March 2025

Weekly News Headlines And Commentary – Week of March 10, 2025

ROPE2.org

SB224 And SB141 Are Unnecessary; The WAVE (SLDS) Captures Student Data On Education And The Workforce – AND WAY MORE – Already

I have absolutely no idea why this legislation was proposed. I need to make an appointment and go talk to the author and ask, but this makes no sense. Since 2013 we’ve had a State Longitudinal Database System (SLDS) and it’s still working because I went out to the OSDE website and found all the new fields they’re adding to the School Interoperative Framework (SIF) to collect new data. This article describes the SLDS and why we don’t need a bill for something we already have.

Parent Who Posted Now-Viral State-Approved Waurika Psychology Assignment To Her Facebook Page Speaks Out

Last week I interviewed Ashlyn Jade, the mother who posted the now-viral AP Psychology worksheet given to 11th graders at Waurika Public Schools. She had no intention of running down the coach that produced the worksheet and handed it out, she was simply posting the worksheet to let parents know what was going on. Instead of parents being concerned and wanting to know what was going on, they essentially turned on Ashlyn and dogged her on social media for getting the coach ‘fired’. As our friend V1SUT has pointed out, for some reason, parents in small towns seem to circle the wagons around the school and throw whistleblowers under the bus. This seems to be happening here.

A Discussion About Oklahoma Homeschool And Other Education Legislation

Michael and I talked to Jana Belcher and Robert Scott about some legislation being floated this year. At the end, Robert talked about the tax credits being offered to homeschoolers. The state keeps all the data on all the many tax credits they hand out – and that includes the homeschooling credit and the tax credit for the Parental Choice educational credit – where your name is publicly listed in the Oklahoma Tax Commission data report. Robert essentially makes the point that, if you’re homeschooling, it’s likely that you don’t want your child to be tracked by the government. However, if you take the tax credit, the government not only tracks you, they release your name as well.

Citizen Lobbying 101 – Learning How To Work With Legislators On Important Issues

Our discussion with Carolyn McLarty of Eagle Forum (and former Oklahoma State Republican Committee Woman for 12 years) was a lot of fun. We talked about how citizens should go about dealing with their elected representatives and talked about how people who’d like to go to the Capitol could connect with her through Eagle Forum. It’s always a lot more effective to have more than one person lobby on an issue and Carolyn can help you with that.

Kaiser Partners With OK To Fund Birth To Three ‘Early Education’ Collecting Data On Babies For Tax Dollars To Justify Putting Them In Daycare

All the work I’ve been doing on the SLDS this week got me very concerned when I found that organizations are keeping data on babies at the taxpayer expense. Of course it all stems from money ‘gifted’ to the state in a public/private partnership to ‘help’ the underprivileged in our state. Unfortunately for babies and families, this money comes from the George Kaiser Family Foundation. This is truly a huge problem, taking babies and toddlers away from their parents to be raised by the state while the state collects data on them that they then use to justify getting more tax dollars to keep babies and toddlers away from their parents. Please read this and pass it on to others. It needs to stop.

LEGISLATION

Next week, all the bills must change houses – House bills that have been voted off the floor of the House must go to the Senate and vice-versa. At this point, we will look at the bills that have been passed and make a list of the ones that need to be stopped and the ones that need to be passed. We should have that for you by next week’s news wrap up.

OKLAHOMA SUBSTACK AUTHORS

V1SUT – This week, our friend Mary had two great articles, but the last one is definitely an issue everyone needs to know about. OK Speaker Hilbert Pulls Shady Bill Flip in Gov Stitt’s Ongoing War Against Supt Walters’ Board of Ed tells the tale of gutting one bill and dropping new language into that bill. From the substack: “After 5:00 pm on Wednesday, March 4th, that amended bill was gutted and replaced with language giving Stitt’s new appointees control over the State Board of Education agenda, a right and responsibility historically reserved for the State Superintendent as the only member of that board elected by We the People.” Read the rest of her article to find out why this is bad.

The Sooner Sentinel – Author Marvin Goodman writes multiple times a week so it’s hard to put all his substacks in each week, but PLEASE check out the one he wrote yesterday. It. Is. Scary. The Invisible Eye in the Sky: Dirtbox and the Silent Expansion of Surveillance in 2025. Americans are being heavily surveilled to the point that it’s out of control. We need legislators who have the guts to protect WE THE PEOPLE from these constant invasions of our 4th and 1st and 5th Amendment rights. Please read. I had no idea about any of the things he wrote about here and I’m imagining maybe you might not either and knowledge is power.

Restore Liberty Oklahoma – Wendi Montgomery Dial writes often about election issues. Her latest, is an audio note posted the 7th where she discusses the Make Elections Secure Act (MESA) and what Oklahoma can do to get rid of it.

The Oklahoma State Capitol – Author Jason Murphy’s last post was about the passing of Governor David Boren. Did you know that during his time as Governor he was a staunch advocate of transparency? I didn’t. Check out his substack on Boren for more information.

David Arnett – David is the publisher of Tulsa Today and also writes on his personal substack. Check it out.

Shooting The Oklahoma Breeze – Oklahoman Ryan Kester is sick of the ‘green agenda’. As he has time, he writes about it. Check out his latest post, Another Mirage.

Critical Thinking Still Matters – Okie Author J Ossenkopf writes about various subjects pointing to the lack of critical thinking we humans seem to display currently as a general rule. Her latest is, “The Golden Age of Common Education Funding and Union Influence (Not Academics, Students, Families) in Oklahoma” and it’s a really great summation of all the educational BS that’s been going on and why it is meaningless to outcomes of students. Lots of great data here to mine!

LOCAL MEDIA

Governor calls for audit of Oklahoma mental health agency, says it may need additional funding

Oklahoma Voice: In a shocking turn of events, we find that government misuses the money that is stolen from taxpayers. Worse, we’ll have to pay even more out of the treasury to keep open a government office that has no business being a government office in the first place. Once, long ago now, churches and other private organizations took care of the mentally and physically infirm and little ones. Now, Big Brother does it for us and we’re shocked when we find out they not only don’t do the jobs they were appropriated to do, they misspend they money stolen from us for the cause.

Regent says employee tip led to internal OSU audit that showed alleged misspending

The Oklahoman: Rinse and repeat from above. Government money means little to people using it who often like to believe it’s ‘their’ money.

Governor’s DOGE-OK initiative takes shape ahead of reporting deadline

The Frontier: So, Oklahoma’s very own DOGE is up and running. Here’s a quote from the article: “Stitt appointed Marc Nuttle, a businessman and political insider who worked on the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan and Pat Buchanan, to administer DOGE-OK. Nuttle also coordinated fundraising efforts for Stitt’s inauguration as governor.”

SD 8 GOP primary: Bryan Logan, David Nelson advance to runoff

Non-Doc: BOY WAS THIS GREAT NEWS! Bryan Logan knocked it out of the park with a whopping over 40% in the primary. Now, we’ve just got to stay focused and help him finish out the homestretch on May 13th. (Let’s not ask why our Governor took so long to call this election, since the people of SD8 will have had no representation through nearly the ENTIRE legislative session – and let’s not ask why Senator Roger Thompson had to throw such a baby fit and quit and leave his district without representation for nearly the ENTIRE legislative session.) Let’s also remember that the swamp would prefer Bryan’s opponent, so all the stops will come out before May. Here’s an interview we did with Bryan for our Candidate Corner. Please share.

NATIONAL MEDIA

Chris Wright: “We need more energy. Lots more energy.”

Robert Bryce Substack: Bryce quoting Wright, “Everywhere wind and solar penetration have increased significantly, prices on the grid went up and stability of the grid went down.” Now, can we convince our tax-credit-happy Governor to get away from the stupidity? Who knows, but we can’t quit trying.

Breaking News: South Dakota Governor Signs HB 1052

FreeSoil Foundation: “South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden signed HB 1052 to protect property rights and prohibit the use of eminent domain for CO2 pipeline projects.” This is great news for SD and I’m hoping that, not far behind, will come a real repudiation of the whole C02 carbon credit scheme that’s driving so much of this stuff from Harold Hamm (Continental Oil) down.

With lawyers and judges like those the American Bar Association advances, the United States will quickly discard what’s left of our constitutional order

The Federalist: Hopefully, people are learning that nearly ALL the organizations they had believed to be at least politically ‘neutral’ have been taken over by leftists. Look at the AMA and other US medical groups. A study just last year found that, “Overall, activism is common across specialty medical societies. Among the 26 societies that take stances, 23 (88%) do so on multiple issues.” From the Federalist article, “By endorsing race and sex discrimination, presidents unilaterally changing the Constitution, and forbidding elected executive control of unelected executive bureaucrats, the ABA has disqualified itself as a legal organization or any kind of legitimate player in American public life. No elected official who has made a public vow to preserve and protect the Constitution should give this anti-American pressure organization the time of day.”

Honors Student Sues After Graduating Without Being Able to Read

The Liberty Sentinel/Alex Newman: From the article, “Despite graduating from high school with “honors” and being accepted into the University of Connecticut on a scholarship, 19-year-old government-school victim Aleysha Ortiz cannot read or write. At all. Literally. And she’s hardly alone. Now, with help from an attorney, Ortiz is suing the city and the school board. And the national media is paying attention.” I knew social promotion was happening back in the early 2000’s – it’s one of the reasons I left public school teaching. We can write laws against social promotion all we want, but it’s still done and it will CONTINUE to be done until parents wake up and decide to take an interest in what their kids are learning at school. As our friend Kendra Wesson has said before, all it takes is a parent who will listen to a child read on a regular basis to tell how well they’re doing in school. If you can’t do even that, you’re dooming your child to this same outcome. That is a parental responsibility and until parents accept their responsibilities, they don’t have parental rights.

March 10, 2025 0

Kaiser Partners With OK To Fund Birth To Three ‘Early Education’ Collecting Data On Babies For Tax Dollars To Justify Putting Them In Daycare

Friday, Michael and I had Carolyn McLarty on during the first hour of the podcast to talk about citizen lobbying. It was a great show! I really urge you to check out the whole thing on YouTube or Rumble.

After Carolyn had gone, Michael and I talked about numerous issues, but one of those was about the data being collected on students. In the video below, Michael and I talked about how many apps and computer programs students now use at school and how those are often collecting data from their interaction with the program/application.

This article is from our original blogspot and was written in 2014 when we were trying to stop the State Longitudinal Database. I suggest you at least open it and scan it because it gives some pretty good examples as to how classroom data mining is happening through programs and applications used in the classroom.

Here are Michael and I talking about that very thing on Friday’s show.

This morning, I found a message in my Facebook messenger from an old “common core” friend. She sent me a website – the Kids Count Data Center. I remembered having seen that years ago, but I hadn’t looked into it recently. I scrolled through Oklahoma’s collected data categories and was – once again – completely freaked out by what I found.

The data is apparently provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) – a non-profit organization started by the man who created UPS. The AECF credits itself with helping to start the foster care system while moving toward the abolishment of orphanages.

I ran AECF through Data Republican and was not able to find that they take tax dollars of any kind, nor are they granted monies from organizations that take tax dollars. I was able to find some of the organizations they fund, however, and two things are clear; they donate to large organizations that do collect lots of taxpayer dollars and they donate lots of money to leftist, ‘social change’ organizations. This makes me wonder at the reasons for which they are collecting so much data on kids.

From the AECF website I was able to find out that the only grant given in Oklahoma was to the Oklahoma Policy Institute, headquartered in Tulsa. No shock then – after running them through Data Republican – the OPI is funded by a number of leftist organizations including the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the Tulsa Community Foundation.

This is interesting and concerning. Statistics can be made to say whatever the person using the statistic wants them to say. What do leftists want with all this data?

The AECF makes no bones about the fact that they are collecting all their data to influence policy decisions made by legislators.

Here’s a PERFECT example. “The First Eight Years” is a report created by the AECF populated with data collected through the Foundation. Why? To give policymakers reason to FUND early childhood education with tax dollars – tax-funded DAY CARE essentially – on the notion that it’s the “best way to ensure a successful workforce in the future”.

Apparently their strategy has worked in Oklahoma since 2006, when the Oklahoma legislature created OECP – the Oklahoma Early Childhood Program (OECP) – headquartered in…wait for it…TULSA. The OECP is tasked to “improve the quality of early education and expand capacity to serve children from birth through age three statewide.” (bold for emphasis)

According to this 2011 Tulsa Today article, the George Kaiser Family Foundation gave the Tulsa Community Action Project (CAP) 92 million dollars from 2004 to 2011. CAP is an OECP ‘partner’. So is Tulsa Educare – also funded by Kaiser.

Because I was offended by the fact that the AECF would/could collect information on kids NOT IN SCHOOL, I clicked on the data point called, “Young Children Not In School”. This data came from the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey. So, families actually taking this survey, coughed up to the federal government that their kids weren’t in school and that information was entered into the US Census Bureau database – which is shared with the public and across government databases.

This is the reason the AECF gives for collecting this data on babies.

High-quality prekindergarten programs for 3- and 4-year-olds can improve school readiness, with the greatest gains accruing to the highest-risk children. Head Start and the expansion of state-funded programs since the 1990s have greatly increased access to preschool. But many children, especially 3-year-olds, continue to be left out, exacerbating socioeconomic differences in educational achievement.

What is ‘school readiness’? What is high-risk? Whatever the AECF, CAP, OECP says it is – usually based on a definition created by some group in the ‘get money from tax payers to take babies away from their parents’ scam.

At this point, I’d like to point out information from the OECP’s 2024 Annual Report.

Please note, this is supposed to be a state agency, yet George Kaiser funds the majority, while the state of Oklahoma comes in a paltry second. Also note, wages and benefits are the majority of the spending here because all the staff are involved in thinking about things related to how to grade childcare centers and the children inside. Here are two things the staff did last year.

They determined how attached to the caregiver BABIES and TODDLERS were. Shouldn’t we care more about the fact that these babies are in a place where they are NOT becoming attached to their parents?

And then there’s this:

Yes, Oklahoma is measuring the literacy of babies and toddlers and the state of Oklahoma is using tax dollars to do this, while partnering with an Obama donation bundler.

And let’s think on this just a minute. According to the OECP annual report, 3,666 children were ‘served’ by this program. Do the math. That’s an expense of almost ELEVEN THOUSAND dollars a child – for DAY CARE that the state and its private partners have dubbed EARLY EDUCATION.

In closing (for now), I’m going to add the diagrams I created while studying the State Longitudinal Database back in the 20-teens. THIS is why all this data collection is a problem. Once the data is collected, it goes everywhere and everywhere it goes, it populates databases that follow kids throughout their public school and work careers. Hopefully, it’s obvious why this is bad. Hopefully, it’s obvious why we need our lawmakers to protect our kids from this kind of intrusive nonsense that does nothing but build reasons for taking more and more tax dollars from citizens to fund more and more ways to take their tax dollars – and babies.

March 9, 2025 0

Citizen Lobbying 101 – Learning How To Work With Legislators On Important Issues

Carolyn McLarty was our guest, Friday, March 7th. She has worked with the Oklahoma Republican Party where she was the State Committee Woman for 12 years, but she’s also worked with Eagle Forum, a citizen lobbying group begun in the 1970’s by Phyllis Schlafly of ERA fame. Check out the full video, here on YouTube and also on Rumble.

This year, Carolyn is working to ramp up Oklahoma’s Eagle Forum group again. This is great news.

Over the years, I’ve met so many people who want to get involved with ‘politics’, but don’t know how to begin. I saw COVID wake people up to the realization that other people were running their lives, and that those people were in our Government. Many of those newly-awakened decided they wanted to get their lives back by getting involved beyond just posting angry screeds to social media and yelling at the television. Now, with the influx of the green agenda and serious issues like eminent domain coming to the forefront of their everyday lives, lots of people are getting interested in legislation and who is representing them in the state and Washington, D.C.. Unfortunately, since Oklahoma quit teaching civics long ago, many of them aren’t quite sure how to do that.

I’ve known Carolyn many years. She was active in the Common Core fight and provided so much guidance and help toward finally getting that repealed.

On Friday she gave a bit of a breakdown on things that Citizen Lobbyists should do.

She even shared with us a poem she’d written about lobbying:

If you’re interested in getting more information on lobbying from Carolyn – and/or helping her get Eagle Forum back up and going again, please email her! She’d LOVE to hear from you – carolyn.eagleforumok@gmail.com.

March 8, 2025 0

A Discussion About Oklahoma Homeschool And Other Education Legislation

Wednesday, March 5th, Michael and I talked to Jana Belcher and Robert Scott – both Homeschooling parents who have been heavily involved in lobbying the legislature to remove homeschoolers from the Parental Choice Tax Credit voucher legislation. It was a really great conversation and covered much more than just homeschooling. Please find the full live video here on our YouTube channel and on Rumble as well.

For years, trying to fight this tax credit, so many of us have said that private schools will just raise their rates once the tax credit comes online. If more students come to the school, more teachers and instructional materials will be necessary, raising the price. And not only that, it just gives a school a good excuse to raise rates. In the clip below, Robert gives an example of exactly that happening.

In the clip below, Robert talks about the data bill we’ve been warning about. Though we didn’t talk about the specific inclusion of homeschoolers in the database, years ago when Julia Seay, Lynn Habluetzel and I were studying data collection and trying to stop implementation of a State Longitudinal Database, we had found information indicating that there were fields in the database for collecting data related to homeschooling – which concerned a whole lot of homeschoolers.

And finally, in the last clip I pulled from the full video, Robert shows us that every individual who files for the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit has their name and the amount of their tax credit listed in the Oklahoma Tax Commission, Tax Credits database online. There is no address or phone number listed, just the name and the amount of the tax credit, but the point is, anyone can look you up to see your ‘award’.

Below is a PDF of Robert’s slide presentation. Please share this information with friends and family – and especially homeschoolers who want to take this government handout.

March 7, 2025 0

Parent Who Posted Now-Viral State-Approved Waurika Psychology Assignment To Her Facebook Page Speaks Out

A truly unfortunate event happened in the classroom of Ashlyn Jade’s niece at Waurika Public Schools Monday afternoon.

According to an interview with Ashlyn this afternoon, Coach Roger Jesse, a teacher/coach with 40+ years in Oklahoma education – and someone with many years of service and an excellent reputation in Waurika Public Schools – gave his 11th grade psychology class an assignment that has now made internet viral status.

Coach Jesse was asked to teach a new extra curricular psychology class at Waurika High School this semester. Ashlyn believes that, in a hurry and under duress from a strenuous teaching/coaching schedule, he downloaded a STATE APPROVED psychology curriculum to use during his class on Monday afternoon, copied it and handed it out without really reviewing it.

Ashlyn’s niece, very uncomfortable with the subject matter, took a picture of the assignment and uploaded it to Snap Chat during class, where it stayed 24 hours – long enough for her 5th grade daughter to see it in her feed in the morning. Her daughter then screenshot the post and sent the photo to her mother.

Immediately upset, Ashlyn put in a call to Waurika High School Principal, Derek Milburn. When Principal Milburn returned her call, Ashlyn explained to him exactly what had happened and that she was very upset that, not only was her 11th grade niece exposed to this kind of assignment, but that her 5th grade daughter had found it on SnapChat.

According to Ashlyn, Principal Milburn seemed rushed and dismissed her by saying that ‘it was already taken care of and that she shouldn’t worry about it. All the parents of students who had been effected had been made aware.’

Ashlyn knew the Snap had gone viral and that a very large number of Waurika Public Schools students had already seen it. She told me she doesn’t believe that Mr. Milburn knew that fact, but because she felt as though the Principal was essentially dismissing her concern that her 5th grade daughter (and other students in the school system) had seen it, she posted the assignment to her Facebook page out of frustration and to make a point.

The post went viral in a short time, with even State Superintendent Ryan Walters posting it – unedited – from his social media accounts.

Not long after the post went viral, so did the accusations from community members pointed in her direction.

Ashlyn says she’s being accused of calling a beloved Coach a predator and she wants to say that this perspective isn’t at all true. During our interview, she called my attention back to her original post, the top of which is posted above. She never mentioned any names, nor even the school system. It only became known that the assignment was from Waurika because someone commenting on her post asked if the incident had happened in Waurika and she answered “yes”.

It wasn’t until Wednesday afternoon that Waurika Public Schools addressed the incident publicly with a letter posted to their Facebook page written by Cody Simmons, WPS’ Superintendent.

According to Ashlyn, Coach Jesse has been put on leave and is being asked to retire. She doesn’t believe that’s fair.

Ashlyn said that she made the post to “shed light on the fact that the teacher used a state approved curriculum. Coach Jesse copied and pasted an assignment that was approved by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. He was not a psychology teacher, he was a coach teaching a psychology class. He copied and pasted the OSDE curriculum and gave it to students without really reading it. He was just overworked.”

She advocates for the return of Roger Jesse and says that she “believes that the responsibility and repercussions for this terrible situation should not fall on the shoulders of the teacher, but on Principal Milburn, Superintendent Simmons and State Superintendent Ryan Walters” because this was part of a state approved psychology curriculum.

Ashlyn has a point. It seems as though the teacher made a really terrible mistake. If you were a hurried teacher and you went to the OSDE website and downloaded curriculum that had been approved for use in high school, would you really worry too much about it being inappropriate for use in state classrooms? I’m not excusing Coach Jesse of all the responsibility for the issue – whether it came from the OSDE or not, he should have really examined what he was using in class – but in light of Ashlyn’s comments, there is some plausibility for his lack of diligence.

In 2021, I wrote an article titled, “Oklahoma State Department of Education Promoting “Anti” Racist (CRT) Propaganda and Risk Behavior Surveys Through SEL and Counseling Services“. After seeing the information and curriculum being pushed under the Hoffmeister administration that was available ON THE OSDE WEBSITE, I totally believe that Coach Jesse downloaded something that should never have been used in an Oklahoma k-12 classroom because it was up on the OSDE website for teachers to download.

Who’s fault is that? Ultimately, it’s our Superintendent’s fault. The buck stops on his desk. He’s had no trouble pounding his dashboard during in-car videos railing (rightly) against discriminatory practices in schools, but he should be doing less pounding/videos and concentrating more on what’s on the state website for teachers to download.

Then, there’s the tepid, dismissive response of the Principal to Ashley. He – and the Superintendent – should have known that students would share that kind of crazy assignment on social media like crazy and be more concerned about ALL the students who could have seen it, instead of just those students in class.

Ashlyn Jade did what she felt like she needed to do as a parent, and an Aunt, and she’s taking a pretty good beating over it in the community. But then, our Superintendent posted an UNEDITED version to his social media. HOW RESPONSIBLE IS THAT? Shouldn’t he have focused on just the part about the investigation?

In the end, there’s a whole lot of blame to go around when it comes to this incident, but I don’t see Ashlyn as a party to that. Parents NEED to speak out when they see this kind of thing – that’s how they protect their children – and they should do that whether anyone else likes that or not.

March 6, 2025 1

SB224 And SB141 Are Unnecessary; The WAVE (SLDS) Captures Student Data On Education And The Workforce – AND WAY MORE – Already

For those of you who have followed ROPE since the days (2008-2014) when we were called Restore Oklahoma Public Education (ROPE), you’ll recognize the flowchart, that Lynn Habluetzel (former ROPE Board member) and I created together to show how Obama’s Race To The Top grant program was fueling ways in which the government would track YOUR CHILDREN all under the guise of ‘helping’ them. What did Reagan say, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help”?

This session, our ‘helpful’ legislature – particularly Representative Chad Caldwell and Senator Ally Seifried – have decided to add to the State Longitudinal Database System (SLDS) so loved by former REPUBLICAN State Superintendent Janet Baressi. Here is the text of the bill. In addition, Seifried and Dick Lowe (SB141) are directing the OSDE to issue RFP’s for a “statewide student information system”. I guess, we’re the only ones that remember the information below apparently.

I was going to publish a list of reasons why this bill shouldn’t even be considered, but I’ll just say this – WE ALREADY HAVE A STATE LONGITUDINAL DATABASE (aka Statewide Student Information System) and according to everything we learned years ago, it was set up to do all the same stuff outlined in the bill by the person responsible for setting the whole scheme up by the Obama administration in the first place, John Kraman – now the Chief Information Officer for the Mississippi State Department of Education.

Here’s what we know.

We know that the state got a Race To The Top grant for $4,997,082 to construct the SLDS in 2012.

We know that Oklahoma created a P20 Council via law to oversee the project which was supposed to have sunset (gone away) in 2015.

We know that The Wave is “OSDE’s primary system for collecting data from schools to perform necessary duties and functions” (Oklahoma’s SLDS). Incidentally, the link that is supposed to tell parents exactly what data is collected via The Wave is not working, which violates section C.1 of the law we helped implement in 2013 (2013 Student Data Accessibility, Transparency, and Accountability Act, 70 O.S. § 3-168) until we realized it didn’t say what we expected it to say – story on that here.

We know that the OSDE has a data governance board.

We know that the OSDE has a Data Privacy Program Plan.

Here is a list of The Wave Code Tables to give you an idea of the kind of data our SLDS is storing.

We know that the OSDE is continually updating the Schools Interoperative Framework (SIF) and has new updates ready this year (2025).

And finally, we know that The Wave allows data researchers/teachers/etc., to pull information on students regarding their post-secondary and (‘workforce’) ‘opportunities’.

In closing:

STOP COLLECTING DATA ON KIDS! THERE IS NO NEED FOR THIS UNLESS THE IDEA IS FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO EDUCATE STUDENTS FOR JOBS LIKE THE EU DOES.

And if there’s still any concern that Oklahoma needs more excuses to collect data on kids, below is the presentation I made to the House Admin rules, Government Oversight and Repealer Committee during October of 2013. It’s a MUST WATCH because it contains the flowcharts I prepared that show how the state – and the feds – collect student data.

Here is the paper that contains all the LIVE links to all the research Lynn, Julia Seay (former ROPE Board member) and I did on the SLDS during the time Oklahoma was implementing that monster.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE share this information with every parent and grandparent you can and IMMEDIATELY contact your Representative and Senator and tell them that they MUST vote NO for SB224 and SB141 and any other data collection bill in the state legislature.

March 3, 2025 0

Weekly News Headlines And Commentary – Week of March 3, 2025

Oh my gosh. Lots and lots and lots of news from last week!!! So many things going on to try and follow – including legislation!

ROPE2.org

Colonel Jim Putnam, Candidate for Edmond School Board – Virtual Presence Is Actual Absence

Colonel Jim Putnam is running for Edmond School Board. We interviewed him on the podcast, Wednesday, February 26th, and had such fun. That guy is smart and tough and tested and has the right idea about school boards – they control the school! I made a couple video clips from our interview which I hope everyone will share with people who live in the district. Edmond Public Schools would absolutely be a better place with Colonel Jim on the Board! Make sure you click on the link to see the videos. In one, he tells a story that is just hysterical. It’ll start your week off with a giggle.

Governor Stitt (R) Warns Trump Not To Dump Green Subsidies.

While I was researching something else this week, I accidentally came upon an interview that Governor Stitt had done with the online rag (I mean mag…LOL) POLITICO. Yes, POLITICO. I guess they wanted to talk to him because our Governor now sounds more like a Democrat than a Republican. The article was a mess, but even worse was the video interview he did with them. The interviewer was HORRIBLE and Governor Stitt honestly made a fool out of himself talking about the free market while giving tax subsidies and other handouts like candy. Links to the articles and the interview is in the piece – including a video I put together SHOWING that our governor literally loves green energy and has no clue what ‘free enterprise’ and ‘picking winners and losers’ means.

Guest Don Spencer, OK2A President Wows Us With Some History And 2A Legislation

Former Representative, Jason Murphy knows a lot about the legislature, having served there a full 12 year term. Today, he is making the most of that knowledge by writing a Substack called, “The Oklahoma State Capitol“. He joined Michael and I on the podcast last week to talk about how the legislative process – at least the way its been run in recent history – is simply a shell game to keep the citizenry appeased and the lobbyists/big business interests that run the state, happy. You’ll want to read the blog to see who all these interests are so you can keep your eye out for them.

Former SD15 Candidate Robert Keyes, His Fight For Election Integrity, The Evidence In His Case And SB654 To Remove The Election Law At The Center Of It All

Friday morning (2.28.25), we had President of OK2A, Don Spencer on to talk about gun bill legislation going through the capitol this session. It was a really great conversation – especially when he talked about the Oklahoma Constitution and why Don and his group are still having to work so hard on firearm legislation. See the article for video clips. We also talked to Michael’s brother Mark about the federal Department of Education employee who got busted by Project Veritas for admitting that they protected illegal aliens from ICE. Mark also talked a bit about when he was a professor.

Who’s Running The Show? Oklahoma Carbon Capture, Part 2

Those of you who read Part 1 in my Oklahoma Carbon Capture series might be interested in Part 2. In this segment, I outline the people who are ‘invested’ (for lack of a better word) in Oklahoma’s carbon capture plant – the biggest one in the US. I’m not sure it’s who you think it might be, but you might have pegged the fact that they are a group of elitists who care about making money off the backs of taxpayers while ‘saving the planet’. They could care less if you want to farm or have an unobstructed view of the prairie, you’re just the little people who don’t really know what you want any more than to be guided by their much smarter (and richer) hands. This is a good one to share with friends and family who still think we’re a red state.

LEGISLATION

Much legislation has been passed through Committees this session, with more coming up this week. The cell phone bill was the first bill passed off the floor, unsurprisingly, since the Governor and the House and Senate leadership all want this STUPID bill (Usurping Local Control – Cell Phone Restrictions In Oklahoma – NO on SB1389 and HB1276). That article goes over the many reasons this is such a BAD bill and why it needs to be voted down by the House and Senate both.

As usual, the two-tiered committee system in the House is making it very hard to see which bills are out of committee and going for the floor. The week of the 3rd is the last week for bills to be heard in committees. After that, all the bills will finish up their hearings on the floor of the Senate and the House. We’ll have a pause then, to take stock of the bills that have passed BOTH houses, so we can put our heads together and determine which bills must be stopped (or passed) in committee on the other side of the capitol. We’ll publish the list at that time so EVERYONE can keep them on their radar!

I have to say that I felt so much more informed when I was just following education legislation. Trying to keep up with bad bills in all the legislative sectors is making my head spin!

OKLAHOMA SUBSTACK AUTHORS

Don’t forget to check out our Substack authors this week!

The Oklahoma State Capitol by Jason Murphy

The Sooner Sentinel by Marven Goodman

V1SUT Vantage by ‘Mary’

LOCAL MEDIA

The biggest local news of the week was the TULSA PUBLIC SCHOOLS audit by our fabulous State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd. Here is the link to the actual 60-page audit. I suggest you at least scan it.

State audit finds culture of poor financial transparency at Tulsa Public Schools

Oklahoma Voice – We intend on having SAI Byrd on the ROPE Report Live podcast as soon as she’s able to talk to us in depth about this audit. There can’t be enough said about what a big deal it was. In fact, one of the biggest findings showed how the school board was left out of the administrative process altogether, while administrators created the school culture they wanted using lots of loopholes. It also shows the problem with public money being ‘given’ to private organizations which were used extensively at TPS. Now that the audit is through, we need to keep an eye on what happens next. If there are no arrests or prosecutions in this case, Oklahomans should throw up their hands in disgust and Tulsans should get a new DA as soon as possible. There is no reason for the SAI’s office to work this hard on an audit only to have the audit offenders in the same positions they were in BEFORE the audit. Prosecutions MUST be made for taxpayers, parents and the community to get any real relief.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: Counties and Townships Authority to Zone, Permit, and Approve Certain Wind, Solar, and Other Green Energy Construction Projects

AG’s Office – This document is from the Oklahoma AG’s office. It’s a series of questions and answers about different types of local governments and what they can and can’t do so that citizens will know how to properly petition them for redress of local issues related to green energy projects.

Report shows $19.3M in Oklahoma’s private-school tax credits went to wealthier households

The Oklahoman – We’ve said it SO many times – the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit was going to be a boondoggle for Oklahoma taxpayers. It’s already caused private school tuition to go up – which we hypothesized it would – and now we find that nearly 25% of all the scholarships are going to people who can afford to send their own kids to private school if they really wanted to do so – families who made more than $250,000. Yes, Democrats are opposed to the voucher system because they claim it takes money away from public schools, but Conservatives like us rail against it because it violates the two biggest tenets of Conservatism – it grew government and it takes from one set of taxpayers to give to another. Only those people making over $250k are an actual tax credit – and even then, depending upon their income, they may have exceeded their tax credit and need a voucher for a second or third child’s tuition. Just a horrid plan. The legislature should quit giving public schools money carte blanche and make them actually perform to get paid. THAT would straighten them out, but our legislators are too chicken to even try the one thing that would make schools responsible to parents instantaneously.

Bixby superintendent Rob Miller announces run for state superintendent

News 9 – Back in the day, Rob Miller actually helped ROPE stop Common Core. We still have the video of Miller testifying before the House Common Ed Committee in November 2013 on our YouTube channel. Unfortunately, since that time, Miller has veered off the more conservative track. In fact, in Bixby, a group called Bixby Parents Voice has had to fight Miller’s leadership on a number of issues, including disgusting literature and parent comments at school board meetings. We’ll have to keep an eye on this situation and maybe even ask Miller to come on the podcast…

Could Oklahoma schools start offering free three-year-old pre-k?

KGOU – “House Bill 2395 by Rep. Brian Hill (R-Mustang) would amend existing law to allow schools to offer half-day or full-day pre-kindergarten for three-year-olds.” ABSOLUTELY NOT – UNDER NO CONDITIONS. Number one, schools are now going to have to possibly find day care teachers to change the diapers of toddlers in public school? Isn’t that what day care centers are for? If it’s to help parents who can’t afford day care, there are (of course) taxpayer subsidies to help with that. Secondly, it takes SMALL KIDS AWAY FROM PARENTS and makes the SCHOOL THEIR PARENT! We’re not going to get any closer to a world where we have happy families with children who can think for themselves if we’re going to allow government schools to start raising kids at younger and younger ages. NO NO NO NO NO!

Supreme Court sets date to hear whether Oklahoma can open publicly funded religious charter school

KOCO 5 News – The Supreme Court has set April 30th as the date when it will hear the case of St. Isadore Catholic school receiving taxpayer dollars as a private, religious charter school. This situation actually violates the Oklahoma Constitution, but apparently, in their desire to completely begin to fund ALL KINDS of religious schools with taxpayer funds, the state could care less. They’ve had to drag it to the Supreme Court. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will put the Supreme kibosh on this idea, because my God is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14) and I can’t imagine having to fund a Madrasa or a school of Satan via my tax dollars.

NATIONAL MEDIA

IMMIGRATION

I’m lumping several articles together here because I think they’re important as a group.

DHS will require migrants without legal status to register with U.S. government – Oklahoma Voice

Maine’s Schools Collapse as More Migrants Pour In – Breitbart

Hispanic Americans Eager for Bold Immigration Reform – The Washington Stand

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt Signs Illegal Immigration Bill Only To Open Door To VISA Taskforce

For those who may not remember, last week, Governor Stitt – angry over a State School Board agenda item to allow schools to simply count the number of illegal students – fired the three board members who voted for it and replaced them with three other picks. Please note the Breitbart article, which essentially says that Maine’s schools are collapsing under the weight of illegal students who can’t take tests in English but are required to, who can’t communicate with their teachers – which means they can’t learn anything – and who need so much remediation that Maine is having to spend more and more money just to keep their heads above water. No one is helped in this situation – not the students, the families, the schools or the taxpayers, but Governor Stitt simply wouldn’t entertain the notion that Oklahoma is having the same problem and needs to get a grip on the problem – the first start of which would be to see how many illegal students there are in the Oklahoma public education system.

This was more of a problem under the Biden administration because the Democrats were not only allowing illegal immigration, they were continually promoting it. Now, with Trump in office set on stopping the rolling tide of illegal immigrants to the US by creating policies like that of forcing illegals to register, it shouldn’t be rocket science to at least count the number of illegal students in order to try and help schools appropriately help non-English-speaking students.

According to the article in the Washington Stand, legal Hispanic citizens don’t want the effects of illegal immigration any more than any other citizens in this country legally. We had an entire podcast about that fact with two legal Oklahoma citizens of Hispanic origin. Why Governor Stitt had such a fit over this issue is a complete mystery – or is it? We’re investigating that now.

Examining a new method of estimating homeschool participation

Thomas Fordham Institute – Put under the category “scary”. Why it is that so many people feel as though they need to know exactly how many families are doing the most normal thing in the world – educating their own children just like their forefathers did? But then again, it scares authoritarians when they can’t make everyone do what they want, so I guess it’s not so shocking. I would just suggest that no one needs to know how many homeschoolers are out there for any reason at all and leave it at that.

Apple Rejects Attempts To Protect Children From Online Sex Abuse, Repeal Harmful DEI Policies

The Federalist – Alliance Defending Freedom worked to introduce resolutions at Apple’s shareholder meeting that would protect children from online sexual abuse and remove DEI programming and all four were voted down. I know so many people just can’t live without their I-whatever, but this is truly bad news and should make Apple owners think twice.

Poll: Rate of People Who Identify as LGBTQ at Record High

The Washington Stand – “Gallup chalked up the trend to an uptick in younger, liberal women identifying as bisexual during the years of the Biden administration.” In the last two years of the Biden administration alone there was a sharp increase, with the percent of Gen Z that identified as LGBT going “from an average of 18.8% of Gen Z adults in 2020 through 2022 to an average of 22.7% from 2022 to 2024.” Yet another concerning trend.

March 3, 2025 0

Who’s Running The Show? Oklahoma Carbon Capture, Part 2

One day, while surfing the web for information relating to green energy, I stumbled onto the fact that Oklahoma has the largest carbon capture plant in the United States and the second largest in the world.

Immediately, I contacted friends in Osage county – where the plant is located – and no one I spoke with knew anything about it at all; from long-time politically active folks who get around in their community regularly, to the two County Commissioners I spoke with, to the outgoing Sheriff, to the county clerk. NO ONE had any idea that the LARGEST CARBON CAPTURE PLANT IN THE NATION was right down the road in Shidler off an old oil company road.

Interestingly, neither the Corporation Commission nor DEQ knew much about it either according to the employees I spoke with and neither one of them knew who regulated the site to keep Oklahomans safe from accidental discharge of CO2 (which has injured people in Satartia, Mississippi).

This all makes complete sense when reading a Senator Dave Rader-authored bill that passed through the Energy Committee this session to give the Corporation Commission jurisdiction over carbon capture facilities. So who’s monitoring the CO2 capture facility now? Does our Governor just do these deals on his own and not worry one little bit about the safety or security of Oklahomans? It surely seems that, in Oklahoma, it’s the ‘green’ energy wild west where everything goes so long as we’ve got an “all of the above” energy policy to push forward.

In fact, I only learned anything about the facility at all because I found a video of Governor Stitt excitedly congratulating the company Heimdal for the creation of the carbon capture plant, ‘Bantam’, on Heimdal’s LinkdIn page. Heimdal is the brainchild of a 30-something named, Marcus Lima – a chemist from Norway.

Lima created Heimdal’s carbon capture technology through Y Combinator in 2021, specifically to take advantage of green energy handouts such as the IRA’s $180 per ton credit of CO2 that is captured and stored through at least 2032. Yes, you read that right. He started the process SPECIFICALLY to get the ‘free’ money.

Heimdal is backed by Sam Altman – another 30-something who assumed control of Open AI after Elon Musk stepped down, took it public and then got fired. He and his husband just recently had a baby.

After my article about Oklahoma’s carbon capture fame came out in the Federalist, a post on Marcus Lima’s LinkdIn page, caught me by surprise

These remarks were made after he read a serious article in a national online magazine.

Because I’m me, I commented on the post:

Not long after I posted this, I received a reply in my message box from Lima:

Either he’s a very considerate European, or someone suggested he respond to me and then delete the post. Either way, the original post has been deleted from his LinkdIn page. Note that in his response he mentions only the Native American populations. What about the ‘regular’ folk? Again, no one I spoke to knew anyone who knew anything about this ‘groundbreaking’ plant. This is telling.

I noted that in his post he lists his “fellow secretive luminaries” as Kevin Stitt, Scott M, Victoria Tran, John Podesta and James Lankford. We know Stitt, Scott M. is either Scott Mueller (briefly Secretary of Commerce and Workforce Development, who now works for Goldman Sachs), or Scott Mitchell (an Oklahoma broadcaster). Victoria Tran was the Deputy Secretary of Oklahoma Secretary of Energy & Environment at some point, but I can’t find her listed in that position any more. John Podesta is the creepy democrat political operative who’s worked for everyone from the Clintons to the Obamas and who served as Senior Advisor to President Biden for International Climate Policy from 2024 to 2025 after which he became the Chair of the leftist Center for American Progress. Then, of course, there’s our liberal Republican Senator Lankford, who has a lovely picture with Lima still up on Lima’s LinkdIn page.

He also has a photo of himself with the AG – “We discussed CLass VI well permitting and primacy for the State of Oklahoma, as well as Heimdal plans for DAC facilities in the State, with the launch of Bantam, as well as our expansion plans. It’s clear direct air capture (DAC) and carbon management broadly has an ambitious future and home in Oklahoma.”

I’m not sure what the AG has to do with any of that, but this was upsetting. He wants MORE Direct Air Capture (DAC) facilities in Oklahoma. Why? This has nothing to do with oil and gas exploration (although there is experimentation with injecting liquid CO2 into old wells as a way of fracking out new oil, instead of using salt water). This has everything to do with carbon credits and ‘sequestering’ CO2. In fact, in an article posted to Heimdal’s website but released by Bloomberg News, Lima says, “The world must cut greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible, and research shows reducing the use of fossil fuels is the fastest way to do so.”

Why in the world are we chasing after DAC technology in Oklahoma? This is the entire basis for the Carbon Credit scheme and the Green New Deal. This should be upsetting I would think – especially to REPUBLICANS as this whole thing is just a way to usher in a new economy based entirely on NOTHING. This whole technology is about nothing more than investors creating investment projects to make themselves more money.

Under the Biden administration and the IRA, these kinds of projects were not only ideologically ‘funded’, but funded with billions of our tax dollars as well.

We know that President Trump has said he hates wind turbines and that he’s not inclined to continue IRA subsidies, but then we have Governor Stitt giving an interview to POLITICO where he says that he’s asking the President to continue the subsidies to keep the green energy projects funded we already have going here in the state.

We can almost forgive the Altman’s and Lima’s – as Rush Limbaugh is quoted as saying, “If you’re not a liberal at twenty, you have no heart; if you’re not a conservative at forty, you have no brain.” But our Governor should be expected to DO better – if not KNOW better – if not for his age, but for the fact that he should have advisors to dispense topical thoughts and a pulse on his constituency, listening to their desires. Yet he doesn’t. He rules Oklahoma like a King – on his own with advisors he picks himself and changes depending upon whether or not he likes what they have to say – look at the State School Board, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, his Energy and Environmental Secretary and the Oklahoma Veterans Commission – and these are but a few examples. This history does not at all indicate an affinity for Oklahomans, but a myopic, self-centered, elitist view of governing that can only acknowledge his constituency as “the little people”.

Here in Oklahoma, the only ones crying out about the continued shoving of the Green Agenda down our throats in a Red State are the CONSERVATIVE little people; land owners and rural people effected by CO2 pipelines that can break and discharge their deadly gas onto their livestock and families – farmers whose land can become ruined from the oil and fiberglass thrown down to the soil by fractured wind turbines – communities whose farmland is being usurped for huge solar panel installations that seed the ground with glass and toxic chemicals should they catch fire or be damaged by hail or a tornado, preventing local food from ever being grown there again.

Unfortunately, Oklahomans have tended to love these authoritarian types of Republican Governors, we can only hope to learn from our history and be wiser in 2026.

March 2, 2025 2

Guest Don Spencer, OK2A President Wows Us With Some History And 2A Legislation

So enjoyed having Don Spencer on the program Friday morning! I have to say, once Constitutional Carry passed, I thought there really wasn’t much left for OK2A to do! Boy was I wrong! Catch everything we discussed on the full live video on Rumble and on YouTube.

When I said that on the program, Don laughed and then set me straight!

I have to say, I really enjoyed the history lesson! So, please, don’t forget that Don and OK2A have a few bills that need your attention this session. Go to Don’s channel on YouTube and hear all of them specifically. Also, as I’m sure Don would like to have me remind you!!! You can sign up for an OK2A membership – it’s only $25 – and you can get all his updates via email, video and text! Just navigate to his website to do that!

Before we talked to Don, we talked to Michael’s brother Mark about his recollections of Travis Combs – the guy who was a Branch Chief at the Department of Education who was outed by Project Veritas talking about how he and his group were covering for illegals. In the course of that conversation, Mark – who used to be a Professor at UT in Austin – talked about some of the crazy things that drove him out of teaching. It’s sad. So many people know what’s wrong in college education, but actually getting anything done about it in academia seems to be an absolute non-starter. Here Mark is giving the HATED answer to the liberal talking point that schools/teachers never have enough money.

Finally, at the end of the show, Michael and I talked about some news of the day and I brought up the interview that Governor Stitt gave to Politico – the one I made a video about because it was so contradictory. The one where he basically says that – no matter what Trump says – he’s moving full steam ahead on the green agenda and he needs the subsidies Biden put in place for that to happen. Not. Enough. Eye. Rolls. I also managed to get Gateway in there too for good measure. Someday, I hope to see Oklahoma have a TRUE REPUBLICAN governor, but I wonder – do any of us really know what that means anymore?

March 2, 2025 0

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