of 100 risk of extreme heat. Three of the nation’s dirtiest lakes are in Oklahoma. And Oklahoma is the sixth-most expensive state for home insurance, which is increasing due to weather effects from climate change. This is a result of the state’s failure to better regulate insurance companies. For instance, Garfield County has a “relatively low” level of risk, but the “typical Enid homeowner” spent more than six times the national average on insurance.
Moreover, despite grassroots efforts to reform Oklahoma’s criminal justice system, progress has been minimal. We remain fourth in states’ incarceration rates. Worse, when incarceration rates include incarceration rates in prisons, jails, immigration detention centers, and juvenile justice facilities, our rate is higher than that of any democratic country on earth.
I could go on and on about coverage of bad news getting worse. And I shouldn’t neglect the Forbes Advisor report that Oklahoma drivers are fourth-worst in the nation in road rage and confrontational behaviors.
That quirky statistic surprised me because I’ve long seen Oklahomans as decent, caring people. I must admit, however, I’ve been dismayed by the cruelty I’ve witnessed recently. For instance, we are under attack by advocates for Project 2025, which seeks to undermine our government, as opposed to addressing the problems that are growing worse.
I keep asking why Oklahoma can’t do a better job of building on our strengths, as opposed to ramping up the right wing’s politics of destruction.
But, that bring us back to Oklahoma City’s success in attracting talent. It is the combination of our neighborliness, and increasing diversity and cosmopolitanism, propelled, for instance, by the arts and places for community activities. Those qualities and opportunities didn’t just appear on their own. Investments like MAPS and MAPS for Kids were essential to the metro area’s quality of life.
So, I hope a new wave of headlines will come to the state because we learned from Oklahoma City and started building on our strengths, rejected the politics of retribution, and invested accordingly.
John Thompson is a former award-winning teacher at the former John Marshall High School and Centennial Mid-High School.
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Publish date : 2024-09-06 01:00:00
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