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Right Thinking: Sensible compromises lead to layup budget Andrew C. Spiropoulos A layup may seem like a guaranteed basket, but, as basketball fans know, even professional players sometimes miss the easiest of shots. The game of government also has its layups, and, like in basketball, you shouldn’t take making them for granted. From the look of last week’s announced budget agreement, state Republican political leaders made their shot, earning some cheers. Republican leaders possess enormous ...

Right Thinking: OU’s hard turn collides with politics Andrew C. Spiropoulos If our political and intellectual culture were healthy, it is likely that state legislative leaders would never even have considered interfering in the operation of state universities or how university students are oriented or counseled. The foundation of university education is intellectual freedom – the freedom to study, teach, discuss, and write about any idea, no matter how offensive or dangerous some may think ...

You can’t inflate your way to real wealth – you have to produce it.

Right Thinking: So much more for legislators to learn Andrew C. Spiropoulos Some state legislators think they and their colleagues should be trained in the meaning and importance of diversity and inclusion. This is a serious idea that should be given careful consideration. And there are other important subjects in which legislators should receive training. I would dearly love for legislators to be trained in the meaning of our nation’s constitutional principles. I would like them, for example...

Right Thinking: OKC schools in crisis well before pandemic Andrew C. Spiropoulos We just held school board elections in Oklahoma City and you couldn’t tell by who ran for office or the campaign discussions that the school district is mired in a historic crisis, and if dramatic changes aren’t made, the damage may be irreparable. Even before the coronavirus landed, the district, in the previous five years, lost 5,000 students, a decline of almost 13%. In the same period, enrollment increased,...

Right Thinking: Taxpayers should put students, families before schools Andrew C. Spiropoulos Education establishment apologists who insist that public support for school choice programs is a radical idea don’t seem to know that throughout the world, in nations as disparate as Australia, Chile, India, and Germany, public subsidy of private schooling is the norm, not the exception. In Australia, for example, 35% of students attend publicly supported private schools. In Chile, 53% of students at...

If, as I suspect, at the end of the day, most Oklahomans will conclude that the events of the last year mostly vindicated the judgment of the governor and the

How is it possible, we all wonder, for a state awash in natural resources to run out of energy at precisely the time in which we need it the most?

If, as our newly elected officials claim, we truly wish to live together in relative harmony, the American constitutional regime, faithfully followed, enables

Right Thinking: Tribalism tearing at nation’s seams Andrew C. Spiropoulos The inexcusable mob violence that plagues our nation, reaching even into the sacred precincts of our national legislature, is the concrete manifestation of a profound social illness. If we do not understand and treat the cancer that is eating its way through our communal fabric, it will kill our society. Our problem is not political disagreement – any democracy expects, and should welcome, political disputes, even hea...