State’s Newest Policy Institute Focuses On Family
Oklahoma’s newest think tank makes its case: ‘Why families still matter’
by Patrick B. McGuigan
OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma’s newest public policy research group will center its research and analysis on family issues.
Bolstering his case for a public policy “think tank” focused on family, founder and executive director Timothy Tardibono for the Family Policy Institute of Oklahoma reflected, “Oklahoma is known as a family-friendly, conservative, faith-based state.
Oklahoma’s families and children are really in distress, yet there is no statewide organization focused on family well-being.”
Tardibono told Oklahoma Watchdog the institute hopes “to fill that gap as well as work on related issues like religious liberty protection, and many other issues impacting children and their parents.”
The group’s initial paper begins with a premise that Tardibono says is no longer well-settled in modern culture, that is, that strong families still matter when it comes to a thriving civil society and giving children the best chance to succeed.
The white paper Taribono has circulated at the state Capitol and to reporters draws upon social science data showing that children in families with married biological parents have the lowest rates of maltreatment, lower poverty rates, higher educational achievement, and lower teen sexual activity than children growing up in other family structures.