Some of the essential legislative debates underway this yr is whether or not Oklahoma will fund college students, not techniques or buildings, as embodied by the language of Senate Invoice 1647.
For us, the reply is easy: Oklahoma authorities ought to fund college students. This laws has the ability to alter the lives of 1000’s of oldsters and kids in Oklahoma by giving them options to colleges that don’t meet their wants.
This system permits revolutionary colleges corresponding to Cristo Rey to serve extra lower-income youngsters and Constructive Tomorrows to serve extra homeless youngsters, in addition to enabling the 124 principally low-cost, personal colleges scattered throughout the state to serve a crucial function in educating our Oklahoma youths — all at a a lot decrease price to the taxpayer and with out doing hurt — and actually enhancing — the critically essential public schooling system.
Allow us to dispel three false myths in regards to the proposal. First is the parable that this reform takes cash from public schooling. In actuality, each single penny now designated to coach kids will proceed to pay to coach kids if this measure turns into regulation. And the invoice solely entails cash from the state funding formulation for schooling, not native property taxes or federal funds. At any time when a dad or mum chooses to have their youngster go to a personal faculty, the general public faculty district will nonetheless retain all native funding (48% of the tutorial funding on common statewide) for a scholar who’s now not there. This constitutes an enormous monetary windfall for the native faculty district.
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The second delusion is that this system helps college students from wealthy or middle-income households greater than the poor. The actual fact is the quantity going to the college relies on the state funding formulation, which offers a much-greater fee for kids from the poorest households. And when cash follows a scholar, the market incentive is ideal for every kind of faculties to be created, particularly to serve the poor.
Notably, the typical tuition at Oklahoma’s non-public colleges is considerably lower than the per-pupil funding supplied to public colleges, but the non-public colleges sometimes produce higher outcomes.
The third delusion is that this system is just for dad and mom and youngsters dwelling in bigger communities. The actual fact is 86% of Oklahoma Okay-12 college students dwell inside half-hour of the 124 non-public colleges situated in 25 counties. And that’s earlier than this invoice incentivizes the creation of many extra colleges that may meet the wants of Oklahoma dad and mom for his or her kids.
A crucial level is that competitors breeds innovation and excellence in each private and non-private schooling higher than monopolies. This system is voluntary. It’s the dad and mom’ alternative. If the general public faculty is assembly the wants of all college students, there can be no demand. Quite a few research have been performed of school-choice packages, and virtually all have concluded they enhance academic outcomes for college kids at each public and personal colleges. There’s a purpose why Florida, with strong school-choice packages, has had the best enchancment in academic attainment of any state within the nation.
Secondly, whereas all of us fear in regards to the values being taught to our kids, we not often hear any options. Faculty-choice packages may also assist dad and mom instill ethical and civic values within the subsequent technology.
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It’s time to empower all Oklahoma dad and mom to decide on one of the best faculty for his or her kids. There’s merely no legitimate argument to do in any other case.
Frank Keating served as governor of Oklahoma from 1995 to 2003. Invoice Worth is a former U.S. Legal professional for the Western District of Oklahoma who grew to become nationally well-known for investigating authorities corruption in Oklahoma. MiO’Neal is president emeritus of Oklahoma Christian College.
The Cowboys went to the SEC to pick another linebacker out of the portal.
Ole Miss transfer Trip White, who was listed at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds last season, pledged to Oklahoma State, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz. White played in all 13 of the Rebels’ games this past season, his redshirt sophomore year. He made one tackle, primarily playing special teams.
White played in three games while maintaining a redshirt as a true freshman in 2022. He appeared in five games in 2023, and to this point has totaled nine career tackles.
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Out of Parkview Magnet in Little Rock, Arkansas, White was a three-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting class and chose Ole Miss over offers from Arkansas, Kansas State, Baylor, Louisville, Oklahoma State, Indiana and others. The 247Sports Composite system tabbed White as the No. 1,103 player in the class, the No. 109 linebacker in the class and the No. 12 player from Arkansas in 2022. He also started as his team’s quarterback as a high school senior, throwing for 2,035 yards and 19 touchdowns to go with 445 rushing yards and seven more scores.
White becomes the third linebacker the Pokes have grabbed out of the portal, joining Bryan McCoy (Akron) and Brandon Rawls (Saginaw Valley State). White’s addition comes a few days after Jeff Roberson hopped in the portal. With Roberson, Nick Martin, Collin Oliver and Kendal Daniels all gone from last season’s squad, OSU’s linebacker room — like most position rooms — will look quite a bit different heading into 2025. Kap Dede is set to coach that group, with new OSU defensive coordinator Todd Grantham bringing him in from Western Kentucky.
The Oklahoma Sooners will open the 2025 softball season on Feb. 6 against the CSUN Matadors in San Diego. After a historic season, Oklahoma faces a lot of turnover after losing a number of fixtures in the lineup to graduation.
The Sooners certainly aren’t lacking for talent, however, as a trio of players were named to Softball America’s preseason All-American teams on Tuesday.
Sophomore outfielder Kasidi Pickering and Utility/DP Ella Parker were named to Softball America’s first team. Newcomer Abby Dayton was named to the second team.
Parker led the Oklahoma Sooners with a .415 batting average from the utility role. She also had 13 home runs and 62 RBIs as a true freshman. Parker hit .500 over Oklahoma’s final four games to clinch their fourth-straight national title.
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Pickering hit .389 with 12 home runs and 51 RBIs as a true freshman for the Sooners. In the Women’s College World Series final against Texas, she had home runs in both games against the Texas Longhorns to win the championship.
Abby Dayton is one of a number of impact transfers for the Oklahoma Sooners this season. She led the Pac-12 in batting average, hitting .431 and also had an on-base percentage of .510 for the Utah Utes.
The Oklahoma Sooners will have a new look, but led by this trio of stars, the defending national champions will be ready to compete in the SEC.
More: 5 Oklahoma Sooners included in Softball America’s top 100
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Report Card: Oklahoma lets second-half lead slip, falls to Texas A&M
With 17:00 minutes left in the second half, No. 17 Oklahoma led No. 10 Texas A&M 51-33, and with 19 seconds remaining, Zhuric Phelps hit a three-pointer to give the Aggies an 80-78 lead. That score ultimately held, handing Oklahoma a tough loss and dropping them to 13-2 (0-2) on the season, despite leading by as many as 18 points in the second half, getting 34 points from Brycen Goodine, and facing a Texas A&M team without its best player, Wade Taylor.
The first half was all about Brycen Goodine, who put together one of the most impressive halves from a Sooner in recent memory. He tallied 21 points on 6-8 shooting from deep, propelling Oklahoma to a 39-30 halftime lead. The Sooners shot the ball extremely well early, but things fell apart after the break.
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The second half belonged to Phelps, who hit the game-winning three. Phelps, a career 26.1% three-point shooter, erupted for 28 points in the second half alone, including six three-pointers. He finished with 34 points on 11-25 shooting from the field and 6-10 from behind the arc. Despite Goodine’s stellar performance and Oklahoma’s strong start, the Sooners couldn’t withstand Texas A&M’s furious comeback.
Well, here’s the Report Card from Oklahoma’s loss despite: 1) getting 34 points from Goodine, 2) leading by 18 in the second half, and 3) facing a Texas A&M team without its leading scorer.
Offense: D-plus
Good or bad first? Let’s start with the bad.
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In the final eight minutes of the game, Oklahoma made just two (!) field goals. If you’re looking for a “How to Blow a Lead MasterClass,” scoring only twice in crunch time is Lesson 1.
It was those last eight minutes — where the Sooners simply couldn’t get anything going — that cost them the game. That collapse makes it hard to fully appreciate their solid first half, when things were actually clicking.
Oklahoma shot an impressive 14-24 (58.3%) from deep, 25-46 (54.3%) from the field, and 14-17 (82.4%) from the free throw line. They put up 39 first-half points and were firing on all cylinders offensively. But when it mattered most — those crucial final eight minutes — they completely imploded.
Starting Five: C-minus
Let’s start with Jeremiah Fears, who logged only 21 minutes. Fears finished with 13 points, four rebounds, four turnovers, and three assists while shooting 4-8 from the field, 1-3 from behind the arc, and 4-5 from the free throw line. There were plenty of freshman moments, but it felt like his reduced minutes prevented him from finding a rhythm—something that became evident when Oklahoma turned to him as a potential hero late in the game.
Duke Miles added 8 points on 2-6 shooting from the field and 2-4 from deep, along with three rebounds, three assists, and three turnovers in just 20 minutes. Meanwhile, Kobe Elvis was a non-factor offensively, scoring 0 points in 27 minutes. He shot 0-3 from the field and 0-2 from beyond the arc but did record eight assists, most of which were to Goodine. Despite the assists, Elvis struggled with the physicality of the game and contributed little else.
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Jalon Moore played 33 minutes and contributed 11 points on 4-6 shooting from the field and 2-3 from deep, along with four rebounds, three turnovers, and two blocks. Sam Godwin added 6 points, five rebounds, and three blocks in 26 minutes while shooting 3-5 from the field.
Overall, it was a rough night for the starting five. Fears had his freshman struggles, Elvis couldn’t handle the physicality, and while Miles and Moore were solid, neither had standout performances.
Bench: A-plus
The Sooners got an incredible 34 points out of Goodine on 10-14 shooting from the field and 9-11 from behind the arc. He also shot 5-6 from the free-throw line. Goodine was on fire from the jump, knocking down six of his three-pointers in the first half. He put together one of the best shooting performances ever seen by a Sooner, in fact, tying Mookie Blaylock and Hollis Price for the fourth-most three-pointers in a game in Oklahoma history. After a rough showing from the bench against Alabama, this performance from Goodine was exactly what the team needed.
Additionally, Mohamed Wague had a solid first half, playing 12 quality minutes before only seeing two minutes in the second half. He scored 2 points, added two rebounds, one assist, and a block. His biggest struggle was not being able to playmake off the short roll, but aside from that, his first half was encouraging.
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Oklahoma got 34 points from Goodine, solid minutes from Wague, and good contributions from Glenn Taylor, who scored 2 points on 1-1 shooting from the field. Overall, it was a strong performance from the bench, which makes this loss even more puzzling.
Ball Security: F
Arguably the main reason Oklahoma lost this game was turnovers. A team that has been solid at taking care of the ball all season long imploded, committing 18 turnovers—twice as many as their opponent. Beating a top-10 team while turning the ball over 18 times is incredibly difficult, and it wasn’t just in the second half where turnovers haunted this team. Despite getting 21 points from Goodine, Oklahoma led by just nine at halftime.
That was, in large part, due to turnovers, as they gave the ball away eight times in the first half. The turnovers made it difficult for the Sooners to extend their lead. Pair those eight first-half turnovers with Phelps’ explosive second half performance and Oklahoma’s inability to score more than two field goals in the final eight minutes, and you have the recipe for a tough loss.
Oklahoma’s guards collapsed when Texas A&M ramped up their pressure in the second half, leading to an influx of turnovers and ultimately contributing to the defeat.
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