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The Tragedy Of State-Sponsored Child Kidnapping In Oklahoma Must Be Stopped

Medical Kidnapping in Oklahoma

“You lay them down at night and you promise I will protect you, I’ll be the one to protect you, I will be the one to make these decisions in your best interest, and in the blink of an eye you’re own government can make a liar out of you,” said Roberta Lewis, an advocate for the Mooney family.

This last couple of weeks has been hellish for one local Oklahoma mom – to the point that it’s made national news.

Dayna Mooney had her 17-yo son removed from her home and taken to Oklahoma Children’s Hospital by DHS who then put the autistic boy – has been being treated faithfully by Dayna with a different protocol than chemo – on chemotherapy for leukemia against both their wishes. How does this happen in Oklahoma, let alone America?

Well, it happens because our government is completely out of control. It long ago stopped working as an extension of We The People and it now works for the money and power it can derive for itself through the workers who it hires to perpetuate itself.

If you’ve not heard about this situation, please watch this podcast by attorney Tom Renz who covered the story. Also, take a minute to please donate to Dayna. She has been unable to work since this nightmare began and they are in serious need of financial assistance.

Also, it’s important to thank our many legislators working behind the scenes to bring Presten home. Representative Jay Steagall and Senator Shane Jett have been two of the legislators at the forefront of this battle and their work for We The People is much appreciated.

More than that, if you’re not involved in some way pushing back against our government in Oklahoma at this point in time, you need to sign up for the Liberty Oklahoma Conference at OKANA Convention Center and Water Park November 13-15 this year. You can find the schedule of events here. It should be a fun time, but beyond that, you’ll connect with people who have the same desire to put government in a box and learn how you can help do that from wherever you are in Oklahoma.

Please also note, our State Auditor and Inspector – Cindy Bird (also running for Lt. Governor) – identified a huge problem with $63 million in unfounded spending at DHS, yet our Oklahoma Attorney General, Gentner Drummond (running for Governor) has is not way attempted to get to the bottom of this GROSS neglect of taxpayer dollars.

Again, our government is out of control and it’s up to us to take back the wheel! Get involved TODAY!

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OK Initiative Petition Legislation – Does It Threaten Our ‘Democracy’?

Senator David Bullard - Initiative Petition Legislation

No. We live in a Republic.

Okay. Trick question, but that’s (I hope obvious) to make a point here. Sometimes when the shrieking about something is so loud you have to put your hands over your ears (hypothetically), it’s Kabuki Theater, not reality.

The shrieking SB1027 received was LOUD and varied. There were even conservatives up in arms. Consequently, we had the author of the bill – Senator David Bullard – on with us to WALK US THROUGH the bill. You can see the full live video on our Rumble and our YouTube channel.

Early on in the bill’s legislative cycle, I had an elected official call me and ask what I thought of the bill. I hadn’t read it, so I read it quickly (it’s not a big bill) and decided pretty early on in my reading that Bullard was on to something. I never had a problem with the bill from the beginning – it made sense to me.

Lots of state questions that have made it to the ballot have defied my ability to figure out how they got there. They just didn’t make sense for Oklahoma. Criminal justice ‘reform’, medical marijuana and the expansion of Medicaid are a few that pop into my head virtually immediately.

I’ve known we’ve had a problem writing our gists (the gist of the question is the ‘explanation’ you see on the ballot) for a long time. If you can’t read the gist of the state question and know EXACTLY what you’re voting for (or against), there is a HUGE problem. Citizens get snookered that way. They think they’re voting one way, but then they weren’t voting the way they thought they were voting because they didn’t understand the gist.

The first part of SB1027 fixes that (don’t forget, NEW LANGUAGE in a bill is UNDERLINED).

Section 2 amends the existing language to specify that YOU MUST BE A REGISTERED OKLAHOMA VOTER to circulate an initiative petition in Oklahoma. This is huge. Part of the biggest problem we’ve had with initiative petitions is that people come into Oklahoma from outside the state with initiative petitions that will try to change Oklahoma values – do you REALLY believe MOST people in Oklahoma wanted medical marijuana, or expanded Medicaid?

Section 3 does several things:

  1. Any person collecting signatures HAS TO display a statement saying whether or not they’re getting paid to collect signatures.
  2. If you feel you were duped by the petitioner and/or you didn’t understand the gist as it was written, you can petition the Secretary of State (SOS) to have your name removed from the petition.
  3. Any organization paying a person to collect signatures SHALL LIVE IN THE STATE and any person being paid to collect signatures SHALL LIVE IN THE STATE and SHALL DISCLOSE TO THE SOS WHO IS PAYING THEM and they can’t be paid per sheet or signature, they must be paid an hourly wage. (This is huge for accountability.)
  4. Anyone paying petition circulators SHALL turn in a weekly summary of expenditures to be published on the SOS website until conclusion of the petition.
  5. Petitions amending state statute SHALL have 11.5% the number of votes cast during the most recent statewide general election for Governor for each county.
  6. Petitions amending the Oklahoma Constitution SHALL have 20.8% the number of votes cast during the most recent statewide general election for Governor for each county.

Section 4 adds that the ballot title may not contain words or euphemisms (etc.), that would confuse or deceive voters.

Section 5 declares the law to have severability (if one part is struck down, the rest stays).

Section 6 declares the law to be in effect for any initiative petition upon which the SOS has not yet set a circulation date and section 7 declares an emergency so that it can take effect upon passage.

Now, seriously. Where is/are the problems here? Why wouldn’t we want petitioners to live in the state, declare who’s paying them and not get paid by someone – or organization – who/that doesn’t live/reside in the state? You don’t really want to understand the State Question (or initiative petition) you’re voting for (or signing)? Come on. This is a no-brainer.

The only thing about which there was some concern during the podcast, was how the law would be monitored – how do we make sure initiative petitioners are following the law? There were a couple of ideas mentioned during the podcast and Senator Bullard asked people to send him the suggestions that were voiced, but truly, it’s up to WE THE PEOPLE! We need to be informed (and now that you are, you need to inform your neighbor) of the provisions in this now state law.

The other thing that’s up to WE THE PEOPLE is NOT to put a bunch of garbage on social media that isn’t true. In the clip below, Bullard talks about how the ‘talk’ about the bill ran over the ‘truth’ of the bill. We can’t do that. We need to READ THE BILLS OURSELVES, not just push the ‘share’ button from our social media page.

Learn to look up bills on the state legislature webpage, or on a webpage called LegiScan. It’s not hard. All you do is type in the number of the bill on which you want information and it pops right up! You can read everything from the number of amendments the bill has to the number of votes the bill has. Truly, this is something EVERY member of WE THE PEOPLE need to learn how to do for themselves. We can’t trust social media, but we can trust ourselves.

Now, just because I want you to know what the bill says for yourself, here it is below. Read it and SHARE this post with your friends and neighbors today!

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A digital flyer displaying the June podcast schedule for ROPE Report. It lists various speakers and topics for each date in June, set against a beach background.
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What’s In A Name? Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment Becomes The ROPE Report

Back in 2008, as President Obama took his seat in history, several of us realized that something was not right with the world. We created an organization called, the OKC912Project and were deep into learning the way the legislation and elections worked, when we also realized that there was something rotten in Oklahoma’s public education system.

I had four of my five kids in Quail Creek Elementary – in fact, we’d sold our modest home in The Village (an older neighborhood in Oklahoma City) to move to Quail Creek just so my kids could go to the WONDERFUL school where I’d learned as a child.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as I’d planned. There, my kids were taught Global Warming as fact, they weren’t actually educated much, and one was mercilessly bullied by his teacher and fellow students.

By the time 2nd grade ended for my oldest child, he was moved to homeschool. The rest were moved home the next year and, as parents, we never looked back.

In 2010, a friend from OKC912Project and I started a group called Restore Oklahoma Public Education (ROPE). We naively believed that if we shone light on the antics of public school, we could ‘restore’ it to the way it was before political correctness (DEI/SEL) and propagandist teaching standards.

One of our first jobs was removing Common Core State Standards from law. It took four years of lobbying a Republican legislature to scrap just one of Obama’s federal education initiatives (Governor Mary Fallin and State Superintendent Janet Barresi brought in every single one of them). Though it was successfully repealed from Oklahoma law, we learned the hard way that the repeal was meaningless in practice and schools carried on as they had been before.

Frustrated and realizing we were going to have to go at public school reform in a different way, we renamed ourselves Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment in 2015, making use of our previous initials and agreeing to focus more on educating parents about Oklahoma’s public education system and how to make changes at the local level.

Sadly, we were never able to gain a lot of traction with parents. No matter how many places we spoke, no matter how many times we explained the importance of the local school board, there seemed to be little effect.

In April of 2023, new Board Member Michael Grande, Board Member Julia Seay and I, started what Julia dubbed, “The ROPE Report” – a podcast. Something we’d never tried before, but seemed to be something God was calling us to do, when I got the impression several times over the week of Christmas in 2022, “my people perish for lack of knowledge”.

I had always been the primary writer and researcher, but that was our focus – the written word. With the world turning to the point that few people even read for longer than five minutes at a time, but would watch endless hours of TikTok videos, it seemed the next logical step. We kept the name Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment, but moved to a two-day-a-week podcast on Wednesdays and Fridays – The ROPE Report.

This change ushered in a different way of doing things altogether. Instead of really focusing on researching and writing, we were bringing in people who had important information about important topics affecting our state. We’d interview them for as little as an hour or as much as two. It was – and still is – very organic, not driven by time, but by what’s being said – how we can help viewers gain knowledge to make changes to increase our individual liberty here in the state.

After nearly two years now, the focus of ROPE is no longer parents, or education, but ALL things Oklahoma, from climate change to legislation, we try to find interviews with interesting people to educate viewers. Consequently, it just made sense to change our name to the ROPE Report.

Today, you’ll see our new logo on our social media pages and website, but we’ll still be the same group we’ve strived to be from the beginning – a source of news and information you can turn to that will report the truth the best we can about the things that affect you in your own back yard, right here in Oklahoma.

We’re glad you’ve been with us for the ride, but STAY TUNED, there’s lots more to come.

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What Do The Oklahoma Tax Commission (OTC) Rules Say About The Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit?

The Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Act (OPCTCA) – HB1934 – directed the OTC to create/promulgate rules “to implement the provisions of the [Act]” (page 6 and page 8). To that end, the OTC has created rules and now has them open for public comment until 4:30pm on Thursday, October 12th of this year. The rules can be found here. The Oklahoma Statutes created from HB1934 can be found here.

Beginning Monday (10/2), I began to compare the rules to the bill. The rules cannot mirror the bill/statute word for word, because the OTC rules will include verbiage specific to the Act’s implementation. After speaking with Representative Sherrie Conley, I did learn, however, that the rules do have to mirror the legislative intent of the Act – the OTC couldn’t add things via the rules process that weren’t already specified by the Act or the intent of the Legislature in creating the Act. Consequently, I confined my review of the rules to that parameter.

Wednesday, October 4th on our ROPE Report LIVE podcast, I explained my findings – but also, the reasons ROPE cannot abide the Act in the first place. You can find a clip of this video on the front page of the website, but the FULL video can be found on YouTube and Rumble. I think it’s worth a watch for the topics covered.

WHAT CONCERNS DID I HAVE WITH THE RULES?

I really didn’t find any place that did not mirror the legislative intent of the Act. In other words, I couldn’t find any law making through the rules. I did, however, take issue with a couple things:

  • There are two versions of “Taxpayer” in the rules. One called “Taxpayer” that copies the definition from the Act, and another called “Oklahoma Taxpayer” that defines that OTC verbiage for a tax payer. These two should be combined because it is confusing to have two “Taxpayer” definitions.
  • Under the definition of “Eligible Student”, the OTC adds to the Act’s definition by including the words, “and is registered with the Oklahoma Tax Commission”. What? Why would a child under 18 be registered with the Tax Commission? Their taxpayer parents/guardians are registered, not the child. This designation needs to go in my opinion (IMO). I don’t even see how it’s helpful here and it makes me nervous because we ALREADY collect so much data on CHILDREN in Oklahoma.
  • Warrant. There are several problems here IMO.
    • The Act’s definition of “Warrant” says, “means an order for payment directing the State Treasurer to disburse funds to a designated payee. A warrant operates like a paper check.” (page 2 near the bottom of the page)
    • 3D (top of page 5), says this, “Payment of the credit shall be made by the Tax Commission with an individual warrant made payable to the taxpayer and mailed to the private school where the eligible student is enrolled or expected to enroll. The taxpayer shall restrictively endorse the warrant to the private shcool for deposit into the account of the school, unless the tuition and fees for the eligible student have already been paid by the taxpayer.”
      • Why would the OTC send a paper check two places? Why does the school get it and the school ALSO get a warrant mailed to them? The taxpayer has to ‘restrictively’ (meaning they can’t endorse it for personal use – but then, how many people are going to have to be hired to check up on this?) endorse the check they receive to the school. Why doesn’t the parent just take the warrant to the school and not have the OTC issue two warrants?
      • This makes no sense IMO. In fact, the only reason I can see this ‘procedure’ being used is to make it seem as though the payment is coming from the family to the private school – which it is not. According to Forbes Oklahoma Income Tax Calculator, a married couple filing jointly have to make $180,000 before their Oklahoma income tax is $7500 (it’s $7,497) – the ‘reimbursement’ provided by the state for each child to go to private school. Therefore, the state pays the tuition to the private school for every child who applies for the ‘credit’ in a family that earns $180,000 or less.
      • This is extremely important because AG Gentner Drummond “is withdrawing a legal opinion that gained national attention for its support of creating religious charter schools” citing that he believes that state money going to private schools is unconstitutional. Not ony that, but there is a lawsuit to stop the publicly-funded Catholic online charter school already proposed.
      • Incidentally, a KOSU poll from last year found that voters oppose public money going to private schools – which is probably why House and Senate leadership (with cover provided by “school choice” groups Americans For Prosperity (AFP), OCPA and American Federation of Children) – lied to legislators and/or twisted arms to get them to agree that the Act was a ‘tax credit’.

Now, I could go more in depth about the OPCTCA here, but I did that in the video – and will continue to do it as time goes on with the vain hope that the people will see the errors in this idiodic scheme and tell the Legislature to do away with it because, in the long run, this WON’T help parents like the Legislature REDUCING OUR TAXES IN THE FIRST PLACE. The idea that the government overtaxes me and then wants to return money to me – most of it that it stole from OTHER PEOPLE to give me (redistribution of wealth) in the first place – is anathema because the government’s ‘gift’ gives it so much more control over me than if the taxes weren’t taken from me (by force) in the first place.

Believe me, as a Christian, I HATE being the one to stand up and say, “You can’t give my taxes to a private school”, but I’m only doing it because I firmly believe that this whole “school chioce” scheme is to make sure that the public money going to private schools will make private schools public so that NO PARENT HAS A CHOICE as to how their child/children is/are educated.

WHAT SHOULD WE DO NOW?

According to the OTC website, “Written comments will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. on October 12, 2023, at the Oklahoma Tax Commission, Oklahoma City, OK 73194, Attn: Lisa Haws, or by email to parentalchoice@tax.ok.gov.”

So, I’m sending an email to Lisa Haws that says,

Dear Ms. Haws,

Please consider the following comments regarding the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Act rules:

There are two versions of “Taxpayer” in the rules. One called “Taxpayer” that copies the definition from the Act, and another called “Oklahoma Taxpayer” that defines that OTC verbiage for a tax payer. These two should be combined because it is confusing to have two “Taxpayer” definitions.

Under the definition of “Eligible Student“, the OTC adds to the Act’s definition by including the words, “and is registered with the Oklahoma Tax Commission”. Why would a child under 18 be registered with the Tax Commission? Their taxpayer parents/guardians are registered, not the child. This designation needs to go in my opinion (IMO). The designation of “taxpayer” already covers who pays taxes.

The Act’s definition of “Warrant” says, “means an order for payment directing the State Treasurer to disburse funds to a designated payee. A warrant operates like a paper check.” (page 2 near the bottom of the page)

  • 3D (top of page 5), says this, “Payment of the credit shall be made by the Tax Commission with an individual warrant made payable to the taxpayer and mailed to the private school where the eligible student is enrolled or expected to enroll. The taxpayer shall restrictively endorse the warrant to the private shcool for deposit into the account of the school, unless the tuition and fees for the eligible student have already been paid by the taxpayer.”
  • Why would the OTC send a paper check two places? Why does the school get it and the school ALSO get a warrant mailed to them? The taxpayer has to ‘restrictively’ (meaning they can’t endorse it for personal use – but then, how many people are going to have to be hired to check up on this?) endorse the check they receive to the school. Why doesn’t the parent just take the warrant to the school and not have the OTC issue two warrants?
  • This makes no sense IMO. In fact, the only reason I can see this ‘procedure’ being used is to make it seem as though the payment is coming from the family to the private school – which it is not. According to Forbes Oklahoma Income Tax Calculator, a married couple filing jointly have to make $180,000 before their Oklahoma income tax is $7500 (it’s $7,497) – the ‘reimbursement’ provided by the state for each child to go to private school. Therefore, the state pays the tuition to the private school for every child who applies for the ‘credit’ in a family that earns $180,000 or less.

Thank you so much for your consideration of my comments.

Sincerely,

Jenni White

Education Coordinator

Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment (ROPE)

jenni@rope2.org

CLOSING

Please feel free to make any changes to my letter – also, feel free to examine all the information for yourself to see if I missed something or if you don’t particularly agree with my criticisms of the Rules.

Please watch the ROPE Report LIVE video for more information on the OPCTCA.

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About Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment

ROPE 2.0 seeks to equip parents with the information necessary to best champion their individual child’s educational needs and support legislation that empowers parents as the primary authority for their children.

Begun as Restore Oklahoma Public Education in 2010, ROPE spent years years researching, writing and lobbying on issues relating to public education at the local and state levels within Oklahoma and nationally. ROPE’s early concern over Common Core put them in the forefront of the fight against this, micromanaged, one size fits all, curricula better suited to creating automatons than children. In 2014, after 4 years of concentrated effort, Oklahoma passed HB3399, repealing the use of Common Core in Oklahoma. You can find all of ROPE’s blogs at their original blogspot.

Today, ROPE 2.0 focuses on three areas, each led by a separate Director; Education, Politics and Parental Rights. You can contact each Director via her personal email as follows:

Jenni White, Education Director – jenni.rope2.0@gmail.com
Julia Seay, Political Director –juliaseay@cox.net
Tracey Montgomery, Parental Rights Liason –parentalrightsok@gmail.com

If you’d like to have weekly news – national and local – as well as important information about education and parental rights legislation delivered to your inbox, please visit our Facebook page to sign up for our ROPE2.0 newsletter!

 

 

 

**When ROPE announces support of individual candidates they do so solely for the purpose of voter education. As an organization, ROPE does not donate to candidates or campaigns either financially, or via time in lieu. Individual ROPE directors are free to support candidates and campaigns in whatever way they choose.

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ROPE – Restore Oklahoma Public Education Becomes ROPE 2.0 – Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment Effective 11/2/15

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Effective immediately, ROPE – Restore Oklahoma Public Education – will become ROPE2.0 – Reclaiming Oklahoma Parent Empowerment.

Though Restore Oklahoma Public Education has worked diligently to tutor Oklahoma parents and taxpayers about how issues such as the Common Core State Standards and threats to Student Privacy effect students using public education since its inception in 2010, its mission field has shifted markedly in the last several years.

President, Jenni White explains, “For years, ROPE board members have worked as volunteer citizen researchers and lobbyists, watchdogging Oklahoma public education on behalf of parents and taxpayers. Over the years, as our organization has navigated the often-choppy waters of education policy, we’ve begun to believe strongly that parents – not governments of any kind – hold the keys to the future educational successes of Oklahoma’s students. Only parents can truly know what’s best for each of their individual children and only parents have the vested interest necessary to raise children with the education each will need to become productive Oklahomans and Americans. Every child has the right to an education best suited to them, and every parent has the right – and duty – to provide such an education. We believe the time is right to invest in the education and support necessary to equip parents to champion their child’s educational needs.”

Vice-President Lynn Habluetzel concurs, “I’m frequently asked, “Don’t you want accountability?” Yes. I want the ultimate accountability – the parent. Let’s let parents choose the best education for their particular child.”

ROPEs new trajectory will include four levels of outreach. Lynn Habluetzel will become ROPE’s Legislative Director and facilitate connection with the state legislature. Tracey Montgomery will bring her experience as Oklahoma’s Parental Rights.Org Director to her position as Parental Rights Liaison, Julia Seay will act as ROPE’s Political Director, taking on the task of helping parents find their voice in the decisions that affect the education of their children at the state level, while Joy Collins will become Creative Director, overseeing the new website and creation of marketing and education tools. Former ROPE President, Jenni White will transition to Education Director, educating parents about practical homeschooling methods and other approaches toward making student-centered education a reality.

ROPE2.0 will be available to parents in any size group interested in hearing more about how to empower themselves to fully invest in the education of their children.

(Update 2/9/2017: Lynn Habluetzel has resigned from her position to found another venture. Best of luck Lynn! We’ll miss you!)

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