The state questions facing voters on the November ballot will be analyzed by a citizen panel during a public affairs program on RSU Public Television.
The hour-long program, “Oklahoma State Questions,” will air at 11 p.m. Monday, Oct. 18, and will be rebroadcast at 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 24, and 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 30, on RSU Public TV.
The program will cover all 11 state questions, ranging from education funding to term limits, said Dr. Jeff Gentry, moderator and Kunz Professor of Communications at RSU.
“All but one of the state questions is a constitutional amendment,” Gentry said. “Voters often have very little information about state questions.”
The panel will feature Wayne Greene, editorial writer and former capitol bureau reporter for the Tulsa World; Dr. Carolyn Taylor, RSU associate professor of history and political science and a former member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives; State Sen. Randy Brogdon of Owasso, who recently ran for governor in the Republican primary; and Mitsuye Conover, Bartlesville High School social studies teacher and former Oklahoma Teacher of the Year.
All participants will speak for themselves as citizens, not as representatives of their organizations or employers, said Gentry.
RSU Public Television asked Gentry to produce the program to help familiarize voters with each ballot measure in order to make a more informed decision. Panelists will outline the provisions of each measure, as well as their pros and cons. According to Gentry, “SQ 744 on K-12 education funding has received the most attention, but each of the state questions is important in its own right.”
In the past two years, Gentry has produced the programs “The Truth about Political Ethics,” “America the Ignorant?” and “Population Disaster,” on RSU Public TV.
RSU Public Television is licensed to Rogers State University and is the only public TV station operated by a university in Oklahoma. The station, based on the RSU campus in Claremore, reaches more than one million people within a 75-mile radius of the campus.
RSU Public TV broadcasts on digital channel 35.1 and 35.2, Tulsa and Claremore cable channel 19, Cable Channel 4 in Bartlesville and satellite channel 35 across northeastern Oklahoma.
More information is available by visiting www.rsupublictv.org.