TRANSCRIPT:

LAYDEN: Beth Wallis, our education expert… it’s difficult to telegraph what’s going to happen in education in Oklahoma a day in advance, let alone a whole year. But do your best prognostication. What are you expecting to be covering in 2025?

WALLIS: So, something that we’re certainly going to keep an eye on is the St. Isadore case — that’s the St. Isadore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School. There was a lawsuit that the Oklahoma Supreme Court declared its contract with the state was unconstitutional, but that is being appealed to the Supreme Court. So we’re curious to see if the Supreme Court does decide to hear it.

Something else that we’re looking at is in this next legislative session the private school tax credits. This last year, those tax credits were maxed out. This year, the credit cap increases from $150 million to $200 million. So there should be some more participants allowed to join that program. And I think the Legislature will probably look at fixing what we saw were problems with the program. So, for instance, these payouts were not issued like tax credits. Instead, they were direct checks to the private schools themselves. So they functioned very similarly to vouchers, which some lawmakers have said they wouldn’t have voted for that had they known it was going to function that way.

And then, lastly, I think, will there be a new RFP for a larger classroom Bible purchase? State Superintendent Ryan Walters has said he wants Bibles in every classroom. And there was a recent purchase for 500 Bibles. And they were the Trump Bibles. It remains to be seen if the Department is going to issue a new RFP and get, like he said, Bibles in every classroom.

LAYDEN: Jillian Taylor, StateImpact health reporter… issues like the impacts of Oklahoma’s transition to managed Medicaid and its abortion ban were just a couple of the themes of your reporting last year. What do you see coming next for healthcare policy in Oklahoma?

TAYLOR: With Donald Trump as President, I think we’ll definitely see the tides turn in Oklahoma’s over year long battle to regain millions in federal family planning money, which is called Title X. And Oklahoma did lose it after refusing to share a hotline that provided information on all family planning options, and that included abortion. But during his first term, Trump actually banned the discussion of abortion in Title X clinics. So I will definitely be interested to see how those conflicting viewpoints play out for Oklahomans.

And then the state will also be nearing a year of managed Medicaid, which is where Oklahomans see their care coordinated by private insurance companies. And so some other stories that I have in the works will include, kind of, how Oklahoma is training its future healthcare workforce to seek out rural areas and help improve outcomes. And then whether a federal minimum staffing mandate for nursing homes will stand the test of time under the Trump Administration, and also how that might impact Oklahoma providers.

And then I plan on exploring some newer topics for me, which will include childcare and working with our partners on stories about Indigenous healthcare.

LAYDEN: Chloe Bennett-Steele, the newest addition to the StateImpact team, and focused on science and the environment. I can imagine with the new Trump Administration, we’re going to see loosening of regulations on the oil and gas industry, and a cozier relationship between Oklahoma and the federal government. But the climate crisis goes on. Where do you think you’ll be taking your reporting this year?

BENNETT-STEELE: As we enter the new year, I’ll be watching for bills filed in the state legislature related to energy and the environment. And yes, we are entering a second term under Donald Trump and I expect to be making sense of how decisions related to energy will impact Oklahoma. Will liquified natural gas exports, for example, ramp up after a short pause under the current administration?

There are also oil and gas companies in Oklahoma looking at storing carbon dioxide – which is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change – by injecting it underground in oil fields. Listeners can expect coverage of that technology, plus developments in wind and solar, in 2025.

And, of course, I will continue covering Oklahoma’s unique weather, such as tornadoes, hail and other events, and its wildlife.

LAYDEN: Beth Wallis, Jillian Taylor, Chloe Bennett-Steele, our StateImpact reporters will stay on top of all of these issues in these uncertain times. For StateImpact, I’m Logan Layden.