A Coweta charity reported less than $50,000 in annual revenue, while a charitable-giving nonprofit reported sending it more than $1.1 million in 2023 and 2024, raising questions about where the money went and how the foundation accounted for it.

Jake Ramsey’s story, IRS Records Show Huge Disparities for Coweta Charity can be read here.

The post Eye on Oklahoma: IRS Records Show Huge Disparities for Coweta Charity appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

President Donald Trump’s new federal education tax credit, written in 2025, has only temporary rules, even as the application deadline approaches. The delay could lead to taxpayers missing out. 

With approximately one month left before applications close, interested organizations such as Oklahoma Public School Resource Center are still waiting on exact guidance from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. If they don’t apply by the Dec. 15 deadline, their contributors will be ineligible for the tax benefit. 

“It’s still a little bit up in the air on how it will work and what will be offered,” the center’s executive director, April Grace, said. 

How it Works 

Much like the state’s Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship program, the new tax credit works like this: taxpayers receive a tax credit up to $1,700 if they donate to a qualifying organization. The organizations distribute the money to students for private school tuition and other expenses.

Oklahoma taxpayers’ contributions have historically skewed toward private schools. 

Under the state program, donations to private schools outnumbered those to public schools 4 to 1, Oklahoma Watch reported in September. In 2023 and 2024, the Oklahoma Tax Commission awarded $4.7 million in tax credits for donations supporting private schools and $1.2 million for public school support through the program. There’s $25 million available annually for each.

Despite the historical benefit to private schools, Grace is optimistic that the new federal credit will be another tool for public schools. 

“This is for people who are focused on supporting public schools,” Grace said. “I don’t think this tips things one way or another.” 

Taxpayers who donated to the Oklahoma tax credit scholarship fund received a 50% or 75% credit to their state income tax. Oklahomans can donate up to $1,000 when filing singularly or $2,000 jointly. 

Similarly, the federal program has options for single filers, $1,700, and married couples, $3,400. These donations are matched dollar for dollar. 

U.S. residents and citizens can participate in the new federal tax program. Unlike the state’s program, businesses cannot participate. 

Donations must be made separately because scholarship granting organizations must ensure contributions for the state and federal programs are not mixed, Haxton said. Internal Revenue Service guidelines say that the state tax credit must be applied first. If the total donation amount doesn’t maximize both credits, the state credit takes priority.

Scholarship-granting organizations distribute the donated scholarship funds to eligible families, who can use them for a variety of private or public educational expenses. To qualify for scholarships, students have to live in households earning no more than 300% of the area’s median gross income and be eligible to enroll in K-12 schools.

The Oklahoma Tax Commission will provide a list of approved scholarship-granting organizations to the U.S. Department of the Treasury by Feb. 15 that taxpayers can choose from. 

What’s Next 

Emily Haxton, spokesperson for the Oklahoma Tax Commission, said they are not experiencing an influx of applications, but scholarship-granting organizations have until Dec. 15 to apply. 

Once applications are in, the tax commission processes them and uploads them to the SGO landing page. Both state and federal participants will be listed there. 

The Oklahoma Public School Resource Center and Grace are in a unique position in that they already have a framework similar to an SGO through their Catalyst program. They’re just waiting on more exact rules so they can tweak that framework to fit the federal guidelines. 

The temporary guidelines provide rules on what the money can be used for, how much an SGO can take as administrative overhead and some qualifying factors, but they don’t put a cap on scholarship amount and the rules aren’t set in stone. 

“Even if they do make it difficult, we’re going to find a way to help people,” Grace said. 

While the application turnaround will be quick, Grace doesn’t anticipate an influx of donations from taxpayers based on her experience with their Catalyst program. 

She said most contributors make the tax credit donation at year-end. 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury estimated that by 2030, more than 11 million taxpayers will make qualified contributions totaling $26 billion annually to scholarship-granting organizations. 

They will continue to take feedback on the temporary rules until Dec.1.

Brenna Witchey is a reporting intern at Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at bwitchey@oklahomawatch.org.

The post New Federal Tax Credit Offers Oklahoma Public Schools More Opportunity, But Donors Have to Wait appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

According to TRAC immigration court data, 108,610 immigrants charged with entry without inspection were released from FY2021 to 2024.

Of those, 3,949 were granted relief. Though entry without inspection is illegal, DHS releasing rather than detaining is not. There were 5,744 such instances, 356 of which resulted in relief, in FY2026.

Immigrants deemed inadmissible at ports of entry are sometimes granted parole for humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit, allowing legal, temporary entry into the U.S. without formal admission. 973,075 inadmissible aliens received parole from FY2021 to 2024 – each year following 2021 set record highs. There were 75,431 parolees in FY2026, representing the greatest share of inadmissibles since 2017 at 35%.

The total unauthorized population was 15.8 million in 2024, making 20 million illegal entrants from 2021 to 2024 decidedly unlikely, though CBP claimed 1.7 million so-called “gotaways” during that period.

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• TRAC Immigration New Proceedings Filed in Immigration Court
• TRAC reports Released EWI 2021 – 2024
• Congress.gov Immigration Detention: A Legal Overview
• TRAC Immigration Stopping "Inadmissibles" at U.S. Ports of Entry
• Migration Policy Institute The U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population Reaches New Levels and Diversifies, MPI Estimates Show
• Homeland Security Committee | Republican BORDER SECTOR CHIEFS CONFIRM OPERATIONAL IMPACTS OF BORDER CHAOS: INCREASED GOTAWAYS, CLOSED CHECKPOINTS, AND EMPOWERED CARTELS

The post Were 20 million people illegally released into the United States under the Biden Administration, as Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed? appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Jessica Hottman gave birth to her son at 25 weeks, four and a half weeks before her due date.

When it was time for her son to enter Early Head Start, he had lingering health problems. Hottman had concerns, specifically relating to his gastrostomy tube. She wondered how the teachers would handle that.

But her worrying was in vain. 

“They were able to really work with him,” Hottman said. “And now he’s in pre-K and he’s on a level playing field with all of his peers, and he’s caught up developmentally. And I think a lot of that had to do with being in our Early Head Start program.” 

Now, the federal standards that make Head Start a quality program are at risk. If the Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs proposal is finalized, several Head Start standards will be rolled back, leaving regulations for staff-to-child ratios, suspensions, practices involving children with disabilities and more up to individual states.

“The proposed rule would rescind more than 1,400 highly detailed regulatory provisions and replace them with a consolidated and streamlined framework. It simplifies eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment, and attendance (ERSEA) requirements; removes duplicative documentation and procedural mandates; and reduces reporting obligations not required by statute,” the proposal reads.

Oklahoma has its own health and safety guidelines and early learning guidelines for Head Start providers. But no specific law or agency requirement exists that prohibits expulsion or limits suspension protocols in the state. Barbara Sorrels, a consultant in early childcare who helped create the Oklahoma Standards, is concerned about what could fall through the cracks if federal standards no longer exist.

Sorrels said the guidelines outline the appropriate learning environment based on the children’s age and stage of development, rather than addressing discipline. 

Under the federal standard, Oklahoma is required to consider suspensions the last resort and only permit a suspension when a serious safety threat occurs or other interventions were unsuccessful. Before a child can be suspended, Head Start providers must involve parents and offer mental health services or community resources to address the child’s behavior. 

Without federal safeguards to mitigate the issue, Sorrels said suspensions will likely increase and expulsions will become an option.  

Suspensions in early childhood are already common in Oklahoma. The state had the second highest number of suspended preschoolers in public schools in the U.S., according to the Civil Rights Data Collection for 2023-2024. Being suspended or expelled in early childhood can result in poor academic performance and a larger chance of suspension or expulsion once a child enters K-12 schools, according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children. 

Certain populations are also more at risk if federal regulations on suspension and expulsion roll back. 

Historically, Black children and children with disabilities are exceptionally vulnerable to exclusionary discipline practices. The Civil Rights Data Collection from 2020-2021 showed Black children made up 18% of the preschool population but 38% of suspensions, while students qualifying for assistance from the Individual with Disabilities Education Act made up 23% of the preschool population but 74% of expulsions. 

The National Association for the Education of Young Children also identified unconscious bias and misinterpretation of children’s normative behaviors as contributing factors to the statistics. Sarah England, the senior director of grants and advocacy at Sunbeam Family Services, said young children often communicate their needs through behaviors that can be misunderstood, especially in classes with young or inexperienced teachers. 

“It doesn’t mean that teachers are bad people,” England said. “It means that teachers need access to reflective support, and they need specialists that can help them slow down and examine their own implicit biases and how they might respond to those and level set within their classroom environment.”

Federal standards previously addressed the need to specifically serve children with disabilities. A program was required to ensure at least 10% of its total funded enrollment was filled with children eligible for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, another standard that would no longer exist if the proposal is finalized. 

Lisa Kelly, the CEO of The Arc of Oklahoma, said the standard helped parents of children with disabilities enter the workforce. Beyond ensuring child care, it also helped identify children’s needs earlier, she said.

“There’s research that shows that the earlier an individual can be diagnosed, and early intervention services can start, the greater their prognosis is for success in the future,” Kelly said. “Head Start is just one way that children can be identified and start that process early on before they enter the school system.”

Hottman is not only a parent, but also the disabilities coordinator for Sunbeam Family Services. She can help children with disabilities transition to public school, whether by connecting families with school resources or helping them set up an individualized education plan. The nonprofit also has its own mental health services, foster care department and community partnerships. 

With Sunbeam having those services in house, it can be easier to meet the requirements of Head Start standards, England said. Other programs do not have as easy access to required resources, especially in rural areas.

“Let’s say in rural America where they actually don’t have somebody with all those letters behind their name, they’re contracting out and having somebody come by and maybe review caseloads twice a year,” England said. “There already is quite a spectrum in the delivery and how people are meeting those practice and performance standards.” 

Loosening Head Start regulations would only increase discrepancy among programs, England said. While the proposal states it would provide flexibility and allow programs to tailor its services to its population, England said removing the standards would take away the quality floor that ensures programs are meeting the needs of the vulnerable populations Head Start is set up to serve. 

“We don’t see quality as a burden, and we see that a lot of the proposed cuts to the rule are really related to the quality floor for children,” England said. “When we’re talking about babies, birth through three, we’re really talking about humans who don’t really have the skills yet to communicate, and so it really is more of a all of these rules and regulations are designed to help the adult and children’s life and do what needs to be done to make those children, those families successful.” 

One standard that is especially important to families with children with disabilities is the staff-to-child ratio standards. Hottman said low student-teacher ratios allowed teachers to show her son care and attention while he had medical needs. The proposal would also remove student-teacher ratio standards if it is finalized. 

The federal child care ratio for 3-year-old children is one teacher per 8.5 children, which would allow classrooms to have two teachers per 17 children. Sunbeam Family Services changed its own guideline to reduce ratios to two teachers per eight children. If there is no longer a federal ratio requirement, England said child care providers worry they’ll have to increase ratios to remain eligible for federal funding as a Head Start program. 

“There’s a very big concern that the Office of Head Start will force Head Start programs to weaken their quality standards,” England said. “And that they won’t allow a lot of the wraparound supports that are no longer going to be named in the Head Start performance standards as eligible expenses on the grants.” 

Oklahoma has state licensing requirements to address staff-to-child ratios in state Head Start programs. Infant and young toddler ratios are one staff member per four children and one staff member per six children, respectively. 

At Tulsa Educare, the program keeps a ratio of three staff members per eight children in the toddler and infant classes, according to a study created by the Early Childhood Education Institute at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa. Melissa Miller, a mental health specialist at Tulsa Educare, said low ratios can allow children to get the attention they need before it progresses to a point where intervention is necessary. 

“With the more staff we have and the fewer children in the classroom, we’re able to really do those individual supports and interventions that are going to help children be successful and not have the need to expel or suspend children,” Miller said. 

Despite good outcomes with low staff-to-child ratios, Head Start programs with fewer resources may not be able to hire more teachers and serve fewer children. Permitting one additional infant per staff member was associated with a nine to 20% increase in infant care prices, according to an article from the Office of Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. 

The proposed changes are ultimately intended to reduce the program’s cost and administrative burden, but they also create new standards to meet executive orders under the Trump administration. To comply with an executive order that made English the language of the United States, the proposal would also eliminate Spanish instruction and require Head Start classrooms to prioritize English instruction only. 

Losing Spanish materials could isolate Hispanic families and interfere with vital communication, an Oklahoma Watch report revealed earlier this month. Two Spanish-speaking mothers said they worried about being excluded from having a voice in their children’s care. Head Start standards currently encourage family involvement, but child care providers are worried the changes could affect a child’s development within their family system. 

“We don’t want to support the preschool-to-prison pipeline,” Miller said. “We want to help our children and families be successful.”

Raynee Howell is a general assignment reporter for Oklahoma Watch. Reach her at rhowell@oklahomawatch.org

The post Early Childhood Suspensions Are High in Oklahoma; Rolling Back Proposed Federal Standards Could Cause An Increase appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Raynee Howell travels to Beggs, Oklahoma, to investigate how rapid police chief turnover left the town operating with a single officer. Keaton Ross breaks down recent midterm election results and what they signal for Oklahoma’s political landscape. Plus, Brenna Witchey reports on missing federal judge financial disclosures as the posting deadline approaches. Catch these stories and more on the latest Long Story Short with Shaun Witt.

The post A Police Chief Vacuum, Midterm Signals and Missing Disclosures appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

In 2023, the Luanne Elise Foundation told the IRS its gross receipts were less than $50,000. That same year, a nonprofit that manages charitable giving told the IRS it sent the Coweta charity $894,369.

The pattern repeated in 2024, when the foundation again reported less than $50,000 in revenue and the same nonprofit, the Pledgeling Foundation, reported sending it $263,838. In six years of IRS filings, the foundation has submitted nothing more than an e-postcard, Form 990-N.

Where those auction proceeds went is unclear.

Bruce and Catherine Keltner run the foundation from a residence they own, according to the Wagoner County Assessor’s Office. The website lists only the two of them as board members. Although the IRS recommends a minimum of three directors who are unrelated to the charity’s daily operations, Oklahoma law requires only one director and does not stipulate how that person can be related to the organization.

The Luanne Elise Foundation was established with the Oklahoma Secretary of State by Bruce Keltner, Catherine Keltner and their son, Bradley Keltner. The organization has benefited from celebrity auctions tied to Goats Only, a company owned by Bradley Keltner, which is facing a federal lawsuit.

“You always have to start with dual oversight,” said attorney Jeri Holmes, president of Nonprofit Solutions Law. “A public charity is like a three-legged stool. It has to have a public purpose, it has to be supported by the public and it has to have an independent board of directors that are loyal to the public. So if there is no dual oversight, and there’s only one family managing it, that does not make for a public charity.”

The Luanne Elise Foundation

The Luanne Elise Foundation says on its website that it was founded in 2017. State records show it was incorporated Dec. 31, 2019, and its state registration became effective Jan. 14, 2020. IRS records date back only to 2020, when the organization received approval as a 501(c)(3) public charity.

Named after Luanne Elise Keltner, Bruce and Catherine Keltner’s daughter who died in 2010 at age 34, the foundation says on its website that it helps Oklahoma children and adults facing a wide variety of challenges.

“Since our inception in 2017, the Luanne Elise Foundation has focused on helping children in areas of rural Oklahoma where poverty, drugs, and family dysfunction have stifled opportunity and educational development,” the website reads.

The organization claims 30,000 meals were delivered to rural children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the only available confirmation is an April 5, 2022 blog post by Growing the Grocer, an online marketing agency. The post said former NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski supported the charity.

The Luanne Elise Foundation’s website was stripped down, with broken links and a single page explaining what the foundation is about and providing a phone number, until an earlier version of the site reappeared Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026.

The revived website says “The Luanne Elise Foundation is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide charitable grants, material goods, or monies to individuals (or other charitable entities, locally, nationally, or internationally) to promote personal growth, educational development, restoration of health, getting a new start in life, and/or for any other need they may have to help individuals become productive, responsible, and healthy members of society.”

It includes six testimonials with partial names: Mrs. O.V., John J., The Browns, Amy H., Deborah and Marla.

Multiple calls to the foundation went unanswered, messages received no response, and emails to its information address were returned as undeliverable.

On Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, Oklahoma Watch visited the residence. Bruce Keltner, the foundation’s secretary and treasurer, sat outside.

Asked about the foundation, he said the organization was tied up in a court case.

Oklahoma Watch could not confirm any cases against the Luanne Elise Foundation, though an active lawsuit exists against Goats Only.

When Goats Only was mentioned, Bruce Keltner hurried inside to get his wife, Catherine Keltner, president of the Luanne Elise Foundation.

“You just have to talk to our lawyers,” Catherine Keltner said.

She did not answer questions from Oklahoma Watch, though she said their attorneys would be in contact and were aware of the information requests. The attorneys did not contact Oklahoma Watch by publication time.

Goats Only, a Delaware limited liability company, also has a stripped-down website with one tab promoting an events calendar it says will launch soon. The organization has an Instagram account with a few photos of celebrity athletes, including Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

In 2025, Charitybuzz promoted an auction that included a chance to catch a pass thrown by Mahomes and have the moment memorialized with an autographed photo. The auction beneficiary was listed as the Luanne Elise Foundation via Pledgeling.

That wasn’t the only item on the auction block. Charitybuzz lists 3,140 closed auction items benefiting the Luanne Elise Foundation. Among the experiences and memorabilia up for sale were a Barry Sanders-signed Detroit Lions helmet, a John McEnroe-signed tennis ball, a weekend in Montana with Billy Bob Thornton and The Boxmasters, a Big Dog Car Garage tour led by Jay Leno, a tennis game with Andre Agassi and a baseball signed by Donald Trump.

Some of those items appear to be in a promotional video made for the Goats Only Patrick Mahomes event.

The Pledgeling Foundation’s website says that Charitybuzz implemented a management system with Pledgeling that handles disbursements to 501(c)(3) organizations, indicating that if bids were made on the Luanne Elise Foundation items on Charitybuzz, Pledgeling would manage and distribute the money to the charity.

Oklahoma Watch’s attempts to reach Pledgeling and Charitybuzz were unsuccessful.

Allied Debt Collection of Virginia filed a federal lawsuit against Bradley Keltner and Goats Only in March, alleging the company failed to deliver on a $57.7 million star-studded video production contract.

Filing Discrepancies

According to Pledgeling’s tax return, the Pledgeling Foundation forwarded more money to the Luanne Elise Foundation in 2023 than to well-known beneficiaries such as The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Clooney Foundation for Justice.

In 2024, the foundation again filed only a postcard, attesting its income was less than $50,000, even though Pledgeling’s IRS filing shows it received money that year as well.

“When you have income that does not match your tax return, that’s when you get into an unfiled tax return,” Holmes said. “That means the IRS can go back as many years as they want to assess penalties and interest.”

Holmes said failing to report income is a crime.

“Because you don’t report that income, you don’t have to report where it goes,” Holmes said. “That’s why the IRS gets involved and gets curious about where it went, because you’re not filing the correct tax return.”

Jake Ramsey covers evictions, housing and homelessness. Contact him at (405) 370-3798 or jramsey@oklahomawatch.org.

The post IRS Records Show Huge Disparities for Coweta Charity appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Oklahoma tribal nation education expenditure is in the hundreds of millions annually from both exclusivity fees and direct expenditures.

Under the 2004 State-Tribal Gaming Act, Oklahoma tribes are able to operate Class III games on their land for which they pay exclusivity fees, calculated as a portion of their revenue, 88 percent of which goes towards the HB 1017 Revolving Education Fund.

Tribal support for Oklahoma education in 2023 included $177.8 million in HB 1017 funds, $133.6 million in tribal education and scholarships, and $39.3 million in donations to Oklahoma universities and community education programs, totalling $351 million.

Tribes paid $194.3 million towards the HB 1017 education fund in 2025, which has received over $2.3 billion from 2005 to 2025.

The overall economic impact of tribal nations, $23.4 billion in 2023, has also risen steadily and is projected to exceed $30 billion by 2030.

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• Justia U.S. Law 2025 Oklahoma Statutes Title 3A. Amusements and Sports §3A-281. Model Tribal Gaming Compact.
• United for Oklahoma THE ECONOMIC IMPACT of TRIBAL NATIONS IN OKLAHOMA – Fiscal Year 2023
• Oklahoma Gaming Compliance Unit Annual Report – Ficsal year 2025
• Oklahoma Policy Institute Oklahoma’s success depends on our Tribal Nations

The post Are millions of dollars in Oklahoma education derived from tribal casino revenue? appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Oklahoma State University’s president has put the state’s largest community college system on notice that he has a vision for a merger that would create a simpler path to a bachelor’s degree in Tulsa. 

Jim Hess’s public pronouncement at a Tulsa Press Club event in September sent shockwaves across the local higher education landscape, especially in the executive suite at Tulsa Community College. 

An Oklahoma Watch public records request revealed that Hess’s trial balloon, which made headlines at every local news outlet, followed months of circulating a detailed roadmap among the powers that be. 

It calls for a single-admissions entry point for students to either OSU-Tulsa or the renamed OSU Tulsa Community College, with shared governance and instruction. 

In a Nov. 3 sit-down, Hess explained he laid the groundwork for taking his idea public by showing what he calls “A Higher Education Solution for Tulsa” to TCC’s leaders, the Board of Regents for the Oklahoma A&M Colleges, the State Regents for Higher Education, Gov. Kevin Stitt, gubernatorial candidates, some state lawmakers from Tulsa, and the Tulsa Regional Chamber.

But his appeal for change is directed at Tulsans.

“We’re offering a solution, and if Tulsa would like that solution, we’d love to provide it,” said Hess. “What we’re really interested in is Tulsa saying what they’d like to have.”

While he may be calling the shots at Oklahoma’s largest public university system from a corner office in Stillwater, Hess lived and worked in Tulsa for 30 years until he was appointed OSU president in 2025.

He argued that Tulsa’s higher education landscape is woefully inadequate for its community and regional economic interests, and forces students and parents to navigate a complex pathway to a four-year degree.

Passed in 2025, Senate Bill 701 allowed OSU-Tulsa, Northeastern State University-Broken Arrow and other major players to expand the academic programs they offer, including lower-division courses previously restricted because of duplication with TCC.

But Hess wants Tulsans to wake up to the reality that state taxpayer dollars are being used to duplicate freshman and sophomore college course offerings that state and local property taxes already pay for at TCC.

“Since the new law went into effect last year, I believe we have stood up 72 lower division courses at OSU-Tulsa,” said Hess. “We did that so that students would have an opportunity to start and finish with the same institution. The fact of the matter is, every dollar you spend at the lower division level is $1 you can’t spend on a new bachelor’s program or expanding existing programs to be able to produce more engineers, more project managers, more accountants in Tulsa. So we would prefer not to do it that way.”

Leigh Goodson, president & CEO of TCC since 2014, said Hess’s plan is too risky and could jeopardize the future of the local ad valorem revenue that has been fundamental to TCC’s success in producing associate’s degree and technical certificate holders for 56 years.

What Hess’ Plan Actually Says

Hess doesn’t use the term merger. He calls it a joining together of two institutions under one roof.

When he put the idea in writing, he titled it a “Higher Education Solution for Tulsa,” and referred to it throughout as the “OSU transition plan.”

Necessary governance shifts and statutory changes would include:

• Renaming TCC to OSU Tulsa Community College
  Placing the two-year institution under the authority of the OSU A&M Board of Regents 
• Expanding the OSU-Tulsa Board of Trustees to include current TCC Regents
• Having one individual serve as both president of OSU Tulsa and OSU Tulsa Community College, with a single administrative team leading both institutions 
• Other modifications to protect the existing ad valorem revenue

What wouldn’t change: 

• TCC’s two-year accreditation would be preserved.
• Tulsa Achieves free tuition program
• All existing TCC transfer agreements with other institutions would remain in place.
• Two-year technical degree and workforce certificate programs
• TCC’s local property tax funding, otherwise known as ad valorem, would remain in Tulsa County to fund adult and technical education under the oversight of TCC Regents.

TCC has 17,211 students across its four campuses, with 67% on a path to transfer upon graduation and the rest heading straight into the workforce.

OSU-Tulsa was founded in 1999 as an urban branch of OSU to offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, as well as graduate certificates, locally. It recorded its highest student enrollment in campus history, 3,419, in Fall 2025.

“OSU has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Tulsa, and we’re very, very committed to it,” Hess said. “But here’s what we can provide that is really the difference maker: Four-year degrees and jobs that Tulsa business and communities want. And we’d like to provide it in cooperation with another institution so that we can spend our money wisely.”

Goodson, TCC’s president, said she believes a merger of two such disparate institutions could only spoil TCC’s well-established success in serving both university-bound and technical workforce students, and threaten the approximately $60 million in local property tax revenue that is fundamental to its operation.

“There is a constitutional provision in our state that requires the money to be used as approved by voters,” Goodson said. “From my view and my board’s view, the risk is too high. TCC has taken ownership of our role in the transfer process. I think we have become a better partner. And we could negotiate one-stop admissions with our partners without merging.”

Goodson said she has looked at similar consolidation efforts in Connecticut, the District of Columbia and Georgia. She found that the former community colleges’ workforce programs in fields such as nursing, allied health, advanced manufacturing, and data analytics diminished over time because of the new, merged institutional focus on 4-year degree programs. 

But she noted that OSU is an important partner for TCC, jockeying for first or second place with NSU for many years as the top destination for TCC grads who go on to a 4-year university. 

“We are continuing partnership discussions,” she said. “If it ever happened, it would be over time. And it probably wouldn’t just involve us; I think it would be a statewide effort.”

Kicking the Hornet’s Nest

Hess said Tulsa’s system of public higher education options was born of political compromise and driven by what he called “academic program protectionism” in the late 1990s. He thinks it remains fundamentally flawed in its persistent complications for students. 

“The basic question that has always haunted me is, ‘What is in the best interest of Tulsa?’ because the decisions were political, not what was in the best educational interests of Tulsans,” Hess said. “What we want to do is have a choice for them to make.”

How Tulsa’s local property tax revenue is spent is one key to understanding Hess’s proposal.

Voters approved collecting 2 mills ahead of TCC’s founding in 1970, and another 5 mills in 1994.

For reference, each mill, one-tenth of a cent, equals $1 of tax for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value, and TCC’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget includes $58.5 million, or nearly 43% of its revenue from this local source. 

Hess’s proposal for the merger calls for all lower-division coursework, for both OSU-Tulsa and OSU Tulsa Community College students, to be taught by community college faculty. 

During an interview, Hess reiterated that is driven by a desire to use taxpayer money efficiently in order to produce more Tulsa graduates with bachelor’s degrees. And he pointed to his plan’s numerous measures to ensure all ad valorem money would continue to be used in Tulsa for the benefit of Tulsans and overseen by the two Tulsa governing boards that already oversee that money.

Would he want to see his vision imposed or forced upon TCC?

 “Absolutely not,” Hess said. “That is not who we are. We’re offering a solution, and if Tulsa would like that solution, we’d love to provide it. What we will do, in the absence of an agreement of some type here, we will just continue to grow organically in Tulsa, and because we think Tulsa deserves that.”

Chrys Melissinos, president of TCC’s Student Government Association, said publicity of a possible merger between TCC and OSU-Tulsa took him and his classmates by surprise at the beginning of the fall semester and its implications are still not well understood. 

“I can’t talk about what other students think, but it is definitely interesting to me,” said Melissinos, a 24-year-old from Greece who is one of about 200 international students at TCC. “OSU-Tulsa is already one of the strongest transfer opportunities at TCC. In order to get into OSU, you have to apply and then reapply for your scholarships.

“If that collaboration meant I could automatically transfer my scholarships, that would be great,” he said. “But prices at TCC are more friendly, so I think it’s important to mention that TCC students aren’t going for the college experience. We come here for a financially friendly college.”

The idea to create a public, comprehensive, four-year university in Tulsa dates back nearly three decades.

Kathy Taylor, Tulsa’s mayor from 2006 to 2009, said she believes more transparency is needed in discussions about the idea in its current form. 

“For years, we have heard, ‘If only Tulsa had a four-year option, life would be perfect,’” she said. “I challenge that premise. We really need to dig deep into the data to see if the data follows. What I would love to see us look at together is the allocation of ad valorem funding. Maybe OU and OSU need part of that allocation; it seems like that’s where the focus is. We can sit down at a table and look at where the needs are for the next decade.”

Goodson pointed to both the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa and the private University of Tulsa as significant factors in assessing the needs of Tulsa’s higher education system as a whole.

No representative of OU was made available for an interview. An email from a university spokesperson attributed comments to OU President Joe Harroz touting the school’s transfer pathways between TCC and the OU Polytechnic Institute.

With new leadership, TU is positioning itself to compete better for local students and expand enrollment.

Be it a public university or a private one, Tulsans want accessibility and a university responsive to the needs of the community, said TU President Stacy Leeds, who recently made headlines by announcing plans to slash annual tuition and fees from $54,000 to $25,000 beginning in fall 2027.  

“There is no question; if we want to move Tulsa forward, we definitely need more four-year degrees and we need more interaction between industry, non-profits and universities,” she said. “A research university that can deliver on new inventions and new research discoveries has to be a part of that conversation.”

Without weighing in specifically on the OSU-TCC merger idea, Leeds said collaboration among higher education leaders is the key to better serving Tulsa.

“To me, the path forward is we all figure out what each other’s strengths are and help each other and move forward for the benefit of Tulsa,” she said. “What does or doesn’t happen at OSU or TCC or with others, we all know where we need to be in the next 20 years.

“It’s going to take a whole lot more of each of us to get there,” Leeds said.

Andrea Eger covers a variety of topics for Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at aeger@oklahomawatch.org.

The post OSU’s Vision for Tulsa Higher Education Could Reshape TCC — and Its $60 Million in Tax Revenue appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

A federal judge in Oklahoma City put a temporary block on a new Oklahoma law that restricts shareholder proxy advisory firms that recommend votes against company management. 

U.S. District Judge Patrick Wyrick said House Bill 4429 likely violates the First Amendment and granted a preliminary injunction for the plaintiffs, proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis. & Co. LLC. 

Federal judges in three other states have temporarily blocked their states’ versions of the law, a model bill called the Proxy Advisor Transparency Act. It was pushed by Consumers Defense, a Virginia-based nonprofit that said it fights so-called woke capitalism and environmental, social and governance goals. 

Shareholders of public companies vote annually on a variety of issues, including routine matters such as executive pay, board of director elections and selecting audit firms. Shareholders can also ask companies to put other items on the agenda, such as corporate statements on the environment or human rights. Proxy advisory firms offer their advice on how shareholders should vote. 

Wyrick issued his order Oct. 31, one day before Oklahoma’s law was set to take effect. He said the companies challenging the law would lose their free-speech rights. The law puts extra requirements on proxy voting advice that goes against company management. It imposes no restrictions when proxy advice aligns with management. 

“Because the act burdens plaintiffs’ speech when they make a recommendation against company management, but does not burden plaintiffs’ speech when they make a recommendation in favor of company management, the law is viewpoint discriminatory,” Wyrick wrote in his order. 

Wyrick said the government must meet a higher burden, called strict scrutiny, when it passes laws found to discriminate on viewpoint. He rejected arguments from the attorney general’s office that the new requirements on proxy advisory firms didn’t address whether they supported or rejected environmental, social and governance shareholder resolutions.  

“The statutory preference is for agreement with management, regardless of the underlying issue,” Wyrick wrote. 

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Gentner Drummond said the office had no comment on the preliminary injunction. 

House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, and Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, authored HB 4429. Caroline Estes, a spokeswoman for Hilbert, said the judge’s order was not a final determination on the law’s constitutionality. 

“The intent of HB 4429 is straightforward: shareholders deserve transparency and accountability from the firms providing recommendations that can influence their investment decisions,” Estes said. 

In a written statement, ISS said the court’s decision aligned with preliminary injunctions granted by federal judges against similar state laws in Kansas, Indiana and Texas. 

“We remain sharply focused on providing our clients with independent, rigorous data and research that informs their decisions,” ISS said. 

The preliminary injunction on HB 4429 comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission is taking public comments on a rule change that could make it harder for shareholders to propose changes to company management in the proxy process. Any changes, if approved, would not apply until the 2028 proxy season. 

The SEC said it would rather not have to get in the middle of such disputes and wants to leave the process to existing state laws and company governing documents. Opponents to the rule proposal said few states have specific laws regarding shareholder ballot access, creating uncertainty and a patchwork of state laws. 

Opposition to the rule change comes from both proponents and opponents of ESG measures that have dominated recent shareholder proposals. Those include religious groups with investments in publicly traded companies, as well as individual shareholders and large institutional investors. 

“Shareholder proposals helped make annual director elections, majority voting and effective clawback policies on unearned executive compensation common practice,” the Council of Institutional Investors said in a Nov. 5 public comment. “In addition, many prompted productive company-investor dialogues that led to mutual agreements on salutary governance reforms without ever going to votes.” 

Two firms that advise the state’s Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust board of investors filed public comments on the proposed SEC rule change. The trust’s investment advisor, Innovest, said the rule ensures a cost-effective way to challenge management policies without resorting to legal action. Another consultant, Prospr Aligned, supported eliminating the rule but said states must be given time to make the necessary changes to address its elimination. 

“Only recently have state fiduciaries begun to audit how their shares are voted and to align those votes with their own policies, state statutes and their beneficiaries’ interests,” Prospr Aligned’s CEO Derek Kreifels wrote in an Oct. 30 public comment. “That work is in its early stages. Shutting off the shareholder proposal channel now, just as these fiduciaries arrive, would tilt the outcome.” 

Both Innovest and Prospr Aligned have been instrumental in Treasurer Todd Russ’ efforts to steer TSET’s investment policies away from ESG measures. 

Paul Monies has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2017 and covers state agencies and public health. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or pmonies@oklahomawatch.org. Follow him on Twitter @pmonies. 

The post Federal Judge Puts Oklahoma Proxy Transparency Law On Hold appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Former Beggs Police Chief John Palacio couldn’t believe the condition of the police department he inherited.

Unsolved burglaries, a subpar radio system, alleged mishandling of a blood sample, missing guns and more awaited him when he started as the assistant chief and later replaced the interim chief.

Palacio said his goal was to help the department. Instead, he became the next person through the Beggs Police Department’s revolving door of chiefs.

“I’ve never seen nothing like this in my life,” Palacio said. “They warned me about small-town politics. I just didn’t believe it.”

Following Palacio’s tenure, Daniel Gilbert became interim chief and Bobby Tollette became assistant chief. Gilbert, Tollette and part-time officer Bobby Sappington later resigned, prompting the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office to offer law enforcement services to Beggs.

The interlocal agreement between the city and the attorney general’s office outlined the option to extend past a 30-day assistance period, but the attorney general’s agents left the city in the same predicament a month later.

Unsolved problems at the department started long before the attorney general’s agents walked through the door on Aug. 14.

Longstanding Concerns

The Beggs Police Department employed five police chiefs in 16 months.

Palacio was chief No. 3. He said he didn’t know how bad the situation was until he received access to the department’s reporting system.

“They never investigated burglaries,” Palacio said. “Found out in the last three years there were 60-something burglaries, and only 25 of them were reported.”

Palacio is referring to three years of incidents before he joined the force in 2025. Although there’s no way to determine how many burglaries went unreported, the Beggs Police Department filed 35 burglary incident reports from 2020-2024. Only 12 resulted in arrests. Of the 12 arrests, three of the suspects had charges filed against them. Only two were charged.

Palacio immediately began working to solve some of the burglary cases and apprehended an offender who had no charges filed against him before 2025, despite a 2024 incident report listing him as a suspect in the theft of a $3,500 riding lawn mower. Charges that Palacio brought against him for concealing $25,000 in cash, jewelry, perfume and other items were later dismissed in court. The matter was never investigated before Palacio took on the case, he said.

Mayor Roger Merrill said he was never aware of any uninvestigated cases.

“I do know that after I came into office, we immediately initiated 24/7 coverage, and those burglaries went down,” Merrill said.

Palacio claimed he made several requests to upgrade safety equipment, ammunition and more, and received no assistance. Steve Barteau, the former city administrator, said officers had to buy their own uniforms and Palacio even had to purchase his own gun at one point.

Merrill said he did his best to accommodate their requests. But like most rural police departments, resources were lacking and the department struggled to carry out their duties using outdated technology.

The radio system was a particular concern, Sappington said. It could reach only the Beggs dispatchers, not the county sheriff’s office. To call for backup from the county, as the only officer on duty, officers would hope a dispatcher was in the office to take their call. If no one answered, they were in limbo.

“They were more like communication cell phones,” Sappington said. “It just read the dispatch and that was it.”

Palacio also said he found the safe missing guns when he arrived as assistant chief. The guns were federally issued M16 rifles from the 1960s. The city had no records showing the guns were filed as missing, and Merrill declined to comment.

Palacio resigned in December 2025 after disagreements with the city over how he tracked his hours.

While Barteau was city administrator, he also became aware of an officer leaving a blood sample in a refrigerator inside the police department for 30 days in a case resulting in a death, he said. Oklahoma law requires that samples and evidence in a suspicious or unnatural death be sent to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner immediately. In response to a records request for an evidence log showing the blood sample’s location and how long it remained there, the city said it did not have access to one. Merrill declined to comment on any claims of a mishandled blood sample.

Based on Barteau’s timeline, the blood sample was allegedly related to the case of Donna Beaty, a woman killed off Highway 16 when struck by a vehicle. Gilbert, then a regular officer, wrote a report for negligent manslaughter on June 21, 2025. The report did not include a section documenting the evidence collected, but no other nonnatural deaths were reported around the time Barteau alleged a blood sample was held in the department.

Merrill said he knew nothing of any wrongdoing in any of the cases. Any discipline, oversight or purchasing of new equipment for the police department would be the council’s responsibility, as the city government is a council-manager form of government, he said.

“The council is in control of what’s going on in the city of Beggs,” Merrill said. “Not me. I’m just the figurehead, and I’m not the least bit interested in changing that.”

The Breaking Point

Three Beggs police officers resigned at the end of July shortly after the city council approved bringing in a third-party investigator to look into potential policy violations and internal conflicts within the department.

Resignation letters from Gilbert, Tollette and Sappington relate to claims of a loose chain of command, an inability to discipline and unfair treatment from Officer Cody Burton.

Gilbert wrote that Burton was promoted to sergeant when Gilbert assumed command in an attempt to clarify the department’s supervisory structure. In the following months, some employees expressed discomfort with interactions they had with Burton, Gilbert wrote, including statements about certain officers’ ability to perform their duties because of their age or physical condition. Sappington, who claimed he was discriminated against for his age, wrote that Burton engaged in a continuing pattern of conduct that damaged his professional reputation and created a hostile work environment. Tollette wrote that he resigned because an officer bypassed the chain of command and reported directly to the mayor and city council.

“No matter what we did, what kind of work we did, he would go complain (and) tell everybody we didn’t do it right,” Sappington said. “Even when the DA accepted charges and filed them (and) our charges went through where his didn’t. It was just a lot of this nitpicking stuff from him.”

Gilbert also detailed a meeting he and Tollette had with Merrill, in which they sought guidance about a potential disciplinary review and were told the mayor and members of the city council said it was not authorized at that time. Merrill said he told them it was out of his hands and that he had no control over the chain of command.

Sappington’s letter also outlined a close relationship between the mayor and Burton, and he claimed Burton received preferential treatment that allowed him to bypass departmental procedures. Merrill denied providing preferential treatment to any officer. Burton declined to comment on any of the claims.

“That’s one of the reasons that we went with an independent investigator, so that there’s no way that anyone can say that we were playing favorites with either side because we weren’t,” Merrill said.

A few days before the resignations, Beggs City Council held a special meeting. Concerns arose during the meeting about city equipment used during security services provided by Beggs police officers while filming “The Lowdown,” a TV series set in Oklahoma.

According to Gilbert’s letter, the officers were compensated as independent contractors at $60 per hour for traffic control and temporary street closures. Before filming, the city of Beggs had no ordinance allowing or prohibiting the use of city property for such services.

On Sept. 14, the city council approved an ordinance titled “Film Production Permits,” which established a permit requirement, among the procedures for film production activity that would involve city property, rights-of-way or services. Merrill said the ordinance was needed to regulate the future use of city equipment.

Although Gilbert mentioned the situation in his resignation letter, Sappington said his resignation was unrelated and due to the work environment at the police department. Gilbert didn’t respond to requests for comment.

“It had nothing to do with the TV show,” Sappington said. “Like I said, the whole event had been taking place since the time I got hired to the time I quit. The ‘Lowdown’ show had nothing to do with it.”

The city of Beggs appointed J.W. Mobley as interim chief following the resignations. About a week later, he resigned without leaving a resignation letter, according to City Clerk Naomi Tate. Mobley didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Attorney General’s Office Intervenes

Rep. Scott Fetgatter, R-Okmulgee, requested the attorney general’s assistance following the resignations of Gilbert, Tollette and Sappington. Fetgatter said his concern was not only the department’s short staffing, but also the potential for an increase in crime in the city.

A week before the attorney general’s agents arrived in Beggs, an 18-year-old Morris High School senior, Hunter Killion, was found dead in a driveway from an apparent bullet wound to the chest, according to multiple news outlets. Police presence was scarce following the murder.

An interlocal agreement between the attorney general and the city of Beggs gave the attorney general’s office municipal police authority, including all duties and functions regularly carried out by the Beggs Police Department. When the attorney general’s officers arrived, Burton resigned. His departure left the building free of Beggs police officers.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a press release that agents would stay until the city could adequately staff the police department. Merrill said that although the contract included an option to extend the agreement by 30 days, it was never discussed with him.

“The attorney general said specifically that they would be here as long as Beggs needed them here,” Merrill said. “For some reason, the chief of the AG’s police force decided that it was time to go home, and they went home just after 30 days.”

Deputy Press Secretary Carrie Burkhart of the attorney general’s office said their agents fulfilled their commitment through the final day as signed off on by the city and the attorney general. The contract did state it would end on Sept. 14 at 5 p.m., but it also said nothing should prohibit the parties from extending or renewing it.

The agreement also stated the attorney general’s agents and the city of Beggs would create a transition plan to identify and address personnel issues, ongoing case assignments and the transfer of records. Neither the attorney general’s office nor the city has a record of one. Tate said no transition plan was created, and Merrill said he never received any kind of transition document. Under state law, to create a transition plan or make any agreement legally binding, it would have to be filed with the county and the Secretary of State. Neither the Secretary of State’s office nor the Okmulgee County Clerk could find a record of the interlocal agreement among its filings.

The Office of the Attorney General declined to comment further, but Fetgatter said the office chose to stop the agreement because they believed Beggs was capable of taking the next steps.

“They felt like the city had ample opportunity, according to their office,” Fetgatter said. “They believed that they had some good candidates for a new chief and some officers and some different options … The AG’s office has issues that are ongoing all across the state and limited resources, so they felt like the city of Beggs was in a position where they could make something happen.”

For 48 days after the attorney general’s agents left town, no officers were stationed in Beggs. And city officials scrambled to decide what to do next.

Beggs at a Crossroads

City council members entered executive session the same day the attorney general’s agents left town to discuss potential hiring of a police chief, including interviews and recommendations for candidates. Council members met again for the same purpose in the following days. No action was taken.

Merrill said the executive sessions were related to the recommendations from the attorney general’s office. He said one candidate was open to becoming chief but later backed out.

A month later, the city council approved a resolution allowing the city attorney to negotiate a possible interlocal cooperation agreement with the Okmulgee County Sheriff’s Office, which would transfer dispatch and law enforcement services within Beggs city limits to the county.

City council member Justin Jones continued interviewing candidates for a potential new chief while the city attorney, Rhiannon Thoreson, weighed options with the county. During that period, Thoreson declined to comment on whether the city was leaning toward contracting with the county.

Conditions in the proposed agreement allowed the contract to be renewed yearly, subject to appropriation of funds from city council, an Open Records request revealed. Merrill said that would allow both parties to decide whether to continue the agreement, especially if Beggs decided to hire a police chief later.

The proposed agreement was still in the editing stage and the cost of law enforcement services was left blank, although handing the dispatch services over to the county was expected to cost the city $225,000 a year. The agreement would also require the county sheriff’s office to provide coverage in the city 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The city of Beggs also offered its police building for use as a substation at no cost to the county.

Merrill said he wasn’t for or against either plan, but at the time of the interview, filling the police chief seat felt next to impossible.

“What I want is what’s best for the city of Beggs,” Merrill said.

A New Chief and a Scuffle

A new chief, Tristan Hall, was appointed during a special meeting on Monday, filling a seat that has remained largely empty since mid-August. Hall was the assistant chief for the Cherokee Police Department.

Although the only other officer employed by the Beggs Police Department is finishing off-site training, Merrill said in an interview before Hall’s appointment that any new police chief could start building up the department immediately, subject to council approval.

While at City Hall for the special meeting, city council member Rick Roberts grabbed a camera belonging to Guerilla Publishing owner Ron Durbin, resulting in an altercation that also involved City Administrator Steven Diamond. During the fracas, Jones removed a phone from a table that Durbin identified as his. The Okmulgee County Sheriff’s Office arrested Jones and charged him with grand larceny. A video of the conflict was posted on Facebook.

The altercation followed several Facebook posts in which Durbin accused city leadership of wrongdoing. One post included an audio recording of Merrill, in which he allegedly spoke to a contractor about creating multiple businesses to bid more than once; the city then posted a statement suggesting any investigation should consider the full recording, not just the posted excerpt.

Merrill said he has not purposely done anything illegal or unethical and is doing his best for the city of Beggs. Diamond is working alongside him on that mission, though both acknowledge problems that began before their time.

“Beggs has been neglected and abused for decades,” Diamond said. “This didn’t start with Roger or me. This started long ago …. The can has been kicked down the road to such an extent that we were left with a lot of issues.”

Raynee Howell is a general assignment reporter for Oklahoma Watch. Reach her at rhowell@oklahomawatch.org

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