CoL is the real attraction, but if you don't care about the dearth of cultural amenities, why choose a mid-sized city in a state that doesn't have any non-Catholic private schools worth paying for and couldn't even keep all of its public schools open 5 days a week in pre-pandemic times?

If you don't need good schools or cultural institutions, why not instead choose New Hampshire? Or rural Oregon? Or, as you pointed out, the Ozarks? Heck, IMO, Branson and Springfield have better public schools than Tulsa suburbs, and Branson even has more theater than Tulsa if you're ok with genuinely 100% world-class performers doing kitsch on faux river boats.

Some areas in Branson even have symetric fiber, I believe even gigabit.

You could probably get a nice house in a gated community on the golf course for $500k+.

If the program isn’t new, I wonder what the total numbers are like since covid started. The article only mentioned 1000 people over two weeks (from all over the country)

This isn't an infusion of talent. It's probably a teeny tiny fraction of the brain drain returning to test the waters or, more likely, just to leverage grandparents for some free daycare while pandemic is on. And this is the high-point of interest.

what's wrong with public schools?

But what's wrong with Catholic school? They have a tradition of being quite secular and open to different worldviews.

I went to Catholic school, and politically, they certainly seem to be for restricting other people’s freedoms (see abstinence only sex education, gay marriage, and abortion). My whole sex education at the age of 14 or so was a slideshow of genital herpes or sores and “don’t do it”.

There’s also the whole decades long organizational support of child molestation issue that one might want to avoid supporting.

I grew up Catholic in a tradition where the social responsibility was taken seriously (also see here: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolpingwerk). We didn't have the abstinence-only nonsense either, that must be particular to certain regions in the US. BTW, the Catholic position is that marriage is a sacrament that the couple administers to each other (the only sacrament where a priest is not needed), and, well, sex is complicated, and all sorts of Reddit drama happens when FWBs catch feelings & so on. This was actually how the subject was treated in school.

The recent child abuse revelations are disappointing. I always said that child abuse isn't confined to catholics, but the hierarchy at least provides some oversight that you don't have in megachurches, but it's clear that that did not happen, it was a total failure up to the Pope.

> couldn't even keep all of its public schools open 5 days a week in pre-pandemic times

But...

1. See the part of that comment where Okalahoma can't even keep many of their public schools open 5 days a week. And then guess at the quality of the ones that do stay open...

2. Screw the emotional/psycho-sexual abuse of Catholic schools.

I love the lower midwest, but god... even the "good" school districts in the "wealthy" suburbs are... not great.

The program will actually pay for a tour of Tulsa for potential recipients who have no connection to the city. That's what the FAQ page says. When you apply they also ask about your connection to Tulsa (friends, family), so to their credit they do take into account that the place may not be for everyone. They have looked into these difficulties, one should give them some credit.

I'm more curious about how many of the applications are serious, and how many are reactive to the current situation. There's nothing wrong with seeking stability over excitement, but I sort of worry about people envisioning the whole "Great Plains" idyll.

The state is full of small-town cops who want to throw their weight around, but they're harmless if you play their game and (sadly) if you're the right color. That's another important consideration for potential applicants.

God, yes. I have colleagues who will not leave the interstate when driving through certain states.