Affluent Democrats have a pattern: They despoil a state with their policies and then, surveying the ruins around them (usually unaffordable housing and high crime), they move on to a safe, affordable Republican enclave. However, having failed to recognize that they were responsible for the destruction of their former home, they use their growing political heft to repeat the same policies in their new location. If you doubt me, just think of what Californians migrating to Colorado achieved.

Most recently, Californians, faced with an increasingly uninhabitable state, are setting their sights on Oklahoma, which is actually incentivizing their moves for economic reasons. It appears, however, that Oklahoma is simultaneously trying to implement policies that will protect the state (one with solid, all-American conservative values) from the coming California plague.

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SFGATE ran a story today entitled “The surprising destination luring California transplants with $10,000.” It’s not just the prepaid 10% moving fee, though; that’s an enticement. It’s also that “The cost of living is 43.8% lower than in San Francisco.” Wow!

This magical new location is Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Tulsa relocation program is called Tulsa Remote, and it’s “attracted more than 3,600 members since its launch in 2018, with around 15% of those transplants coming from California.”

The program has been good to Tulsa, since it’s brought in a lot of tech people, all of whom must be telecommuting from higher-cost (and higher-wage) states. In other words, they’re spending their California income in Tulsa, which is good for the Tulsa economy. The program especially wants white collar (read: affluent) people who like to get out and about within the community (read: spend money).

It's a clever program because it has successfully pumped a lot of money into the community without taking jobs from the community. “For every $1 spent attracting remote workers, Tulsa Remote returns more than $4 to Tulsans through local spending, job creation and increased tax revenue...”

Currently, one real estate agent says that the people relocating are “interested in moving to a more politically conservative state,” as well as one with a lower cost of living and less crime. However, if we’re talking tech, we’re talking college grads and, if we’re talking college grads, we’re talking leftists.  

In any event, once word gets out about the fact that Tulsa specifically and Oklahoma generally are up-and-coming hip, affordable places to live, the leftists, like lemmings, will follow. (I see that with vacations. All of my old friends from California inevitably go on exactly the same overseas vacations. One year, they’re all in Turkey; the next year, off to Iceland.)

Oklahoma’s conservative political class, while undoubtedly pleased about the revenue, is worried about what happens as more Californians head their way, especially teachers. After all, with Colorado as a grim example, and conservatism in Texas more at risk than ever before (even though it’s still doing all right), one can’t be too careful.

On the one hand, Oklahoma is trying to incentivize teachers to head its way. Says Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s education superintendent:

“We offered the largest signing bonuses for teachers in the country. If you're in the top 10 percent of teachers in the country, we give you $50,000 in Oklahoma. So we've seen teachers come from blue states, red states all over to come to Oklahoma. They especially are fleeing the teachers unions, the grip that they've had on them in these blue states,” Walters said.

However, even conservatives from blue states know blue state educational values. Therefore, Walters, working in conjunction with PragerU, “plans to release a new certification test for teachers moving into the state from blue states.” The planned test, called American First, “will include basic questions about American history, civics, and ‘common sense.’”

This is a wonderful idea. Glenn Reynolds used to advocate for a “welcome wagon” approach for blue state immigrants into red states: “Something that would explain to them why the place they’re moving to is doing better than the place they left, and suggesting that they might not want to vote for the same policies that are driving their old home states into bankruptcy.”

So, by all means, set up those welcome wagons, but the first and most important thing is to make sure that the new teachers aren’t Marxists. Thankfully, Oklahoma’s governing class gets this.