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December 2023

ROPE’s Right Again…Sigh. Two Muslim Schools Among 174 Registered/Registering For The Oklahoma Parental “Tax Credit”

For years, ROPE has been fighting ‘city hall’ all for a parent’s right to educate their child the way they wanted without interference from the government. Unfortunately, our advocacy for educational self-reliance appears to go out the window when money comes into the picture as we watched over 30,000 parents line up to take money from the government for their child’s education while waving the banner of “it’s my money”.

Early on in the push to get universal school choice in Oklahoma, ROPE sounded the call: 1. Once tax dollars are removed from you (by force) by a government, they are no longer YOUR dollars, they are the state’s dollars. They are not earmarked as Jane’s dollars, or Sam’s dollars – all dollars go into a pot to be divided up among government agencies and programs to be used the way the government sees fit – often, giving tax dollars away to businesses to make it desirous for them to do business in the state. 2. If the state gives private schools tax dollars, those private schools become public schools. Alex Newman, an excellent education researcher and a recent guest on our podcast explains:

LOTS of Christians have been pushing this program. “But, wait!”, we say; this will break the barrier of church and state, where the state will gain control private religious schools. It doesn’t matter, we’re told, THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE FAAAIIILLLLIIINNNGGGG, and the state will stop the program once public schools don’t have enough money to educate kids anymore (because the state has stopped, Medicare and Medicaid and Welfare….insert eyeroll). “But, wait!”, we say; once the state gives out money to a Christian school, they’ll be bound to give money to ANY SCHOOL THAT DECLARES A RELIGION, including Satanists. No, we’re told, the Satanists won’t come here and the state won’t let that happen.

Lucien Greaves is the Co-Founder and the Spokesperson for the Satanic Temple.

As of 12/10/23, I counted 174 registered schools – two of which are Muslim/Islamic.

So here’s the problem. Many people in Oklahoma identify as members of the Christian faith. Unfortunately, no matter how the ‘religion of peace’ likes to bill itself, Islam is not friendly to/toward Christians. In fact, Christianity Today marked the 50 countries where Christians were most persecuted in 2021 and says this:

Islamic oppression (29 countries): This is the main source of persecution that Christians face in more than half of the watchlist countries, including 5 of the 12 where Christian face “extreme” levels: Libya (No. 4), Pakistan (No. 5), Yemen (No. 7), Iran (No. 8), and Syria (No. 12). Most of the 29 are officially Muslim nations or have Muslim majorities; however, 7 actually have Christian majorities: Nigeria (No. 9), Central African Republic (No. 35), Ethiopia (No. 36), Democratic Republic of Congo (No. 40), Cameroon (No. 42), Mozambique (No. 45), and Kenya (No. 49).

A Guardian article from 2019 on persecution of Christians in the middle east said this:

In Saudi Arabia, the report says, school textbooks “teach pupils religious hatred and intolerance towards non-Muslims, including Christians and Jews”.

The website Jihad Watch, documents what the Quran says about Christians throughout its many articles. Here is but one paragraph:

A Shafi’i manual of Islamic law endorsed by the most prestigious institution in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, says that the leader of the Muslims “makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians…until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax,” and cites Qur’an 9:29 in support of this idea: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day and who forbid not what Allah and His messenger have forbidden-who do not practice the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book-until they pay the poll tax out of hand and are humbled.” (‘Umdat al-Salik o9.8)

Why should ANY taxpaying Oklahoma Christian be alright with their tax dollars funding an Islamic school in Oklahoma?

Look, I don’t care who you worship, or marry, or anything else you do, frankly – unless you commandeer the government to force me to do it too – or spend my money on it. I’m certainly willing to live and let live, but I’m not okay with the government using state funds to support a school of people whose holy book tells them to fight Christians until we are humbled and become Muslim. This. Is. Not. Okay.

Additionally, we’re told that Oklahoma Public Schools are GOING WOKE and we HAVE to get kids into private education to SAVE them from the WOKENESS. Well guess what? Christian schools are going woke too.

In this article from Capstone Report, Analysis; WOKE Comes For Christian K-12 & Homeschools, the author points to the fact that the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) has “partner[ed] with UnifiEd to offer Christian schools resources on Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Reconciliation with focus on Multiculturalism”. From the article:

And multicultural is the goal of Dr. Strickland’s organization, according to the press release: “The majority of our resources are designed to assist leaders with the ongoing challenge of implementing a God-glorifying diversity strategy that fosters a multicultural environment.”

Interestingly, an unrecorded phone call on Tuesday, November 7th with Dave Bond of OCPA and Jennifer Carter of American Federation for Children – ostensibly to help private schools become registered as vendors for the tax credit – included OPSAC, the Oklahoma Private School Accrediting Commission which, itself does not accredit schools, but is an association of organizations that accredit Oklahoma private schools. OPSAC’s “Association” page lists ACSI – thus, ACSI accredits Oklahoma private schools.

Here’s some information from OPSAC’s webpage referencing accreditation of Oklahoma private schools:

An accrediting agency that requires schools to uphold standards comparable to State standards may apply to an agency for accreditation. These standards include, but are not limited to, consideration of the school’s goals and objectives; compliance with applicable state and federal statutes; effective governance and administration; the teaching of a balanced curriculum; implementation of personnel practices which ensure the hiring of qualified and degreed instructional leaders; and standards for student achievement.

WHAT? So, if Oklahoma accredited private schools – the ONLY ones that can register for the voucher/tax credit – have to comply with state and FEDERAL statutes (you know, like the ones that say that boys can use girls bathrooms), can someone please tell me how OKLAHOMA ACCREDITED PRIVATE SCHOOLS ARE ANY DIFFERENT THAN OKLAHOMA PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

In addition, at least one private school on those approved for enrollment, Mt. St. Mary’s, has/is suffered/suffering through a sex abuse scandal.

So, to sum up – ROPE was right yet again. We fought our own Republicans TOOTH AND NAIL against Common Core only to find that everything we warned about had come true in the states and schools that used that ploy to dumb down all kids trapped in the program. We’ve fought our own Republicans for the last two years they’ve tried to foist universal school choice on Oklahomans, yet, here we are.

What is it going to take to wake up Oklahomans to the FACT that they’re being deluded into thinking – just like with Common Core – that taking money from some Oklahomans and giving it to others so their kids can go to a private school IS A VERY BAD THING? THIS?

PS: Here’s my research on the Tax Credit Rules that contains lots of information on the concept of school choice.

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HD39 ‘Push’ Poll Libels Candidate Peterson By Messaging Voters, Claiming That She’d Been Fired

In the now on-going saga of candidate Ronda Peterson running for a seat in HD39, I received a text message after yesterday’s article publication from Peterson, who sent me a screenshot of a candidate ‘push’ poll she received from a friend dated November 27th.

Here are a couple screenshots Peterson took of the poll.

NOTE: This text says “Ronda Peterson WAS removed…” from her position, but it does NOT SAY from what school system she was fired. This kind of a poll hopes to trap uneducated voters into NOT paying attention to the fact that the name of the school from which Ronda was presumably fired IS NOT LISTED, hoping that readers will tend to believe it’s the school where she is currently employed. As the Ballotpedia definition for push polling points out, this is VERY, VERY bad stuff.

Here’s why:

Yup, not only did someone BELIEVE the lie in the push poll, that person in turn SPREAD THE LIE on her Facebook page (and most probably other places) to influence other people about her candidacy.

Ronda asked Edmond Public Schools Administration to make a public statement – not on her behalf as a candidate – but about her employment status. Though Peterson has been employed with Edmond Public Schools for 22 years, she was refused on grounds that EPS policy prevents them from commenting on an employee’s employment status.

She also tried to expose the lie of the poll by taking a picture of herself on her bus with a paper showing the current date – which she posted to her Facebook page – but that was about all she could do to tamp down the nonsense.

So…is push polling legal? What about the fact that it libeled Peterson?

Yes, push polling is legal, and many people use it in political campaigns to try and ‘push’ their candidate – and not just political consultants. In fact, ANYONE could do a push poll, so where this particular libelous push poll came from is a complete mystery without some kind of lead back to the company from which it was generated. The phone number used for this poll has a DC area code and is probably Google in origin – there’s no way to tell without paying a reverse look-up service and even then the odds aren’t great of actually determining anything. The “State Election Research” title comes up in no internet search I performed, so it’s likely just a phrase used as an appeal to authority – again, to influence unsuspecting voters.

Libel on the other hand is illegal – but only if it can be proved in a court of law. Here’s the problem, more than likely it can’t and the legal process to try and prove it is quite expensive.

So what happens to candidates like Peterson who find themselves stuck at the end of this form of campaigning? Nothing. Bupkis. Nada. Zilch. You get the idea.

This gross practice needs to be exposed so voters who want to know what’s going on with the text messages they get – usually unwanted – on their cell phones, can be assured that their spidey senses are right – it’s a practice to try to trick them, not inform them.

But then, this is why I try to expose Dark Money where and when I can. It gives unfair advantage to whomever uses it for their election, by funneling tens – if not hundreds – of thousands of dollars into local races. This kind of money makes it nearly impossible for people who really want to run to help their community but have little means to mount a 100 thousand dollar political campaign, to run and become elected. The Founders of this country envisioned ‘citizen legislators‘ making decisions for the betterment of their states and their country, not people backed by large amounts of cash coming in from outside the district to seat a candidate whose interests then don’t really lie in the district to which he/she was elected.

Unfortunately, today, a large portion of Oklahomans don’t vote – in fact, in 2020, just over half of eligible voters actually voted Oklahoma’s elections – and of those half who do, few take time to really research candidates or issues. Often, these voters get their information from a push poll, a mailer, or an electronic ad and political consultants know that – it makes their job easy.

Consequently, if interested Oklahomans are going to ever see real change in Oklahoma’s elections, PEOPLE IN OKLAHOMA NOT ONLY HAVE TO VOTE – BUT BE INFORMED VOTERS.

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Political Consultant CAMP Associated With Democrat-Turned-Republican in the HD39 Election (December 12th) And Peterson Attack Mailer

As those of you who have followed my Dark Money posts know, Campaign Management Professionals (CAMP), run by longtime political consultant Fount Holland and his partner Mathew Parker, have worked for numerous campaigns over the years here in Oklahoma. Certainly, Mr. Holland and his colleagues have the right to work for anyone they choose here in Oklahoma, but we also have the right to publish information about candidates and their paid political consultants.

Recently, Miles Rahimi posted an amazing piece of research about Edmond HD39 District candidate Erick Harris. Clearly, the man was not only a DEMOCRAT within the recent past, but was an ACTIVE DEMOCRAT in the recent past. The photo of a smiling Mr. Harris and Nancy Pelosi at the Democratic National Convention in 2012 at the top of Rahimi’s post is a spectacular confirmation of this fact.

In the article, however, I couldn’t find anything about Harris’ political consultant, so I went to the Guardian system to check out his candidate filing.

Note, Mr. Harris is his own Treasurer and Chairperson. No one else is reportedly involved in his campaign. This is concerning as a named treasurer (other than the candidate) speaks to transparency and should help put voters at ease when donating to the candidate’s account.

In fact, there’s nothing on Harris’ website that claims anything other than it is paid for by Friends of Erick Harris 2024.

So what in the world? This guy is running his own campaign; clearly grassroots, right? Not so fast. Here are a few mailers run in the district.

Uh-oh. What’s that I see for the indicia? Yup, you guessed it, “presort std U.S. postage PAID, CAMP”.

At a campaign event, Michael Grande (Board Member) asked Mr. Harris if CAMP was running his campaign. His comment was something akin to ‘I’m my own man. I’m not beholden to anyone.’ Well, ok. Now that we have your word on that…

But, wait – there’s more.

Because she’s sweet and wouldn’t be a pushover for anyone’s agenda, an attack mailer has surfaced against Ronda Lee Peterson.

First of all, it does crack me up! The tagline LOLOLOL. Who’s US? The DISTRICT? The political consultant class? But look at the return address – what in the world is 1907 PAC?

If you haven’t seen my Dark Money presentation, here you go. That will help you understand the screenshots I’m about to post.

The phone number for the 1907 PAC is associated with the “Free Runner Macc’s Place” a campground in Tecumseh, OK, according to an internet search. I tried the phone number – which tagged as Yukon when I placed it – and there was no specifically listed business named, just a message saying I could leave a message.

I searched the PAC’s address and – LOW AND BEHOLD – it came up at a FedEx in Nichols Hills. Below is a screenshot of the Table I created for my (still in progress) paper to include all the information listed in my video. Does anything seem familiar?

Oh by gosh, by golly; major shock…anything look familiar here? Note, this PAC was created THIS March and, of course, the treasurer is Dustin McIntyre (our favorite PAC treasurer who has no internet profile I can find anywhere).

Note the address. The above is from the same Table. Omni Consulting is owned by Stephanie Alexander (formerly Milligan) who, along with now-husband Chad, was arrested with Fount Holland (CAMP), and several others, for coordinating on Joy Hofmeister’s campaign for State Superintendent in 2016.

Note also that Advance Oklahoma PAC is found at the same address.

I don’t think it takes a resurrected Sherlock Holmes to see that the 1907 PAC is associated with CAMP and other organizations that have been identified within the Dark Money ring in Oklahoma. Note the disbursements from the PAC earlier this year.

Now, note the initial AND ONLY deposit to the newly-formed PAC for the year.

It’s another favorite! The American Exceptionalism Institute C-4 DARK MONEY group. You’ll note them in the upper left-hand corner in pink. This C-4 is VERY BUSY running money in and out to different PACS that operate in Oklahoma elections but which NEVER file with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission as PACs, they only file at the federal level with the FEC.

You can look at Open Secrets to find out how much and where American Exceptionalism money goes, but again, CAMP is associated with more than one of the PACs to which they donate.

In closing, there are FOUR things we asked of legislators last session to help STOP the dark money interfering in Oklahoma elections. ROPE asks you to jot down these four and make sure YOUR legislator knows you want legislation run to stop these FOUR things – all exampled in this article.

  1. PACS can be set up with a PO box and a Google telephone number which prevents any transparency at all for the PAC – both at the federal and state level. Many PACS that operate in Oklahoma are used by the same political consultant groups such that a political consultant is paid out of the same PAC where independent expenditures for his clients are made.  PACs in Oklahoma should have to have a legitimate street address and phone number where someone can be reached during regular business hours.
  2. I have not been able to locate any internet evidence of life for at least 2 treasurers on PACS operating in Oklahoma at the federal and state level – Dustin McIntyre and John Jude. Treasurers must be residents of Oklahoma with a valid street address and telephone number where he/she can be reached during normal business hours.
  3. PACS can give each other unlimited funds – much of which are provided by 501C4s that don’t have to provide the names of their donors. In the ‘real’ world, this could be confused with money laundering. In addition, federal law prevents foreigners from donating funds to ANY election or candidate in America. When you don’t know who donates the money to a campaign, how do you know it isn’t foreign money? Oklahoma should stop allowing DARK MONEY donations to local Oklahoma campaigns.
  4. PACS operating in Oklahoma must be registered in Oklahoma with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission period. There should be no loophole in the Ethics rules that allow PACS operating in Oklahoma elections to register with the FEC instead of the Ethics Commission. Right now, the rules say that if a PAC is registered with the FEC it doesn’t have to register with the Ethics Commission. That’s bogus as an FEC PAC is supposed to support federal candidates, not state or local candidates, which is what is happening now. This again prevents transparency.
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Parent Choice Voucher Program Not Ready December 1st As Promised, Treat Frustrated

Without spending a lot of time re-hashing our stance on the Parental Choice voucher program – the state should NEVER, ever, ever, EVER, allow tax dollars to be used as tuition to a private school – no matter how hard you have to work to find the ‘right’ words to make it sound palatable to the plebes. More on this later this week.

Friday, December 1st, the Parental Choice voucher program was supposed to be open for enrollment. Next thing I know, there’s a communication in my inbox from Senate Pro Temp Greg Treat:

Interesting. KOSU reports that the vendor MERIT is to blame for the delay.

KOKH reports that MERIT is a vendor for the voucher picked by the Oklahoma Tax Commission from a list supplied by OHMES. It wasn’t a competitively bid job. The job of collecting applications wasn’t done inside the OTC, it was farmed to an out-of-state vendor. (Remember when that happened with Federal educational funds dispersed to Oklahoma during COVID? If you’re not sure, look here and here.) All that local Oklahoma student data – to an out-of-state vendor that uses a data warehouse called SNOWFLAKE that functions in the cloud. All one needs to do is look at this page on the Merit site where you see the term “digital wallet” and there’s no way a parent SHOULDN’T wonder where the data associated with their family’s application will go.

Julianne Romanello has done a very large amount of research on Merit and the tax credit/voucher and has found that this whole scheme – vouchering private schools under the government umbrella while collecting huge amounts of data on students – is just another way to connect students to the global education workforce pipeline. She’ll be the first guest on the FIRST ROPE Report after the holidays (Wednesday, January 10th – so mark your calendars NOW!) BEFORE our legislature goes into session, to talk about this. In the meantime, please find our video about all the data collection pathways and the State Longitudinal Data Base on YouTube. Parents, it’s time to OPT OUT of these systems of tracking your children. That’s all I’ll say for now.

In addition, it’s important to note that the tax credit/voucher program started out in the hole. The deal struck with MERIT was for nearly 4 million dollars, yet the legislature had only appropriated one million dollars for set up. Imagine that, the government over-budget on something. But then, imagine the government actually doing the job the legislature intended them to do.

So, Jenni, you gripe and moan but offer no solutions. Well, not exactly. For years our mantra has been, “don’t tax us for failing schools” or alternatively “don’t tax us for public education we don’t use”. So, instead of providing a blanket voucher to people to take government tax dollars to a private school where they’ll then be subject to government regulation, just let us keep our money – period. Don’t take it, make it government property and then return it to me with strings (or to a private organization or individual with strings), just let me keep my own money. If you want to argue that these dollars are not tax dollars, that they’re yours, you’re just getting them back, watch these two short videos culled from interviews we’ve had on the ROPE Report.

Also, please take the time to watch my video on the Oklahoma parental tax credit. You might be surprised what you learn.

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