Education

Oklahoma Conservative PAC Arguments For “Money Follows The Kid” (Voucher) ‘School Choice’ Option Are Wrong-Headed and NOT CONSERVATIVE

Being a conservative is often a lonely position. Asking people to take responsibility for THEMSELVES to prevent government intervention is not an easy sell in a world where all the creature comforts of human existence are but a moment away. After being attacked personally by OCPAC for an opinion Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment corporately holds, a rebuttal is in order.

In full disclosure, several members of ROPE met with OCPAC President Bob Linn February 8th to discuss our concerns with SB1647, during which time Mr. Linn admitted he had not read the bill.

Let’s be very clear: NO, ROPE does not support the movement of tax dollars (government money – vouchers) to private or homeschools.

Here are the ways ROPE SUPPORTS PARENT EDUCATIONAL CHOICE:

Individual and family tax credits for home or private school. Oklahoma doesn’t have this option currently, but there are several bills in the legislature this year to do so – SB1471 – and several modifications to increase the EOES (below)
Tax credit scholarships created by private individuals and corporations that make a donation to a scholarship set up for families in need to use for a tax credit (Oklahoma already has the Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship program that fits this bill.) The EOES supports both students in failing schools AND low income families.
Money following the child throughout the public (government) school system from failing schools (open transfers)
Creation of charter and other ‘extra’-public schools of which Oklahoma now has 30 (OSDE charter school report)

Here is the email sent by OCPAC on Valentine’s day 2022, to which I respond using quotes from the email.

“The passage of SB1647 is a must and will give authority to the parent to direct their child’s education.”

This is incorrect. Oklahoma parents have more authority to direct their child’s education than many other states. Parents in Oklahoma can:

constitutionally home school their children in any way they please
send their children to an Oklahoma private school – many of which provide scholarships for needy families on their own (Casady, Heritage Hall, Oklahoma Christian School, Holland Hall, etc.)
send their children to a public online charter school like EPIC, which provides tax dollars to parents who would like to school their children at home using EPIC’s curriculum
send their children to a brick and mortar charter school (link above)
begin saving their money in a state-sponsored 529 program when their children are born to use for either college or a private K12 school
use the EOES mentioned above to attend a private school
transfer to another public school – if allowed by the school to which the transfer would be made
use the Lindsey Nicole Henry scholarship (voucher) for students with disabilities to attend a private school

“Education dollars are fiduciary funds”

The term ‘fiduciary’ comes from the word ‘trust’. A ‘fiduciary’ responsibility imposes a restriction that money given (or taken) is used in good faith and in the best interest of the owner of the money. That’s all that means.

The government has no money it doesn’t forcibly take from citizens (people who don’t pay their taxes go to jail or lose their property), so all ‘government’ dollars are tax dollars, taken from the people. Yes, government has a fiduciary responsibility for those funds, but how many times have those been overlooked and money spent wastefully and fraudulently? Who is NOT familiar with wasteful government spending? Tom Coburn was.

Bob uses Social Security as an example. This is a sad example of ‘fiduciary’ funds. Though I’ve paid into the SS system, it has been raided over and over by government overreach to the point that few of us my age will have funds to use for retirement. What happened to the government’s ‘fiduciary’ responsibility there? Clue: GOVERNMENT DOESN’T CARE ABOUT ‘FIDUCIARY’ RESPONSIBILITY or public schools wouldn’t be the problem they are now. If government cared, they would have appreciated their fiduciary responsibility and made schools responsible for not educating students all along.

TJ Schmidt, an attorney with Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), does not agree with Bob’s assessment and says that, because all money comes from taxpayers, any government money taken from citizens but then given back – as in to home or privately school children (voucher) – comes with the need to make those funds ACCOUNTABLE to taxpayers.

Here is a PERFECT example from Arizona, a state where government money is given to homeschooling families. CLUTCHING PEARLS…how could it be that a government audit found $700,000 abused by ‘homeschooling’ parents?

When citizens are ‘incentivized’ to use government money to do something they don’t have the personal responsibility to do on their own, there will be fraud – it’s simply human nature.

In fact, my contention is that parents who want to homeschool do so to ESCAPE government entrapment and don’t want ANY government involvement. Parents who want government money to school at home use a system like EPIC where government money pays for curricula to be used at home. Data from Arizona indicates I’m correct.

Arizona has the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (much like SB1647) allowing state money to go to numerous types of schooling including private or homeschooling. Please note several things:

parents funding private school OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKETS were the happiest of all
though polling shows 29% of Arizonans would use private school and 14% homeschool, the actual numbers are MUCH LESS – 6% and 2% of Arizonans actually use the GOVERNMENT programs respectively and Arizona was one of the earliest adopters of ‘school choice’ programs

In fact, EdChoice tells us that 23% of Arizona’s students are eligible for vouchers and tax credit programs and 100% of students are eligible for a tax credit scholarship, but ONLY 7% OF ALL ARIZONANS USE ALL PROGRAMS TOGETHER and that’s the best record in the nation!

No data had been collected on the Lindsey Nicole Henry voucher for children with disabilities for 10 years, until last year, providing no previous accountability to taxpayers for the program.

Data for 2021 indicate that after a 31 million dollar investment over the 10 years, only 1,135 students took advantage of the program in 2021 and of those that reported their status (112), only 32% (36) were economically disadvantaged.

“We have denied an equal playing field” to children sentenced to a failing neighborhood school

How have we done that? I just cited 8 ways parents can direct the education of their children and showed that, when offered, most parents don’t take advantage of voucher programs or tax credit scholarships.

But beyond that, since when did a ‘conservative’ talking point become ‘equaling the playing field’?

I searched the term ‘equaling the playing field’ and found this slide show about how COMMON CORE equaled the playing field for all kids. Now that’s great! But, as we said it would for YEARS, Common Core – making every child have the same curricula across the US – FAILED SPECTACULARLY, never amounting to any kind of positive change on student achievement of any kind.

CONSERVATIVES DO NOT USE GOVERNMENT TO ‘EQUAL PLAYING FIELDS’, we want the government to stay in its own lane and allow PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS AND THE MARKET TO CREATE CHOICE.

“Those who oppose educational choice where money follows the child display an arrogant and callous disposition to the less fortunate”

Gosh, I guess, people like Ben Carson, whose single mother worked three jobs to allow Ben and his brother a great education and Mark Robinson (Lt. Gov. of North Carolina) whose family was dirt poor but made sure he and his siblings were well educated have it all wrong. Government should have come in and incentivized their transformation – because government ALWAYS produces programs that work.

I find it sad that a Christian Conservative, would – essentially – call those who want LESS government and more personal responsibility ‘arrogant and callous’.

In Matthew 26:11, Jesus tells us that the poor will always be with us.

Leviticus 23:22 quotes the Lord as saying, “When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among you.”

In other words, INDIVIDUALS, left part of the harvest for the poor to harvest themselves. The Romans taxed the Jews horribly, but their religion told them it was THEIR responsibility to help the poor.

As PragerU said in a recent Instagram post, “Jesus advises us to be of “generous spirit” – to show kindness, to assist the widow and the orphan. But he clearly means this to be our responsibility.”

Conservatives are those who promote LESS GOVERNMENT, PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, PRIVATE COMPETITION and INDIVIDUAL GIVING.

“More than that, they also fail to understand that no parent should see their educational dollars forced into the government’s failed model of education.”

Nope, we get it – we just want it done THE RIGHT WAY – via tax credit and tax credit scholarship. Both would remove money from public education, but do so BEFORE the money is taken by the government in the first place.

Here’s something Bob doesn’t apparently understand – the legislature appropriates education dollars. Why don’t we ALL advocate that, instead of giving more and more tax dollars to FAILING government education, the legislature use the grade card the State developed to get ESSA funds, to pull funding from failing schools?

Bob acts as though schools just fail by themselves. It’s a cascade of failure from appropriations and over-regulation by the state and federal governments, through parents who have let school boards run amok by trusting they were doing the right thing and never checking up.

Bob complains that government schools are unGodly and parents shouldn’t have to leave their children in that situation.

OF COURSE THEY ARE! THEY ARE PROPPED UP BY SECULAR GOVERNMENT MONEY! Do you honestly think that sending government money into home and private schools WON’T PRODUCE THE SAME RESULTS? It absolutely will. Right now, the only thing staving off an atheistic society are Christian home and private schools. Why do you want to compromise the two things that are working under complete parent control? That makes absolutely no sense!

In fact, schools that participate in the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship – including private Christian schools – are required to comply with the antidiscrimination provisions of 42 U.S.C., Section 2000d, which the Biden Department of Justice has used to force schools into transgender bathroom policies and anti-discrimination policies protecting transgender athletes. I’ll just leave that there.

Why not instead work with churches to create programs like microschools, learning pods or to provide daily tutoring, or even create a school specifically for those below the poverty line? The Biden Justice Department can’t force policy there. Again, why does GOVERNMENT have all the answers? Don’t conservatives think the private sector has those?

In closing, Bob calling me “a bit callous, heartless and cold” for wanting the private sector to do their job instead of allowing government to do that is a bit social justice warrior for me – especially in the face of Conservative principles. Government doesn’t provide choices, the private market does and the more government ‘does’ the less churches and the private market do.

Note this: in 2021, homeschooling and private schools grew and Oklahoma public schooling LOST STUDENTS thanks to parents deciding to homeschool and leave government schools ON THEIR OWN POWER.

Just recently I posted a meme to our social media about how single-parent families could homeschool and was inundated with OTHER ideas as well:

coming together to co-house and afford housing to homeschool
working from home and schooling when able in their schedule
church-created homeschool coops for single parents
teaming up with other families to create a coop so that each day the parents rotate so one is in charge of the children every day
teaming up to hire a tutor to teach all the children each day
homeschool families bringing in children of single parents to school with their own kids (I did this with the child of a single friend. She just became a part of the family and she graduated with my own!)

These are AWESOME ideas that parents came up with all on their own without the ‘benevolent’ hand of the government ‘helping’ them.

CONSERVATIVES, STOP TRYING TO USE GOVERNMENT TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS WE LET GOVERNMENT CREATE IN THE FIRST PLACE. The only ways to help students out right now (other than making the legislature responsible for their funding of failing schools) is to provide individual family tax credits for home and private schooling and tax credit scholarships for the same. This would help parents and ‘punish’ failing schools without government strings while allowing the free market to work.

February 15, 2022 5

Oklahoma Government Schools Give 6- 12 Grade Students Surveys To ‘RAT OUT’ Friends, Neighbors and Parents For Grant Funds – HELP US PASS SB1448 TO HELP STOP THIS NONSENSE

These are just a few representative questions from the Oklahoma Prevention Needs Survey for 6th grade which can be found here. Questions for the 8, 10 and 12th grade survey is found here. These questions are being asked of students as young as SIXTH GRADE.

But not only are 6th grade students asked to ‘RAT OUT’ their friends, this survey asks similar questions about PARENTS and NEIGHBORS!

This was forwarded through a parent in Edmond Public Schools. The school sent a letter out via email to parents to inform them of the survey and their right to opt out.

THERE WAS NO LINK IN THE LETTER TO THE DIRECT SURVEY, just descriptions of a few of the more minor questions and a notice that parents could DROP EVERYTHING AND COME TO THE SCHOOL TO VIEW THE SURVEY.

Of course I believe that every parent should do just that, but why not make it easy to access the survey questions online? Everything else – including learning – has been shuttled online, why not a link to these INVASIVE surveys?

WHAT ARE THE PARTICULAR PROBLEMS WITH THIS SURVEY?

1. The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment protects students from being given surveys paid for with Federal funds that ask the following type questions:

Please note how many of the questions in the screenshot above VIOLATE THE PPRA!

Ahhh, but herein lies the kicker – it doesn’t protect children from invasive surveys given at the state level – including this one!

This is why ROPE worked with author, Senator Shane Jett, to create a bill (SB1448) that would force school Administrators to sign an affidavit that a survey does NOT violate the PPRA. Please ask your legislator to Co-Author this bill with Shane Jett, to protect our children from these invasive surveys.

2. If a parent got interested at all from the letter sent by the school they could internet search “Oklahoma Prevention Needs Survey” and they would find this – on the Oklahoma State Department of Education website:

Please note – you are to contact an “EPIDEMIOLOGIST” for information. According to Wikipedia: Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution, patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in defined populations. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidence-based practice by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive healthcare.

Why in the world would we be using class time to assess student populations for reasons of ‘SHAPING POLICY DECISIONS”? Schools appear to be having a terrible time making sure a majority of their students can read at grade level.

Because results of the surveys will be used to “collect school-level data needed for grant program eligibility”! Our kids are being given invasive surveys asking them to tattle on friends and family members FOR MONEY.

3. Edmond public schools assures parents that these are ANONYMOUS surveys and that no personal data will be attached to the surveys. This is a bald-faced lie. No school can guarantee that student data will be kept anonymous – especially if surveys are to be given by a THIRD PARTY. The Oklahoma Prevention Needs Survey is being given through the OSDE by Oklahoma State University researchers. How many people will handle that data? How can the school prevent a name or id from being attached to the survey?

ROPE has written a great deal about the dangers of student data collection that came with the Common Core. All one needs to do is use the search engine to search the word “data” on our blogspot and find numerous well-researched articles that explain the nature of data collection and why data can never really be anonymous. Or, if you don’t trust us – internet search the terms “student privacy”. That should provide plenty of information indicating the LACK of privacy for students when data is collected through government schools.

FYI: If a parent found the page on the OSDE website and tried to “click for more information” they would find that the page goes NOWHERE.

Using the Way Back Machine found a page that went directly to the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) website. This page gives more information about the surveys and says,

The survey also includes risk and protective factors, which are attitudes, behaviors, and opinions that research has shown to be highly correlated with these health risk behaviors.

Exactly the things that schools should not be giving to children according to the PPRA.

These are not the only surveys being given to students in our public schools. This blog talks a bit about the Youth Risk Behavior surveys which ask – not only questions about drug use – but ask very personal questions about sexual behavior – another taboo topic according to the PPRA.

HERE’S THE BOTTOM LINE: PARENTS! DO NOT ALLOW YOUR CHILDREN TO TAKE ANY SURVEYS OR FILL OUT ANY QUESTIONNAIRES AT SCHOOL – and help us pass SB1448 this 2022 session!

February 4, 2022 0

SB1447 STOPS MANDATORY SCHOOL BOARD TRAINING and SB1445 REDUCES ALL SCHOOL BOARD TERMS TO TWO YEARS

Over the last several years, it has become abundantly clear that many K12 public school boards do not have the best interest of parents at heart. For the last several years, parents across the country have expressed frustration over issues such as mask policies, Critical Race Theory and inappropriate reading material, only to have their microphones turned off, be completely ignored by Board members, or forced out of meetings by police.

At the end of last September, the contentious issue of parents and school boards came to a head when the National School Boards Association (NSBA) penned a letter to the Biden administration asking them to review whether angry parent outbursts can be acted upon as violations of the Patriot Act – indicating their wish to have dissenting parents treated as terrorists.

By October 4^th, Attorney General Merrick Garland was directing the FBI to meet with federal and local law enforcement and state AGs toward the end of “addressing” school board outbursts and “threats”.

Public outcry over the letter quickly resulted in school board associations across the US canceling their memberships in NASBA, sending NASBA reeling to a corner from which they issued a public apology.

The Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA) did neither. Though a group of Oklahoma law makers sent a letter to OSSBA President Shawn Hime asking him to withdraw from NASBA over the letter, Hime refused to answer and – as past president of NASBA – continued OSSBA’s association with NASBA anyway.

The news only gets worse. Thanks to an FOI request submitted by grassroots parents group, Parents Defending Education, it became clear that Biden Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, actually ASKED NASBA to write the letter to the Biden administration and later, Cardona added the head of NASBA to the board which governs the National Association of Educational Progress (The Nation’s Report Card) ostensibly as a “thank you” for his service.

Why would the OSSBA ignore the request of state legislators to withdraw from NASBA – especially after the controversy continued?

Because the OSSBA is not for parents, they are for the education bureaucracy.

In fact, the OSSBA is no stranger to controversy. The OSSBA fought every effort to stop Common Core, frequently siding with the Superintendents union (CCOSA) and the OEA among others. They have been for every teacher pay raise offered – especially the enormous Step Up plan in 2018.

The OSSBA is a non-profit corporation which, though it has partners, receives millions of dollars a year from public schools for dues, training and other services, making it an organization paid ostensibly with tax dollars.

Though HB1775 was passed last year to stop the teaching of CRT tenets in public schools, the OSSBA seems very preoccupied with race. There’s a section of their blog entitled, “Voices” which has several essays on race and a post outlining “The Problem With HB1775”.

Then there are some very problematic trainings based on race and equity:

Then there is their affiliation with the NASBA Equity Symposium:

Then, there’s all the lobbying they do. Last year they wanted to stop school board elections from being held in November:

According to Title 70 5-110, school board members are to receive 15 hours of training over a five year term.

Elected legislators are not required to receive training prior to taking their seat – nor are they to take continuing education courses.

City Council members and Mayors are required to take a one day course given by the Oklahoma Municipal League (OML).

Why should school board members be forced to receive so much more training than any other elected official?
Why is the OSSBA listed in law as a training provider? Isn’t that protectionism?
Why would the law say that ELECTED school board members can be removed if they do not take training? How can an official elected by the PEOPLE be removed by the government for not taking mandatory subjective training?

School Board members should NOT be forced to take statutory training, nor should they be able to be ‘fired’ if they refuse mandatory training, nor should a non-profit PRIVATE organization be listed in law as a training provider.

SB1447 by Shane Jett repeals statutory training and, instead provide optional training for school board members at their local vo-tech, where the money would stay in their town instead of going to a non-profit organization that doesn’t need more state money. It also removes the OSSBA as a training provider and repeals the section that allows school board members to be fired for not attending training.

SB1445 reduces school board terms to two years.

Title 70 5-107a describes the length of school board terms. Elementary District members serve 3 year terms. Independent districts with five-member boards serve 5 and 7-member boards serve 4.

Most district terms are 4 years. If a school board member begins their term fighting parents at every turn, like a school board member from Deer Creek Schools, Lorrie Bamford, no change can be made to the seat for FOUR YEARS, leaving parents with little ability to have a voice in their child’s school throughout their entire high school career!

State Representatives are elected EVERY TWO YEARS. Why should a school board member have a term longer than a State Representative?

A two-year term could make it easier for busy community members to serve at least one term on their local school board, increasing the pool of possible candidates – plus, prevent authoritarian Board Members from becoming entrenched in their position and hard to remove in favor of more parent friendly candidates.

Please support these two bills by asking your Senator and Representative to sign on as Co-Authors! OSSBA will do everything it can to make sure neither of these bills pass the legislature and we’ll need YOU to see that they do!

February 2, 2022 1

The Problems With “School Choice”

Every legislative session in Oklahoma, the topic of “School Choice” rears its head. People become “School Choice” advocates because they believe the concept will put parents back in the driver’s seat for their children’s education. But what does the term “School Choice” actually mean?

EdChoice, an organization that has been touting “School Choice” for many years, provides this definition:

School choice allows public education funds to follow students to the schools or services that best fit their needs —whether that’s to a public school, private school, charter school, home school or any other learning environment families choose.

This makes sense to me. School Choice has to be about MONEY. It can’t be about a choice of schools, because Oklahoma has a near smorgasbord of choices to provide parents for schooling their children. Let’s look at them:

Here in Oklahoma, our Constitution makes it clear that parents have the absolute right to direct the education of their children through homeschooling. Homeschooling is an educational choice.
Oklahoma has 1784 public schools. Last session (2021) SB783 was passed. This law allows parents to be able to transfer their child/children among public schools instead of them being assigned to a school according to their zip code. Transfer amounts to a choice.
Here in Oklahoma, we have a thriving private school network of 96 schools. Parents who are able and would like to do so, may CHOOSE to send their child/children to a private school.
Oklahoma also has a thriving Charter school network – some brick and mortar – and others virtual. Parents can choose whether or not to send their child/children to either type of charter school.

So, it seems it would be hard to be an Oklahoma parent who then argues you don’t have much of a choice as to where you sent your child to school. Yes, not all parents can afford to homeschool or put their child/children in private school, yet that doesn’t negate these as valid choices and many parents work hard to scrimp and save in order to keep their children home or send them to a private school.

Fortunately, Oklahoma has a HUGE NUMBER OF SCHOOL CHOICES available to parents, so why do we continually talk about “School Choice”?

Returning to EdChoice’s definition, because legislators feel that parents should be able to send their children to ANY school they want, something that can only happen if tax dollars are appropriated to people who can’t afford to send their child/children to private school or keep them home for homeschool.

Herein lies the problem. Once money leaves the hand of a citizen as a tax, it becomes property of the government who receives the tax. Now, it’s the government’s job to make sure that tax dollar is accounted for transparently.

Let’s say that Oklahoma gives parents part or all of the money it would have spent to educate their child and says, “Here, you can use this any way you’d like to educate your child.”

The thrilled parents then take that money to a private school and enroll their child. Unfortunately, the private school that receives the funds is now accountable to the state to make sure that money is spent properly.

In order to do that, the state now has the ability to ask the private school to perform certain tasks to assure them of the way in which that money is spent and suddenly, the private school now has strings from State government it never had before. How many strings can a private school have to the government for state money before it’s no longer really a private school? At what point does the State government get to tell the private school what kind of curricula they may offer, or regulate the type of teachers they want to hire because, well, accountability of taxpayer funds?

Unfortunately, there’s more. Oklahoma has never fully repealed Blaine Amendment language from our Constitution. The Blain Amendment is a failed federal law created in the late 1800’s proposed to ostensibly prevent Catholic schools by denying them access to public funds. Though the federal law failed, many states added similar language to their Constitution, as did Oklahoma.

It would be an extremely difficult task to take funds designated as public, give them to parents and allow them to finance a child’s private school education – especially at a private religious school.

We’ve all seen the mess that has been created by Epic Charter School’s administrative arm – Epic Youth Services. If state funds are given to parents to use for expenses related to the homeschooling of their children, how could the state not expect parents to account for every dime of state money provided them? They certainly would have every right to do so, yet now a homeschooling parent could find themselves in the unenviable situation of having to report to the state on behalf of their homeschool.

What if the state doesn’t ‘like’ a type of curricula a parent chooses, or the type of activity a child prefers? What happens to the autonomy of the homeschooling parent in that case?

Granted, it seems like a stretch – and legislators would be sure to say that would never happen – but who in the world would have ever thought that in the last two years the government would force people to wear masks, take vaccines and shut down businesses? Hopefully, if we’ve learned anything else from the pandemic, we’ve learned that governments are less about individual rights and more about power and control.

And what about taking public money and giving it to parents to allow their children to homeschool or attend private school? What about the families who scrimp and save to provide these options for their children? Isn’t that the state creating an equity program?

TRULY, THERE SEEMS TO BE NO WAY FOR THE STATE TO ALLOW PARENTS TO HAVE STATE MONEY TO FINANCE THEIR CHILD’S EDUCATION. The only way to do anything of the sort is some form of TAX CREDIT:

1. Allow parents to keep the money they WOULD HAVE given to the state in taxes for public education. This way, the money is only ever the parents – it never becomes the property of state government. Parents can use that money to help finance a private education, or homeschool their child/children.
2. Allow parents who are unable to finance their child’s private or homeschool to apply for ‘scholarship’ funds placed into an account by people who want to donate to the scholarship. Oklahoma already has the Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship, that can simply be broadened.
3. Parents should begin planning for their child’s education early on and make after-tax deposits into the State 529 Plan. Though ostensibly a college savings program, funds may be deducted to pay for homeschool or private school expenses as well.

Unfortunately, like with so many things, there is no free lunch in education. It’s important to understand the issues surrounding “School Choice” and not merely carry the flag of “School Choice”. Private schools do not need any further state regulation and homeschoolers want absolutely no interference from government in their schools. Let’s be VERY CAREFUL then, when we discuss the term “School Choice” and keep government sequestered in its own lane.

January 29, 2022 1

Six Reasons Why The Oklahoma State Legislature Should Ban The Use of SEL – Social Emotional Learning – Through SB1442

Last year, the state Legislature – prompted by outcry from parent and taxpayers across the state and the nation – passed HB1775, a rejection of the teaching of tenets tied to Critical Race Theory.

Unfortunately, CRT tenets are still entering classrooms around the state, packaged under the heading of Social Emotional Learning.

WHAT IS SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING

Social Emotional Learning is a theory which, according to the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), became an “essential part of education” “through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible caring decisions.”

CASEL also goes on to say that “SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy and just communities.”

While every parent wants their child to have traits like empathy and every teacher wants a classroom of children who can manage their emotions, SEL programming does much more.

Like so many before it – Outcome Based Learning and Common Core to name a few – SEL has been federalized through numerous grant programs and school accountability requirements. With the carrot of $122 billion dollars in funding via Elementary and Secondary School Education Relief (ESSER) funds, the Biden Administration has lured schools into a program that fosters philosophies steeped in race, with which many parents and taxpayers disagree.

CONCERNS WITH SEL:

#1 Brings CRT Concepts Into Schools and Classrooms

Karen Neimi, the President and CEO of CASEL (Collaborative for Academic Social Emotional Learning) makes it clear throughout a nearly 50-minute video, that, “We believe that our work in Social Emotional Learning must actively contribute to anti-racism” and that CASEL has “prioritized issues of equity in the center of our work for a long time.”

Deena Simmons, Ed.D, Assistant Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and an Associate Research scientist at the Yale Child Study Center advocates that, “You can’t be trauma informed if you’re not talking about racism. Without an anti-racist lens, SEL is white supremacy with a hug”.

One Edmond mother recently researched an SEL program being used in her child’s classroom – Conscious Discipline – and found a letter written by founder Becky Bailey, in which she says that her program is “based on and steeped in inclusion” and that they will train their employees in “anti-racist” goals, using Ibram X Kendi’s “Raising Antiracist Kids” and CASEL’s “SEL as a Lever for Equity”.

Dr. James Lindsay explains the mechanisms by which SEL is used to bring CRT concepts into classrooms in a video interview, and Dr. Susan Berry cites numerous articles which bring awareness to this fact in ‘Social Emotional Learning’ Now a Vehicle for Critical Race Theory”.

Oklahoma passed HB1775 in 2021. This bill specifically states, “Any orientation or requirement that presents any form of race or sex stereotyping or a bias on the basis of race or sex shall be prohibited.” Because CASEL’s specifically stated goals include race stereotyping and bias, SEL programming should be banned from classrooms under the law.

#2 CASEL Foundation Supporters Have Leftist Political Philosophies

CASEL Foundation ‘supporters’ are also a cause for concern. Bill and Melinda Gates have been tied to a slew of ‘education reform’ issues beginning with the Obama education reforms in 2008 which have been completely unsuccessful such as Common Core, School Turnaround and teacher effectiveness initiatives.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has been investigated in several states for their interference in the 2020 presidential and state elections.

The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation uses AI to ‘democratize’ data, and uses data to establish racial equity and create climate change solutions.

New Profit is an organization dedicated to raising money to fight social injustice and to establish racial equity through influencing government.

The NoVo Foundation is funded by Warren Buffet. “NoVo also increased our funding to a wide variety of organizations focused on ending violence, giving voice and generally lifting up the truth about systems that have continually oppress (sic) girls and women – Black. Brown. Indigenous. Cis. Trans and gender non-conforming.”

The Raikes Foundation seeks to create systems that will better empower marginalized communities and create a more just and equitable world.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation promotes socialized health care and bemoans the effects of climate change on “health and equity”.

Wallace – “Our mission is to foster equity and improvements in learning and enrichment for young people…”

#3 SEL Trains Students As Activists

CASEL cites 10 ‘indicators’ of ‘high quality’ SEL implementation. The first four are; ‘Explicit SEL Instruction’, SEL Integrated with Academic Instruction, Youth Voice and Engagement and Supportive School and Classroom Climates.

Number 3 involves teaching students to use their voice (agency) to advocate for change.

In this video about ‘Schoolwide SEL: Youth Voice and Engagement”, we hear from Mayrydennia Perez, a student who explains how, in 10^th grade, students didn’t like a class they were given so they protested. This involved the entire 10^th grade class walking out of school and Mayrydennia was very happy to report that the Administration ‘listened to them’ and the class was changed the next year.

Children are not adults. Giving children ‘agency’ – autonomy – to defy school administration, teaches children they have a power they don’t have the worldview yet to process rationally. Giving students ‘voice’ and teaching them to engage on issues is not giving students more responsibility, it’s teaching students to use their emotions to react as activists – I don’t like this, so instead of finding a calm, rational solution, I’m going to get mad and walk out. How does THAT help students manage their emotions?

#4 SEL Uses Lots of Behavioral Surveys

School climate surveys are used to gauge students’ feelings about different factors associated with their school under the guise of creating ‘supportive schools’. Here are some questions that can be found on Oklahoma’s School Climate Survey:

Do you know what consent means?
During the past 12 months have you experienced sexual activity when you did not want to?
During the past 12 months has your dating partner hit, slapped (sic) or physically hurt you?
Do you currently receive sexual health information? If so, from where?
Do you feel like your school supports and affirms your identities?
Choose 3 topics you would like to learn more about: pregnancy, bullying, substance use, mental health, violence prevention, sexual health, LGBTQIA+, other

Data is then compiled into a spreadsheet so that the ‘risk profile’ of the student can be determined and a student effectively pigeonholed by his or her behavior.

Another SEL survey called Success Highways is given to students in middle school through 10^th grade in Oklahoma. The results tell the administrator of the survey the level of academic ‘risk’ for the student in several different categories.

Here are some questions on the Success Highways questionnaire:

The reason I keep coming to school is because if I don’t I’ll get punished
In the past week, how often have you experienced breaking things when angry
In the past week, how often have you experienced feelings of danger
In the past week how often have you experienced nightmares
In the past week how often have you experienced overeating
In the past month how often did you have difficulty paying for recreation and entertainment

These surveys are given in ‘advisory’. The main questionnaire was over 100 questions with other smaller surveys given depending upon the topic. A concerned Edmond mom took a considerable amount of time researching Success Highways and found it linked to ‘Emancipatory Communitarianism’ a form of social justice, among other issues.

A federal law the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) passed in 1978 protects children from surveys or questionnaires that ask:

1. Political affiliations or beliefs of the student or student’s parent; 2. Mental or psychological problems of the student or student’s family; 3. Sex behavior or attitudes; 4. Illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating, or demeaning behavior; 5. Critical appraisals of others with whom respondents have close family relationships; 6. Legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as with lawyers, doctors, or ministers; 7. Religious practices, affiliations, or beliefs of the student or student’s parent; or 8. Income, other than as required by law to determine program eligibility

Schools MUST send out letters to parents describing the survey and ask for permission to give their child the survey. Unfortunately, this only applies to surveys administered using federal funds and schools get around this caveat by having an in-state agency (OSDE, OSDH) administer the survey as in the case of the CDC Youth Risk Behavioral Survey, or they simply don’t provide them to parents as in this opt out form for School Climate Surveys.

Schools should NOT collect behavioral data on students for numerous reasons:

Whether there is an active parent in the home or not, parents MUST be the ones dealing with their child’s behavior – not a public school. Parents know their children MUCH better than anyone else and behavioral data collected at school is only as good as the context in which it’s collected.
Often, students lie on surveys to be funny or because they don’t want to answer the questions truthfully. Answers are collected and recorded, leading to improper data collection and results.
Many schools are not trained to collect and analyze data and as such data can be misapplied and results meaningless.
Data is not safe and parents have no say or knowledge as to how the data is disseminated or to whom, leaving their child’s behavioral profile to be used to sell further educational products or used in ways that could expose the child.

#5 Not All School Counselors Respect Parent Authority OR HB1775

A recent blog involving a walk through the Oklahoma State Department of Education website involved a great deal of connection with the American School Counselors Association (ASCA).

Further research found that the ASCA is another organization steeped in the philosophy of racial justice. An article on their website titled, “Racial Justice Starts At School” indicates that one of the primary functions of school counselors is to “address racism and bias in their school counseling programs.”

In fact, the article goes on to say that, according to the 2020 State of the Profession survey report, “About 42% of school counselors said they are monitoring student behavior to identify racist behavior or speech, 38% are providing individual counseling and 35% are providing classroom lessons…”

This kind of monitoring should be frightening to parents whose children could be counseled for racist ‘behavior or speech’ when there was none such meant. What about children 3 In addition, how in the world could this kind of counseling be done without violating the tenets of HB1775?

Several parents have reported that, following Success Highways surveys, counselors have called their children in to their office for counseling. Once the parents became aware of the practice, the counselor stated that their child was in a ‘low-risk’ category (the risk category never explained to them) and did not require parental notification for counseling. This is a clear violation of Parent’s Rights and should not be allowed.

Then there’s the fact the school counselors have Common Core like “Mindsets and Behaviors” standards – specific behaviors which children should exhibit in order to be ‘successful’ students. Never mind that every student is different and success is as different for each as they are from another. Counselors collect behavioral data on students through these standards.

#6 Teachers Do Not Need A National Program To Help Children

Though SEL has been in classrooms in some form for years, teachers have been helping children develop character by prescribing classroom responsibilities for many decades without it. Good teachers have always had rules in their classrooms to inform students of the ways in which they must manage their own behaviors – raise your hand before asking a question, no talking when the teacher is talking, no hitting or bullying – a program to do this is simply unnecessary and a waste of dollars and time that could be better spent studying academics.

It seems completely bizarre that, while Oklahoma’s NAEP scores have continuously fallen in nearly ALL subjects, schools are now stopping class to have children talk about their feelings in a classroom not staffed by a trained behavioral psychologist.

It’s also a bit bizarre that ESSER funds were meant, in part, to be spent on SEL programs to mitigate student ‘trauma’ resulting from COVID school closures, yet schools created the crisis they now want to mitigate. In fact, numerous studies have indicated that school closures caused students more harm than the virus itself.

It appears that much of the push for SEL is being driven by rising discipline problems in classrooms and schools over the years, made worse by a Dear Colleague letter sent to all US schools asking them to adopt discipline polies that would promote equity in classrooms. This letter resulted in numerous problems in classrooms around the country as schools became unwilling to discipline special education or students of color.

SEL behavioral programming will accomplish little to nothing until administrators allow teachers to discipline students who provide disruption in the classroom. Disruptive students should be removed from class to allow the rest of the class to learn. Once removed, administrators should work with parents to help the child realign their behaviors and return successfully to the classroom. Why put a program in place to deal with an entire class of children when administrators could simply deal with discipline problems on an individual basis?

True, some parents do not parent their children and some children have deep-seated behavioral issues, yet nothing prevents schools from working with individual students in these circumstances by referring them to state, or private, behavioral assistance – all children should not be placed in behavioral training for the few students who need it.

Sadly, SEL programs will not help the fact that many Oklahoma schools say one thing, but do another. What good does it do to have SEL in every classroom, yet when a student reports something as serious as sexual assault, nothing is done by the Administration to rectify the situation? This has happened more and more often, as administrators abdicate their role in school discipline as seen in both Shawnee and Bixby recently.

In closing, like so many other federalized educational programming, SEL will not produce the results desired and has the very large potential to in fact, inject harmful and unlawful philosophies into classrooms.

Supplemental Links and Information:

New Study Finds Multiple Problems with Push for Social-Emotional Learning in K-12 Education (https://pioneerinstitute.org/featured/new-study-finds-multiple-problems-with-push-for-social-emotional-learning-in-k-12-education/)

Oklahoma School Climate Risk Screening Scale (https://www.scribd.com/document/523717182/Oklahoma-School-Climate-Student-Risk-Screening-Scale)

Oklahoma High School Climate Survey (https://www.scribd.com/document/523755206/HS-Student-Climate-Survey-1)

Social Emotional Learning, Part 1: The New Age Nanny State (https://idahofreedom.org/social-emotional-learning-part-1-the-new-age-nanny-state/)

Social Emotional Learning, Part 2: How SEL Became A Vehicle For Critical Race Theory (https://idahofreedom.org/social-emotional-learning-part-2-how-sel-became-a-vehicle-for-critical-race-theory/)

Social Emotional Learning, Part 3: How Did This Happen In A State Like Idaho (https://idahofreedom.org/social-emotional-learning-part-3-how-did-this-happen-in-a-state-like-idaho/)

Social Emotional Learning Now A Vehicle For Critical Race Theory (https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/03/09/social-emotional-learning-now-a-vehicle-for-critical-race-theory/)

Social Emotional Learning: The Dark Side (https://nancyebailey.com/2018/03/19/social-emotional-learning-the-dark-side/)

Emotional Learning Will Be The Downfall of Society (https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/emotional-learning-will-be-the-downfall-of-society)

Jenks Directs Parents To ‘Social Justice’ Materials (https://www.ocpathink.org/post/jenks-directs-parents-to-social-justice-materials)

Pushback Against SEL Bubbles Up In Idaho (https://www.edweek.org/leadership/pushback-over-sel-bubbles-up-in-idaho/2020/02)

“Meatless Mondays” and The Rise Of Social Emotional Learning in Schools (https://fee.org/articles/meatless-mondays-and-the-rise-of-social-emotional-learning-in-schools/)

What’s So Great About Social Emotional Learning (https://truthinamericaneducation.com/social-emotional-learning/great-social-emotional-learning/)

Gasp! How Will We Educate Without Social Emotional Learning (https://truthinamericaneducation.com/social-emotional-learning/gasp-how-will-we-educate-without-social-emotional-learning/)

Trading Academics for Far Left ‘Social Emotional Learning’ (https://illinoisfamily.org/education/trading-academics-for-far-left-social-emotional-learning/)

Using Schools To Retrain Kid’s Emotions – What Could Possibly Go Wrong Here (https://thefederalist.com/2016/12/14/using-schools-retrain-kids-emotions-possibly-go-wrong/)

How Social Emotional Learning Could Harm Our Kids (https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/streams-of-consciousness/how-social-emotional-learning-could-harm-our-kids/)

Using Schools To Retrain Kid’s Emotions – What Could Possibly Go Wrong Here (https://thefederalist.com/2016/12/14/using-schools-retrain-kids-emotions-possibly-go-wrong/)

Schools Ditch Academics For Emotional Manipulation (https://thefdrlst.wpengine.com/2016/10/19/schools-ditch-academics-for-emotional-manipulation/)

How Social Emotional Learning Became Another Vehicle For Anti-White Racism In Schools (https://thefederalist.com/2021/02/08/how-socio-emotional-learning-became-another-vehicle-for-anti-white-racism-in-schools/)

Zuckerbucks Aren’t Just Tampering With Elections, They’re Tampering With Your Kids’ Education (https://thefederalist.com/2021/08/02/zuckerbucks-arent-just-tampering-with-elections-theyre-tampering-with-your-kids-education/)

Social-Emotional Learning and Teachers Students Love? Teachers in Los Angeles! (https://nancyebailey.com/2019/01/22/social-emotional-learning-and-teachers-students-love-teachers-in-los-angeles/)

January 25, 2022 3

A is for…Activist?

When you visit the library with your 5 year old, he may reach for a board book called A is for Activist by Innosanto Niagara and ask you to read it. The title itself throws up a red flag, but you open the pages to take a look. Expecting to learn his ABCs, instead your toddler is told to agitate, demand, and defy. This book, pretending to be for children, ends with Z is for Zapatista. Many adults don’t clearly know what a Zapatista is; how would a small child begin to understand a Marxist political group? In between A and Z are the rallying cries we have heard from the progressive left, such as the following passages: “Environmental justice is the way!”…”We Demand equality!”…”Love who you choose!”…”…delight in Diversity!”

Not only are the topics and tone of the book wholly inappropriate for children, but the illustrations are ugly and scary. I counted thirteen raised fists. On the N page is an angry-looking child carrying a No Justice, No Peace sign. The scary-looking Zapatista is hooded in black, while a masked black cat lurks over his shoulder. According to Amazon reviewer Kyle Pratt, A is for Activist “allows progressive parents to virtue signal and would produce young radicals who shout slogans with no real understanding.” He continues, “It’s disturbing that we live at a time when parents must check the content of their children’s pre-school and kindergarten books, but as A is for Activist shows—they must.” What is eerily missing from the ABCs of social justice is F is for Freedom and L is for Liberty. Instead, this book teaches that if someone’s ideas are different than your own, you raise your fist in defiance and destroy their notions of liberty. I can’t think of anything more tragic than this book in the hands of parents and children today at your local library. A is for Activist is REALLY B is for Brainwash, or I is for Indoctrination, or T is for Totalitarianism! There are currently 8 A is for Activist books in circulation in Oklahoma County libraries. Please call Larry White, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Library System, to express your displeasure. Your tax-paying voice will make a difference! His number is 405-606-3725.

January 13, 2022 0

Success Highways Edmond Public School’s SEL Vehicle for Middle and High Schoolers

By Emily Wright 1/8/22

In the fall parents of EPS middle and high schoolers received letters with information regarding Success Highways a resiliency curriculum being taught during advisory hour. The letter stated:

“What makes students persevere despite adversity? Resiliency makes the difference! Resiliency is a set of protective characteristics possessed by those who are able to adapt to hardship and succeed. It determines why one group or individual student succeeds and another does not. The research found six interrelated resiliency skills that are critical to student success. These skills include: valuing education, academic confidence, connectedness, stress, health and well-being, and intrinsic motivation. A student becomes more resilient if they improve performance (includes attendance, behavior, coursework), take ownership of their education, set and work towards goals, take responsibility for their lives, manage adversity, and thrive in school and beyond. Edmond Public Schools received a grant to implement a Resiliency Curriculum and Assessment called, Success Highways.”

EPS superintendent, Dr. Grunewald, says CRT is a theory only taught in law schools, but it is actually being practiced in our schools via Resiliency Curriculum and Assessment program, Success Highways. (Resiliency is code word for Social Emotional Learning.) Designed for at-risk, inner city students, this program was originally known has Achieving Success Identity Pathways (ASIP).

Under the guise of safety the schools have accelerated the Marxist indoctrination. I believe most teachers and parents buy what is sold to them and have no idea of the ill-intent behind these programs. The schools will say that students must “feel” safe and accepted to achieve academic success and SEL is necessary, especially now in the midst of a pandemic.

If you peel back the curtain on the objectives and the basis of SEL Curricula you will find that these programs are not about teaching “kindness”, “resilience” or academic success skills. Rather, SEL aims to indoctrinate your child and provide them with a Marxist mindset and lens to view the world with. EPS embraces diversity, equity and inclusion which are the basic concepts one must embrace when seeing the world through a racist CRT lens. Just take a walk through any middle school and high school and you will see posters with DEI terms adorning the walls.

CRT posits that white systemic racism organizes American society and its institutions (police, schools, courts, Pro sports teams etc.)

SEL is the vehicle (delivery system) used to teach CRT notions to students. SEL is not only the delivery system but is CRT in praxis (in practice). SEL is just political programing used to ultimately transform children’s core values, attitudes and beliefs. It divides families and silence dissenters by tacit intimidation from the schools, government, media, Hollywood etc.

SEL is the advancement arm of Marxist ideas under the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion movement. DEI is the introduction of identity politics to your children. The process of divide, demonize and destroy is in full swing and schools are the recruiting and brainwashing posts churning out the Neo-Marxist, America hating army of social justice warriors.

SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS AND SCHOOL BOARDS ARE COMPLICIT! THEY ACCEPT FEDERAL FUNDING AND APPLY FOR GRANTS THAT HAVE USERED IN THIS GARBAGE.

“Resiliency” curriculum promotes “Victimhood Mentality”; Direct Your Ire Not at Your Parents, but at Society (White Privileged People) Jump on the Social Justice Train!

“Resiliency” Success Highways Based on Emancipatory Communitarianism

The author of Success Highways, psychologist Dr. Scott Solberg supports Emancipatory Communitarianism upon which the program is based.

What is Emancipatory Communitarianism? Isaac Prilleltensky first conceptualized EC in 1997. It is the hybrid of liberation psychology and communitarianism. Liberation psychology promotes individualism and groups, whereas communitarianism stresses responsibilities to each other in the larger community. Counselors, psychologists are to become agent for social justice and through your work train your clients to become fellow social justice warriors to work along side with you to destroy America. What about major role parents play or an intact nuclear family plays in child’s success in school. Unlike traditional theoretical approaches, EC favors (targets) the poor and disadvantaged. The end goal: distributive justice; practitioners directly training clients to advocate in political social spheres. EC psychology is being used to advance the CRT narrative pushed 24-7 by our government, the media, professional sports organizations, corporations, Hollywood etc.: (oppressor vs. oppressed), promote equity; level the playing field by redistributing power ( reverse racism against whites).

“In researcher-practitioner collaborations, the clients are most often individuals who receive services from an organization or system. The goal of working with practitioners is to discover and implement strategies that empower their clients to overcome existing challenges and inequities. From feminist psychotherapy (Enns, 1992) we are encouraged to understand the nature of power and, as “trained professionals,” the importance of redistributing this power using egalitarian strategies that enable practitioners to find their own voice in shaping the discourse and perspectives being offered. From emancipatory communitarianism (Blustein, McWhirter, & Perry, 2005; Prilleltensky, 1997) we are encouraged to address social justice by examining whether and how our strategies empower practitioners to effectively intervene within the context surrounding their clients, enabling clients to successfully navigate their own challenges as they strive to realize their career and life goals. From my experiences, all of these skills and perspectives play an important role in setting the foundation for establishing effective researcher-practitioner collaborations.”
Scott Solberg, speaking at the Conference of the Society of Vocational Psychology, May 16–17, 2016, Florida State University

Who is Dr. Solberg, What COMPANY Does He Keep? Who Does He Work For?

The creator of Success Highways is Dr. Scott Solberg. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Counseling and Applied Human Development at the Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development. Solberg translated ASIP into Success Highways, a one-size fits all curriculum that could be marketed to schools in 2006. Success Highways, under the ScholarCentric umbrella. According to his BU bio he serves as a “subject matter expert in providing resources, presentations, webinars, and consultation services” for a number of organizations and agencies including CASEL, and Council of Chief State School Officers.

History professor, director of the Center for Anti-Racist Research and author of How to Be an Anti-Racist, Ibram X. Kendi, is a fellow colleague of Solberg at Boston University.

“In researcher-practitioner collaborations, the clients are most often individuals who receive services from an organization or system. The goal of working with practitioners is to discover and implement strategies that empower their clients to overcome existing challenges and inequities. From feminist psychotherapy (Enns, 1992) we are encouraged to understand the nature of power and, as “trained professionals,” the importance of redistributing this power using egalitarian strategies that enable practitioners to find their own voice in shaping the discourse and perspectives being offered. From emancipatory communitarianism (Blustein, McWhirter, & Perry, 2005; Prilleltensky, 1997) we are encouraged to address social justice by examining whether and how our strategies empower practitioners to effectively intervene within the context surrounding their clients, enabling clients to successfully navigate their own challenges as they strive to realize their career and life goals. From my experiences, all of these skills and perspectives play an important role in setting the foundation for establishing effective researcher-practitioner collaborations.”
Scott Solberg, speaking at the Conference of the Society of Vocational Psychology, May 16–17, 2016, Florida State University

Image result for ibram x kendi books anti racist

CASEL: Distribution Arm of SEL Curricula

Nearly every state Department of Education has partnered with CASEL. Oklahoma State Department of Education has CASEL links to programs and resources on their website. Dr. Grunewald’s response to my November 1, 2021 school board speech mentioning SEL included a link to CASEL via the OSDE site:

“SEL provides a foundation for positive, long-term effects on kids, adults, and communities. Here is a current document from the SDE that defines SEL and why we teach it.” Dr. Angela Grunewald November 2, 2021

We define social and emotional learning (SEL) as an integral part of education and human development.
SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
Fundamentals of SEL – CASEL

“SEL can be a powerful lever for creating caring, just, inclusive, and healthy schools that support all young people in reaching their fullest potential. In the context of SEL, equity and excellence refers to every student—across race, ethnicity, family income levels, learning abilities, home language, immigration status, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other factors—engaging in high-quality educational opportunities and environments that best promote their healthy social, emotional, and academic development.” How Does SEL Support Educational Equity and Excellence? – CASEL

State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister is a member of CRT/SEL Pushing CCSSO

Dr. Solberg is also an expert consultant for America’s Promise Alliance another educational racial eqiuity organization and the Council of Chief State School Offices. The CCSSO Equity goals include:

Invest in principals’ ability to lead schools that support the whole child.
Integrate analysis of teachers’ ability to teach social-emotional competencies into licensure requirements and teaching frameworks
Provide funding for teacher training on restorative justice
Check for bias in curriculum and assessment as part of state-level review of instructional materials, and assist LEAs in implementing strategies to detect bias in curriculum and assessment, particularly for locally selected or designed materials.
Annually report on multiple indicators of the diversity of the educator workforce

Success Highways/Scholar Centric Blog

Parents your tax payer dollars are being used to fund Marxist indoctrination curriculums. Every company’s website lists CRT dribble and platitudes, thus Scholar Centric’s site did not disappoint. Addressing Race & Political Events in K-12 Schools – Intellispark Derek Francis wrote the Addressing Race & Political Events in K-12 Schools blog post on January 28, 2021. In that post Francis provides an link to an exercise that addresses “racial and political events” under the “Tell the Truth” section of his blog.

This exercise is “Spot the Difference” courtesy of “Woke Kindergarten”. Woke Kindergarten 60 Second Text: Spot the Difference – YouTube Francis says: “Kids are seeing these events unfold and having conversations with peers. Public violence and protest are no longer shocking for them to see. We owe it to tell the kids the truth. Have the conversation. They can handle it. They see it on social media.”

Image result for woke kindergarten — “Counseling psychology places a strong value on working towards **social justice** by focusing efforts on decreasing inequities experienced by low income, high risk, and underrepresented populations. These efforts are informed by an ethical responsibility to use culturally responsive interventions and multicultural communication skills—all of which are necessary when working in community settings.”

Creator of Success Highways, V. Scott Solberg, speaking at the Conference of the Society of Vocational Psychology, May 16–17, 2016, Florida State University

The “RESEARCH” Success Highways is based on is Junk Science! I researched Dr. Solberg, the author of Success Highways, combed through the bibliography of the research paper on Success Highways and looked at the empirical (not scientific) research provided. That’s right this “researched based” program is not backed up with scientifically proven data that yields repeatable results, no matter what factors are added to the testing. Instead the program is based on empirical evidence which is based on observation and experience, things seen multiple times; with the belief that is how they work. Dr. Solberg also conducted this study, not an independent researcher.

“As with any program of evaluation, our work to date has it limitations. Perhaps most obvious is our inability, at present, to assert that ASIP caused the observed improvements in student academic and behavior outcomes.”
“While we do have evaluation data to suggest that engagement in ASIP activities contributes to positive outcomes for youth, our explanations for how this occurs are as yet based in theory.”
School-Based Social Justice: The Achieving Success Identity Pathways Program April 2006Professional School Counseling pg 286

“This curriculum originally was created to assist low-income youth and youth from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds in becoming aware of the oppression they experience daily, both oppression that exists in the environment and how their behavior contributes to these experiences. By teaching youth to understand how the social context shapes their behaviors and to recognize both the explicit and implicit ways that this occurs, school counselors can assist youth to develop an empowered frame of reference (Field & Baker, 2004). Once youth have attained this frame of reference, they then have the ability to choose, with both intentionality and reflectiveness, how to respond in ways that are self-affirming and consistent with their sense of fairness and justice.”
School-Based Social Justice: The Achieving Success Identity Pathways Program April 2006Professional School Counseling pg 285

“It is imperative that school counselors become actively engaged in promoting school success for all students. For youth from low-income and diverse backgrounds, future career opportunities are predicated on achieving educational success. Therefore, school counselors become agents for social justice when creating, implementing, and supporting school-based interventions designed to promote school success, especially culturally relevant interventions that target youth from low- income and diverse backgrounds. This article describes the Ecological Developmental Cognitive Framework designed to inform the development of curricula that improve school success for all youth. The Achieving Success Identity Pathways is described as an example of curricula derived from this framework and a program that incorporates the four main components of the ASCA National Model®.”
School-Based Social Justice: The Achieving Success Identity Pathways Program April 2006Professional School Counseling pg 278

“We would argue that youth from low-income and diverse backgrounds fail in school and society because oppression existing in the youth’s macrosystemic and exosystemic contexts (e.g., history of their racial/ethnic group, society beliefs regarding race, economic status, experience with racism/bigotry, media portrayals, and discriminatory housing practices) creates life experiences that result in internalized dispositions that maintain this oppression(Solberg & Howard, 2000). As a result of growing up within an oppressive social context, youth build a set of beliefs about themselves that are organized around core definitions of distrust, betrayal, danger, hopelessness, anger, loss, inadequacy, and social injustice. These core beliefs serve as predispositions and expectancies that influence their behavior across all social contexts, including school. Without intervention strategies to counter such predispositions that maintain oppression, youth who have internalized oppressive messages likely will continue to fail in school.”
School-Based Social Justice: The Achieving Success Identity Pathways Program April 2006Professional School Counseling pg 279

In Conclusion

Counselors, and teachers are not psychologists. If you choose not to opt your children out of SEL instruction they will be subjected to psychological treatment (abuse) in a non- therapeutic, uncontrolled environment complete with a healthy dose of “career training” (CRT mindset development)

Students are given a survey to pinpoint social-emotional strengths and weaknesses. The data mining will aid school officials in determining who is “at-risk” so “interventions” can be made. A post-test is given to determine SEL gains. I am not sure how you teach and then assess resilience. Genetics, individual life experiences and environment determine one’s resilience. How does teaching resilience address learning loss? How does focusing on feelings teach concepts/subjects students are behind in due to being kept out of a classroom full time for nearly a year and half? Shouldn’t we hire math and reading instructors to address the learning gaps? What does career training have to do with SEL? (Another topic for another day)

Parents take action! Question teachers, counselors, administrators, the superintendent and school board members. Speak at school board meetings. Run for the school board or actively campaign for school board candidates and/or donate to their campaigns.

The last round of Covid relief education funds: American Rescue Plan; requires schools to spend 20% of the funds on interventions that “respond to student’s academic, social and emotional needs.” PATRIOTS WE MUST GAIN CONTROL OF SCHOOL BOARDS!

January 11, 2022 1

Meet Ralph

Pornography is pornography

It would be simple-minded to believe that the pornographic books in school libraries are only found under keyword searches such as “homosexuality”, “queer” or “gay”. There are many heterosexual books which are equally inappropriate for young minds. One such book, Forever, by Judy Blume, is a coming-of-age story filled with lurid details of minors engaging in sexual activity. It is page after page of too much information. In the following passage we are introduced to Michael, Katherine, and Ralph.

“Don’t,” he said wiggling out of his pajama bottoms. He led my hands to his penis. Katherine…I’d like you to meet Ralph…Ralph, this is Katherine. She’s a very good friend of mine.”
“Does every penis have a name?”
“I can only speak for my own.”
Blume, Judy. Forever. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2014.

And I can only speak for myself. This is disgusting. Katherine goes on to give Ralph a hand job until she feels “wetness” on her hand. Not to be deterred, Katherine hangs on to Ralph. (Please, someone get the girl a tissue!)

Blume can’t let go either. A few chapters later, Katherine and Michael get naked and “make love” on the bathroom rug. Unfortunately, Michael is unable to hold out long enough for poor Katherine and she is left wanting. In case you sense a lack of equity in this given situation, don’t be alarmed. Michael and Ralph make up for their lack of “love making” ability one hour later.

“This time Michael made it last much, much longer and I got so carried away I grabbed his backside with both hands, trying to push him deeper and deeper into me and I spread my legs as far apart as I could and I raised my hips off the bed and I moved with him, again and again and again and at last, I came. I came right before Michael and as I did I made noises, just like my mother. Michael did too.
While he was still on top of me, catching his breath, I started laughing. “I came…” I told him. “I actually came.”
Blume, Judy. Forever. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2014

Forever is a Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) and a 1996 winner of the A.L.A. Margaret A Edwards Award. The American Library Association is one of the key reasons why books with explicit sexual passages are astonishingly abundant in Oklahoma schools and across our nation. It did, after all, win awards; it must be good.

It’s in your schools. Go find it

January 6, 2022 0

Cultural Competency, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – Is Racist Training

What would you think if an administrator said the following to you:

“We have to have ‘Cultural Competency’ training. Here’s an example of why…LatinX students are helpers – that’s who they are. They help each other with everything. That’s just their culture. There have been teachers who’ve come to me and felt that they were cheating and I’ve had to explain to them that, “no, they’re not cheating, that’s just the Latin X culture.”

I recounted this story to an Hispanic acquaintance recently. She was shocked. Not only did she not like the ‘LatinX’ term, but she was greatly troubled by the fact that someone would label ANY student the way this administrator did – particularly an entire group of individuals – giving every INDIVIDUAL in the group the same attributes.

How does that not 100% satisfy the definition of racism?

Here are the reasons I believe DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) and training in ‘Cultural Competence’ are simply wrong:

1. America is to be a MELTING POT of cultures. You may be Italian, but when you become a citizen of the US, you are no longer ‘Italian’ (or even ‘Italian American’), you are an AMERICAN who recognizes the US Constitution as sovereign and America’s common traditions and history as your own. While you retain your Italian heritage, share stories and foods of your culture with your friends and community – you don’t come to America expecting it to become Italy, you come to be an ‘American’ with all the rights and duties that affords and confers.

2. America – more so than in any other country in the world – recognizes INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS. It’s baked into our First Amendment. It’s an attribute given us by God who said, “Even the hairs on your head are all counted. Don’t be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:7). To explain individuals by a set of cultural ‘attributes’ flies in the face of God himself, let alone the Constitution of the United States. (Aside: now wonder… why do Leftists/Socialists/Communists want to teach American children to hate America?)

3. Dividing people into groups promotes racism – the practice of believing “that each race has distinct and intrinsic attributes” – and what this administrator said under the guise of preventing racism IS 100% RACIST by definition.

My husband has friends from India who came to America to work. Because they were afraid they would be deported under the Trump administration (a LIE OF THE LEFT) they moved to Canada.

Once, when my husband asked his friend how they were doing in that country, the man said that he had expected Canada would be like the US – that his family would be living among other cultures and sharing the fruits of their rich cultural backgrounds with others, learning from one another.

He was surprised instead to find that, where he lived in Canada, cultures we’re completely separated so that, instead of living with and learning from others of other nationalities, he was confined to living with only those from India.

He was very sorry they had left the US and looked forward to the time when they could return. He hadn’t wanted to leave India only to surround himself with other Indians, he told my husband.

America, America, God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good WITH BROTHERHOOD from sea to shining sea….

December 5, 2021 0