BY DAVID PERRYMAN What do low self-esteem, depression, mental health and a high teen pregnancy rate have in common? If your answer was Oklahoma, you are eons ahead of 56 members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. That is the number of men and women who last week voted against HB 1007, which would have…
BY JOHN THOMPSON Even many of the staunchest pro-charter corporate reformers are criticizing virtual charters for their poor outcomes and draining resources from public schools. For instance, Todd Ziebarth of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, criticizes the high rates of “churn” they contribute to, their low graduation rates, and low levels of student…
BY DAVID PERRYMAN In 1907 the people of Oklahoma chose to establish a form of state government in which directors of agencies were chosen to run those agencies based on qualifications. To accomplish this task, agency board members were likewise appointed based on knowledge, experience and qualifications. Like most early 20thCentury Americans, Oklahomans did not…
BY DAVID PERRYMAN The classic 1948 John Huston film Treasure of the Sierra Madre stands at No. 30 on the American Film Institute’s all-time best movie list. It is an iconic adaption of B. Travens’ novel of the same name. True to Travens’ form, the plot examines “oppressed and exploited” characters whose life experiences have left…
BY DAVID PERRYMAN Prior to Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1792, processing cotton had been a low-profit, labor-intensive drag on the agriculture industry of the American South. In fact, most early Americans believed [and many hoped] that rock bottom cotton prices would never sustain the long-term viability of the “peculiar institution” of…
