Oklahoma Has Had Unified Republican Government Since 2011. Here is their Report Card.
Oklahoma voters are being told that changing political direction would put the state at risk.
Before accepting or rejecting that argument, it is worth looking at the measurable results of the direction Oklahoma has followed.
Republicans have controlled the governor’s office and both chambers of the Oklahoma Legislature continuously since 2011.
That period gives Oklahoma a long record to examine.
THE OKLAHOMA POCKETBOOK
• Oklahoma median household income is $65,039, compared with $80,734 nationally—a gap of nearly $15,700 a year.
• Colorado, a neighboring state that competes with Oklahoma for businesses and workers, has median household income of $95,470—more than $30,000 above Oklahoma using the same Census measure.
• 14.9% of Oklahomans live below the poverty line, compared with 10.6% nationally.
These numbers tell us that the typical Oklahoma household has substantially less income than the typical American household.
HOW MANY OKLAHOMA FAMILIES ARE STRUGGLING?
• In 2024, 23,694 Oklahoma births—49.7% of all births—were paid by Medicaid through SoonerCare.Nationally, Medicaid finances roughly four in ten births. In plain English, approximately one out of every two babies born in Oklahoma was born with Medicaid paying for the delivery.
• 13.7% of Oklahomans under age 65 lack health insurance, compared with 9.6% nationally. Oklahoma's uninsured rate is about 43% higher than the national rate.
• USDA found that 16.9% of Oklahoma households experienced food insecurity during 2022–2024, compared with 13.3% nationally over the same three-year period.
The number of Oklahomans who need this assistance tells us something important about the economic circumstances of Oklahoma households compared with the rest of the country.
HEALTH, HOSPITALS AND HOW LONG OKLAHOMANS LIVE
• Oklahoma life expectancy was 73.8 years in 2022. U.S. life expectancy was 77.5 years—a difference of 3.7 years.
• Oklahoma's 2024 infant mortality rate was 7.42 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with 5.52 nationally—about 34% higher. Only five states had higher infant mortality rates, giving Oklahoma the sixth-highest rate among the 50 states.
• Oklahoma has 73 open rural inpatient hospitals. The Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform identifies 45—62%—as at risk of closing, including 18 at immediate risk. Seven rural hospitals have closed since 2015, while six additional facilities have ended inpatient services or converted.
The consequences do not stop at the county line. When rural services disappear, patients have to travel farther for care and other hospitals must absorb those patients.
Federal law requires hospital emergency departments covered by EMTALA to screen and stabilize patients with emergency medical conditions regardless of whether they have insurance or can pay.
That makes access to primary care, health insurance and financially stable local hospitals more than rural health issues. They are part of the economics of Oklahoma's entire health-care system.
EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE PIPELINE
• On the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, Oklahoma fourth graders averaged 233 in mathematics versus 237 nationally and 207 in reading versus 214 nationally.
• Oklahoma eighth graders averaged 264 in mathematics versus 272 nationally and 249 in reading versus 257 nationally.
• Only 28.3% of Oklahomans age 25 and older have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 35.7% nationally.
These are not simply school statistics. They are economic-development statistics.
Major employers such as Boeing have emphasized the importance of Oklahoma producing more career-ready workers with strong technical skills. Todd Pauley, who handles government and community relations for Boeing in Oklahoma, put the issue plainly:
“Businesses will look elsewhere for the talent they need.”
That raises a basic economic-development question:
Is Oklahoma putting enough of its economic-development resources into producing the skilled workers employers say they need—or relying too heavily on tax incentives to attract and retain businesses?
Oklahoma's education funding history makes that question more important.
By 2018, inflation-adjusted state aid per student had fallen 28.2% from its 2008 level—the largest reduction in the country on that measure.
At the same time, Oklahoma's reliance on emergency-certified teachers exploded.
The State Department of Education reported just 32 emergency teacher certificates in 2011–12. That number had reached 2,153 by 2017–18 and 2,852 by December of the following school year. OSDE counted 3,721 emergency-certified teachers in 2023–24 and 3,329 in 2024–25.
Student results weakened over much of the same period. Oklahoma's fourth-grade reading score is now below the national average, as are its fourth-grade mathematics and eighth-grade reading scores.
Those trends do not require us to claim that one budget cut caused one test score. They do show what was happening to Oklahoma's education system while employers were telling the state they needed more highly trained workers.
SAFETY AND SOCIAL WELL-BEING
• Oklahoma's suicide rate was 21.79 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with about 14.1 nationally—roughly 55% higher.
• At the end of 2023, Oklahoma had 545 sentenced state prisoners per 100,000 residents, compared with 318 per 100,000 across state prison systems nationally. Oklahoma's rate was about 71% higher, and only Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas had higher state imprisonment rates.
• The CDC's latest National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found that 41.6% of Oklahoma womenreported lifetime contact sexual violence, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner, compared with 34.0% nationally. Among Oklahoma men, the figure was 25.5%, compared with 17.0% nationally.
Again, these are different measures of well-being, with different causes. But taken together, they are part of Oklahoma's report card.
STATE FISCAL AND ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT CHOICES
Oklahoma did not refuse to use government to shape the economy.
It made choices about where government would intervene and where public resources would go.
The Parental Choice Tax Credit
The Parental Choice Tax Credit was promoted as a way to expand educational choice. The state's own September 2026 report gives us a way to measure how much new choice it is actually producing.
• Oklahoma had approved 41,466 students for $264.8 million in private-school tax credits for the 2026–27 school year as of September 3.
• Only 3,515 of those students—8.5%—had attended a public school the previous semester. More than 91% were not coming directly from public schools.
• About 73% of approved students were in households reporting adjusted gross income above $75,000.
• Those households received about $183 million—69% of the approved dollars.
• Households reporting income above $250,000 alone were approved for more than $54 million.
• Geographic concentration is also significant. In the previous school year, Tulsa and its surrounding suburbs alone accounted for nearly $96 million in private-school tax credits.
If the purpose is to expand educational choice, the relevant question is straightforward:
How much of this spending is creating a choice families did not previously have—and how much is subsidizing choices that had already been made?
The Shadow Budget
There is a larger issue.
Our reconstruction of Oklahoma's major economic-development tax expenditures and incentive commitments puts the comparable Shadow Budget at roughly $200 million around the beginning of unified Republican government in 2011.
Today, recurring commitments approach approximately $1.3 billion a year. When the state's $200 million taxpayer-endowment commitment is included, the broader Shadow Budget approaches $1.5 billion—roughly 12 cents for every dollar in Oklahoma's appropriated budget.
Those commitments include tax credits, rebates, reduced tax rates, exemptions and economic-development incentives.
During much of the same period, Oklahoma was also reducing income-tax rates. The top individual rate was 5.5% in 2011, fell to 5.25% in 2012, later to 5%, then 4.75%, and is 4.5% for tax year 2026.
Oklahoma's Constitution also makes raising revenue unusually difficult. A revenue bill generally requires either voter approval or a three-fourths vote in both houses of the Legislature.
That matters because Oklahoma has to make choices with the revenue it has.
Oklahoma cannot spend the same dollar twice.
A dollar committed through a tax preference or tax reduction is a dollar that is not available for another purpose unless additional revenue replaces it.
That means decisions about tax incentives are also decisions about the resources available for education, health care, rural hospitals, workforce development, infrastructure and the other measures of well-being discussed above.
And that brings us back to what employers themselves are saying.
If employers say their constraint is skilled labor, workforce development is economic development.
If rural hospitals are financially vulnerable, health-care infrastructure is economic development.
If household incomes substantially trail the country, raising the earning power of Oklahoma workers is economic development.
And if businesses cannot find enough trained workers, education is economic development.
The question is not whether every tax incentive is bad.
The question is whether Oklahoma has been putting its economic-development dollars where they produce the greatest return for the people who live here.
THE RECORD
When one party has controlled the governor's office and both chambers of the Legislature since 2011, voters have a record they can examine.
Household income matters.
Nearly half of births being financed by Medicaid matters.
A 43% higher uninsured rate matters.
Food insecurity matters.
Rural hospitals matter.
A life expectancy 3.7 years below the nation matters.
An infant mortality rate 34% above the nation matters.
Reading and mathematics matter.
The workforce employers say they need matters.
How Oklahoma chooses to spend $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion in tax preferences and economic-development commitments matters.
Those are not partisan statistics.
They describe the Oklahoma in which people actually live.
Wanting Oklahoma to do better is not the same as disliking Oklahoma.
I criticize its leaders because I care about the people who live here—and because “love it or leave it” has never fixed a single problem.
Follow the money at wlangdon.substack.comSources
U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts: Oklahoma, United States and Colorado—median household income, poverty, educational attainment and uninsured population. Oklahoma's uninsured rate is 13.7% versus 9.6% nationally. (Census.gov)
CDC/National Center for Health Statistics, Oklahoma—Stats of the States—life expectancy and state health statistics. (CDC)
CDC/National Center for Health Statistics, Infant Mortality in the United States, 2024. The final data report a U.S. rate of 5.52 and Oklahoma rate of 7.42; the state table shows only five states with higher rates. (CDC)
National Center for Health Statistics/March of Dimes PeriStats—Medicaid/SoonerCare coverage of Oklahoma births.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Household Food Security in the United States in 2024. Oklahoma: 16.9%; U.S.: 13.3% for the 2022–2024 state-comparison period. (Economic Research Service)
Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, Rural Hospitals at Risk of Closing, May 2026. (Rural Hospitals)
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act guidance.
National Center for Education Statistics, The Nation's Report Card: Oklahoma, 2024. (Nation's Report Card)
Oklahoma State Department of Education, Teacher Shortage Legislative Brief—32 emergency certificates in 2011–12 and rapid subsequent growth. (Welcome to Oklahoma's Official Web Site)
Oklahoma State Department of Education, OSDE Fast Facts—3,721 emergency-certified teachers in 2023–24 and 3,329 in 2024–25. (Welcome to Oklahoma's Official Web Site)
Oklahoma education-funding data summarized by the Oklahoma Policy Institute from the national state-aid comparison—28.2% inflation-adjusted reduction in per-pupil state aid from 2008, the largest decline nationally at the time. (OK Policy Institute)
Oklahoma Business Voice, interview with Todd Pauley, Boeing government and community relations, January 2026.
CDC, National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 2023/2024 Intimate Partner Violence Data Brief. U.S. women: 34.0%; Oklahoma women: 41.6%. U.S. men: 17.0%; Oklahoma men: 25.5%. (CDC)
U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2023—Statistical Tables. (Bureau of Justice Statistics)
CDC, Suicide Rates by State. Oklahoma: 21.79 deaths per 100,000. (CDC)
Oklahoma Tax Commission, Parental Choice Tax Credit Report for School Year 2026–2027, September 3, 2026. The report shows 41,466 approved students, 3,515 who previously attended public school and $264,788,333 approved. (Welcome to Oklahoma's Official Web Site)
Oklahoma Tax Commission, Parental Choice Tax Credit program and HB 3705—statutory program cap increased to $275 million for 2026–27. (Welcome to Oklahoma's Official Web Site)
Tulsa Flyer, Thousands of Tulsa families received $70M in private school tax credits last year, August 3, 2026—Tulsa plus surrounding suburbs accounted for nearly $96 million. (Tulsa Flyer)
Oklahoma Tax Commission, Tax Expenditure Reports, including 2011–12 and 2023–24, and Oklahoma economic-development program reports used in the Shadow Budget reconstruction. (Welcome to Oklahoma's Official Web Site)
Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services—historical individual income-tax rates. (Welcome to Oklahoma's Official Web Site)
Oklahoma Statutes—4.5% top individual income-tax rate for tax year 2026. (Westlaw Government)
Oklahoma Constitution, Article V, Section 33—three-fourths legislative requirement for revenue bills not submitted to voters.
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