A collection of recent editorials from Oklahoma newspapers:
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The Oklahoman, June 11, 2015
U.S. Rep. Steve Russell: VA’s core mission needs to be altered
U.S. Rep. Steve Russell has spent most of his adult life in the military. He’s proud of his service and clearly cares about the men and women who defend the United States. So his views regarding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs deserve attention.
“Talk about waste and fraud,” Russell, R-Oklahoma City, told The Oklahoman editorial board in a recent meeting. “I have come to the view that the VA can no longer be reformed.” He added, “I don’t know that you completely blow it up, but you blow up big portions of it.”
The VA has become notorious for routine failure to provide quality medical care, and its reputation for financial boondoggles only continues to grow. Exhibit A in that latter category is what Russell calls “this ridiculous hospital in Colorado.” Officials at the VA recently announced that they needed nearly $830 million to complete a medical center under construction in Aurora. The total cost of that center is now expected to hit $1.73 billion - almost three times the estimate given just last year.
“You could build the Sears Tower for that,” Russell said. “I mean, literally.”
Russell praised House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, for his recent decision to deny the VA’s request for additional funding for the Colorado facility.
As a result of the VA’s financial mismanagement and health care failures, Russell believes the agency’s core mission must be dramatically altered.
“I am now on the path to advocating that we remove any health care-providing piece out of the VA, and they just become an administration for veterans, and that we do it like Tricare or Medicare or Medicaid,” Russell said.
Effectively, that would mean the government would pay for military officials to use private-sector providers rather than depending upon government-run hospitals. As a U.S. Army retiree on Tricare, Russell noted that he can choose his own doctor while providing a co-pay. He notes the individuals enrolled in Tricare “fought the same wars, dealt with the same issues, had the same injuries” as those served by VA hospitals, yet they receive better health care treatment.
“They are providing us with health care insurance, for lack of a better term, and it’s working,” Russell said. “I haven’t seen any grievous issues with me or my family since the time I’ve been out of the service.”
Russell stresses that his views shouldn’t be taken as disparaging “the docs, the nurses and the health care providers that labor in the VA system, lovingly caring for our veterans. There are a lot of them and I’ve known many of them. That’s not to say that. But as an administration, it is broken - in capital letters.”
We hope Russell’s congressional colleagues join him in this effort. Those who serve in the military deserve the best medical care possible, and many of those individuals clearly aren’t getting it today.
At the same time, the VA’s woes are a cautionary tale. As Obamacare’s problems have continued to manifest, some on the political left have criticized that law for being too timid. They prefer a full-fledged government-run system - basically, VA hospitals for all.
But the VA proves that government-run hospitals don’t produce widespread medical improvement, but instead can generate substandard treatment provided in a haphazard fashion at exorbitant cost.
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Tulsa World, June 19, 2015
State writing test flunks again
For the second consecutive year, the state Department of Education is ditching fifth- and eighth-grade writing test results when figuring A-F report cards for public schools.
It’s public acknowledgment that the 97,000 scores on the expensive test aren’t reliable.
School leaders complain that this year’s test had obvious scoring issues: Advanced students who were scored unaccountably low; some students who did poorly on the reading test did very well on the writing test; and large numbers of students receiving the same grade.
State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister inherited writing test contracts through fiscal 2019 worth a combined $48 million with Measured Progress.
An Oklahoma Watch story shows that the company was using graders recruited off Craigslist and paid $11.50 an hour. No classroom teaching credentials or experience was required.
Every paper was read by two graders, but if you don’t have the right people in the room in the first place, repeating the exercise doesn’t solve the problem.
Hofmeister questions the need for a separate writing assessment, and we see her point.
The costs of the test failure are not just measured in the money going to the contractor. Time has been taken away from classroom teaching to prep kids for a test that won’t be used to diagnose anything.
It could be an issue with the second vendor in a row, but it also might be an indicator of the impossibility of grading 97,000 writing samples in an economical, efficient and consistent fashion.
The Legislature needs to take a reality test about the idea of a mass writing exam and whether there might be a better way to get results that actually can be used.
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Muskogee Phoenix, May 31, 2015
Preserving past bodes well for future
Renovating the Fort Gibson stockade replica is both a nod to our past and our future.
The renovation includes replacing all deteriorated logs, installing a French drain, a new gravel walkway for tourists and new historical cedar shingle roof replacement and repair, said an official with the Oklahoma Historical Society.
The project, which will cost nearly $2 million, is expected to be completed in the fall. The stockade should reopen in October, says OHS director of construction and maintenance Rillios Howard.
Preserving our history is critically important. We should be proud of our history from Indian Territory to now.
Renovating historic structures is part of that pride.
The stockade is our state’s No. 1 visited historical site and the most significant historical site, Howard said.
“The establishment of Fort Gibson is the start of statehood,” Howard said.
He said the renovations will ensure the structure’s future for the next 50 to 100 years.
That will ensure visitors will flow into Fort Gibson for another century to learn of our past.
That bodes well for our future.
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