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Dystopia Reached: Oklahoma Republicans Continue Their March Toward Socialism By Redistributing Wealth Through EDUCATION

Not that Oklahoma – and Governor Stitt in particular – haven’t begun to truly love giving our tax dollars away and calling it an “investment“, but here’s yet another. A BIG one!

An “HISTORIC” 700 MILLION dollar “investment” in Oklahoma education. Here are some lines from the Senate press release praising this “historic” vote:

Here’s what’s in HB1935. To see the other “historic” “investments”, click on the link to the press release. There’s plenty there to read:

The Oklahoma State Senate today gave passage to its historic $700 million education package. 

Senators voted overwhelmingly on both measures 40 – to – 7 on House Bill 1935 and 46 – to – 2 on House Bill 2775, approving the single largest appropriations increase to education in state history, sending it back to the House of Representatives. 

Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, said the Senate did its job and delivered for teachers, children and parents. 

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/OKSENATE/bulletins/35206ac

Here’s what the press release says about HB1935:

HB 1935 will give parents additional options and control over their children’s education by providing a $100 million investment in school choice. This bill provides a $7,500 tax credit per eligible student each tax year if the eligible student attends a private school and the family has an income of less than $250,000. The bill also provides for a $1,000 tax credit per family, for certain qualified expenditures, each tax year if one or more eligible students is homeschooled. Valid receipts must be provided to OTC to receive the $1,000 tax credit.

NOT ONE OKLAHOMA REPUBLICAN SENATOR STOOD UP TO THIS. Not one.

Please, make sure you stop everything you’re doing and kiss your backside good-bye. Oklahoma is now a socialist state – and proud to be one. We just decided to take money from businesses and private citizens to educate the children of people making less than 250k at a private school.

Our family makes less than 250k. My husband and I both have Master’s degrees. We chose that I would stay home and educate our kids. We have never bought new cars, for years we couldn’t afford vacations, and we NEVER SPENT $7500 a year A PIECE on ANY of their educations – for FOUR kids.

Now, I get to be happy that, though we scrimped and sacrificed to provide our children with an education outside that provided by the government, others in our tax bracket can educate their kids at a private school ON MY DIME without that messy inconvenience of having to scrimp and sacrifice.

So let’s break down some issues with this “historic” investment :

1. The Oklahoma state government will take my property if I refuse to pay my property taxes and/or put me in jail if I don’t pay my income taxes and if I don’t pay my business taxes, they will divest me of the business I run which allows them to take my taxes.

2. The government cannot “invest” my tax dollars. They can’t take funds and apply ANY market ‘risk’ to the funds they steal from us by force. So the idea of an “historic” INVESTMENT is a complete crock.

2. The property taxes my husband and I pay for our schools are less than 2000. A tax credit – ideally – would be me not having to spend the money that comes out of my household that supports the public schools I DON’T USE. Can you imagine how fast the ‘public’ school would clean up when it became funded by a USE tax? If you can’t imagine, I’ll tell you: FAST, because THAT would be market competition – not this BS the legislature is selling calling it SCHOOL CHOICE.

3. Who pays the 750 million dollar price tag? Oklahoma citizens.

4. What happens if there isn’t a surplus, or we have a downturn in the economy? Where does the money come from then? If the ‘credit’ can’t be funded, where do all the kids go from private school who can’t afford it anymore? How much more will the legislature decide to ratchet up fees (they can’t call them taxes or a majority of the legislature has to agree which is why we haven’t had a tax increase in a long time – they learned they can tax us and call it a “fee” the legislature doesn’t have to agree to) when Oklahomans who have been hooked on the teat of FREE MONEY for PRIVATE SCHOOL have an absolute fit and demand ‘their’ money to finish educating their kids in private school? This ‘historic investment’ will become MEDICAIRE!!!

5. How many private schools are there to take all these new kids? Are there enough now? No, actually.

6. Does it make sense that enterprising Oklahoma legislators would go into the business of building private schools so they could make money on tuition?

7. What happens when a Satanist private school is built and accepts kids? The Supreme Court ruled recently that tax dollars can go to religious schools. What happens when my tax dollars fund a Satanist school? Wasn’t that one of the arguments against abortion? People were sick of their tax dollars funding abortions? Well I don’t want my tax dollars funding Satanic schools.

8. How many legislators/people complained it was socialism for Biden to pay for the student loans of flailing college students? ISN’T GIVING PARENTS 7500/KID TO GO TO PRIVATE SCHOOL THE SAME THING? What happens to those of us who schooled our kids on our own WITHOUT government help? Oh, that’s right. Tough luck – just like with business tax credits – the government will pick winners and losers and those of us with personal responsibility are the big losers.

9. The funding of public education is in Oklahoma’s constitution. The Oklahoma legislature is tasked with running these schools – hell, they make countless laws to make public schools kowtow to every year! IT’S THE LEGISLATURES JOB TO FIX OKLAHOMA PUBLIC SCHOOLS THAT AREN’T EDUCATING KIDS.

The legislature’s job isn’t to SHIRK their job and put that job off on parents and call it PARENTAL EMPOWERMENT.

10. How empowering is it to parents to have their taxes go up year after year to pay for public schools that don’t work and countless government programs so that they don’t have the money to educate their own children?

11. And the bottom line: how is it the GOVERNMENTS JOB TO PRIVATELY EDUCATE KIDS? The more government grows, the more our liberty shrinks, the more our liberty shrinks, the more socialist we become.

For God sakes! I feel so sorry for the people who have emigrated to Oklahoma from the left coast thinking they were going to get ‘freedom’ here. Here’s the bottom line, as Reagan said many times, “We’re only one generation away” from losing America.

Sadly, the subsequent generations from that quote were educated in government schools that took away their history, dumbed down their math, botched their reading so the majority of kids can’t read at grade level and hooked them on porn. AND WE HAD THE PLEASURE OF PAYING FOR THAT. Government is now king – personal responsibility is done for. Bye-bye America. Bye-bye Oklahoma. RIP.

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Do Parent Involvement Policies Align with the Parents’ Bill of Rights?

By Dayna Mooney, Chapter Chair, Moms for Liberty Canadian County

Oklahoma’s Parents’ Bill of Rights defines a “parent” as the natural or adoptive parent or legal guardian of a minor child who makes decisions in the best interest of that child. (Source: https://law.justia.com/codes/oklahoma/2014/title-25/section-25-2002/)

 It goes on to say “All parental rights are reserved to a parent of a minor child without obstruction or interference from this state, any political subdivision of this state, any other governmental entity or any other institution, including, but not limited to, the following rights:

1. The right to direct the education of the minor child;

2. All rights of parents identified in Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes, including the right to access and review all school records relating to the minor child;

3. The right to direct the upbringing of the minor child;

4. The right to direct the moral or religious training of the minor child;….”

The Parents’ Bill of Rights does not give any school district or school personnel the right to direct the education of any minor child. The Bill of Rights directs that the parents are involved.

The Parents’ Bill of Rights is important because on Monday, February 13th @ 6pm, the Mustang Public Schools Board of Education will decide whether or not to approve two new policies.

  1. Policy # 2146 – Parent and Family Engagement (Note: At the time of this article the policy was not available for review on the website. An email has been sent to the Board and the Superintendent requesting the policy for review. Neither have responded.)
  2. Policy # 2147 – Site Parent and Family Engagement Policy (i.e. School Visitors in the Policy Handbook) https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1668702225/mustangpsorg/kyehs4gpb5yugsgvlhhb/MPSPoliciesandProcedures.pdf This policy is available on page 167.

Policy #2147- Site Parent and Family Engagement Policy (i.e. School Visitors in the Policy Handbook), a section from this policy states:

“The superintendent or principal of any school shall have the authority to order any person out of the school building and off the school property when it appears that the presence of such person is a threat to the peaceful conduct of school business, school activities, and/or school classes. This authority shall extend to the removal of any individual attending an official school activity or field trip where students are present, including an activity or field trip not on school property, when the superintendent or principal determines that a threat to the peaceful conduct of students exists. Any person who refuses to leave the school building or grounds after being ordered to do so by the superintendent or principal, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not more than $500.00 or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than 90 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment…Any person who is requested to leave the premises shall be considered for a six-month removal period.”

Could a parent be deemed a threat to the peaceful conduct of school business, activities and/or classes for asking questions that the school and/or district chooses not to disclose or speaking out against the school’s mission and values? Why are the superintendent and/or principal the only decision makers on who is considered a threat? The Superintendent stated during the November 14, 2022 Board of Education meeting “this one cleans up wording of a previous policy and makes it easier to follow”.

After researching #2146 and #2147, the search led to Policy # 2145 – Parent Involvement Policy on page 165, which is already in place. The policy discusses district expectations and parent expectations. While the district expectations are only eight bullets long, the parent expectations are nearly double. A couple of parent expectations that stand out are 1) “participating in the development of the school parent involvement plan and the review and evaluation of the plan” and 2) “valuing diversity and the need for equity in each child’s learning”.  To address the first expectation, parents haven’t been given sufficient time to review or become involved in the creation and evaluation of the plan. In addition, the Board of Education hasn’t educated parents about their rights. As for the requirement that parents need to adopt DEI to be involved, through who’s lens is Diversity and Equity being taught? What is being taught? Does it align with your family’s values? If it doesn’t, does that mean you are unable to be involved with your child’s education?

Along the same lines as “parent involvement”, the Board of Education and the Mustang Public Schools Administration does not appear to value family because they insert their own opinions about the curriculum to be taught. One such curriculum is the 7 Mindsets which is a Social Emotional Learning program (SEL). SEL programs teach our children that the morals, values and traditions in our families are wrong. Per the 7 Mindsets book, when we tell our children “Money doesn’t grow on trees” we are causing emotional scarring to our children. (Source: The 7 Mindsets To Live Your Ultimate Life)

There is so much happening in our school district that parents are not aware of until it is too late.

We are calling all parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings, and community members to jump into action and be proactive. Get involved in your child’s school, find a local advocacy group to work with and ask questions when your gut tells you something is off. Don’t take the school administration’s word for it, do your own independent research. YOU MUST TAKE ACTION TO SAVE OUR CHILDREN’S EDUCATION! You are your child’s advocate.

Takeaway: District Parent Involvement Plans/Policies DO NOT align with the Parents’ Bill of Rights!

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Governor Stitt Says He Wants Oklahoma To Be More Like The Voucher States Of Iowa, Virginia, Florida and New Hampshire Where Homeschooling Is Significantly More Restricted Than Oklahoma

To hear the Voucher cabal talking, you find out a couple things quickly;

  1. there is simply no downside to private school vouchers and
  2. long-time homeschoolers or private schoolers don’t seem to be part of the discussion.

Why?

Probably because, like most things that vastly enlarge the imprint of government, the effects of any government program are far downstream from the initial creation – it’s the frog in the boiling pot syndrome if you will. No one sees a giant hook coming from backstage to pull all the homeschoolers and privately schooled kids into the pit of homogeneity and government regulation, yet it’s still there. It’s moving so slowly the audience doesn’t really notice it until – suddenly – the kids are gone.

Just recently I became aquainted with a woman who is a former high school counselor who does high school/college/career counseling for the homeschooling community, in addition to running an online learning academy and homeschooling her own kids.

Today, she sent me the following:

I work with homeschoolers from across our nation in an advisory role.  All too often here lately, I am talking with families in other states that have recently passed vouchers or other forms of monies for ‘school choice.’  I hear the same story from most of them.  The bills passed with minimal regulation, affording families choices in curricula and services, but after a year or two, those regulations increase and tighten, constricting those choices.

I spoke with a homeschooling family in another state yesterday, where they’ve had these vouchers in place for nearly a decade. When the family first began homeschooling, they were very loosely regulated and had the freedom to choose their curriculum. Now they spend a good portion of the school year ‘checking off boxes,’ ‘meeting with state officials,’ and trying to make sure they ‘jump through all of the hoops.’ The mom was very frustrated because it wasn’t helping her; it was wasting her time. The son was frustrated because he was no longer allowed to explore the classes that interested him (he wants to go into computer engineering, not underwater basket weaving), but instead had to complete a series of worksheets and other things his state-compliance-officer said he had not checked off in the “thousands of check boxes.” The mom said they literally spent four hours in a meeting last week with said officer going through a list of boxes of things to see if her son had covered the topics. Mom says the vast majority of these changes have come down the pipe in the past three years.

When I talk with homeschooling families in states where vouchers have more recently passed, I hear a similar story, but on a fast-tracked timeline. They were sold one idea, and then it was changed a year or two later. It’s the legislative bait-and-switch. While my examples are all about homeschooling families, as that is the population I work with, I’m sure that there are elements of bait-and-switch that are going to apply to non-homeschooling families as well. Don’t give up your freedoms in the name of getting a little bit of money. In fact — every family I speak with says that money flows freely at first, but then becomes harder and harder to get. The CA family from yesterday still has 85% of their allotted funding left for the year because they can’t access it since they haven’t jumped through all the appropriate hoops yet. Mom ended up paying for all of their curriculum out of pocket and is still required to follow the state voucher rules.

My experience is with homeschooling families, so I cannot speak to how school choice is affecting families of private or public school students.  But from a psychological perspective, it’s much easier to control the mouse in the maze once you have it used to getting the free cheese. 

Okay, one could call this “fallacy of small sample”. This is one woman I know, who talks to homeschooling families.

But what we can do is this: Governor Stitt is quoted in a recent Daily Oklahoman article about his committment to a voucher plan for Oklahoma, as saying,

“Other states like Iowa and Virginia and Florida and New Hampshire have already figured it out,” Stitt said in his remarks. “Providing more options for students leads to better outcomes. Oklahoma cannot afford to be left behind.”

Oklahoma Gov. Stitt proposes $130M school voucher program. Will rural opposition sink it again?

So, let’s at least do this: let’s go out and see what the Homeschooling Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) says about the homeschooling requirements for each state.

Iowa: Good grief. Iowa’s homeschooling regulations are too numerous to bother with here. The link is on the state name, good luck getting through all that in under 15 minutes. Also include a VACCINATION REQUIREMENT for kids.

Virginia: Same song second verse. Homeschooling regulations too numerous to mention including a VACCINATION REQUIREMENT for kids. Yup, very, very free so far.

Florida: Well, there is no vaccination requirement, but if you’re going to school your kids at home, you’ll need to show the state a portfolio of your work and take a normed achievement test yearly and provide those results to the state, or have your kid/s evaluated by a psychiatrist or psychologist. Gosh, I can see nothing going wrong there. What if the kid ever wants to run for public office or be a CEO? “Well, son, I can see that you didn’t pass a psychiatric evaluation by the state to graduate your homeschool…”

New Hampshire: Great. New Hampshire is better – NOT! Here you have to register as a homeschooler, TEACH REQUIRED SUBJECTS, keep and retain a portfolio for two years and REPORT TO THE STATE if you graduate your child before the age of 18.

OCPA just reminded us today of new statistics put together by EdChoice.org – a multimillion dollar, 501c4 organization. OKLAHOMA PARENTS CHOOSE TO HOMESCHOOL MORE THAN ANY OTHER GROUP OF OPTIONS OUTSIDE PUBLIC.

In fact, I’ve met more people recently – including my neighbors – who’ve moved here from another state to HOMESCHOOL thanks to the right of parents via the Oklahoma Constitution to educate their children by “other means“.

Last year, during our fight to prevent Republicans from making homeschool and private schools public via SB1647, a lady reached out to us on our Facebook page and said,

Why there are legislators in Oklahoma who want to make Oklahoma LESS FREE for parents to educate their children, I have no idea. It literally makes no sense. But, our Governor – in his own words – has said he wants Oklahoma to be MORE LIKE the four states listed here.

THAT IS NOT GOOD NEWS FOR HOMESCHOOLERS – OR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO HOMESCHOOL – HERE IN OKLAHOMA.

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Five Reasons Republicans Should Not Support Vouchers

Though few may pay it the attention it’s due, the Republican Party has a Platform snapshotting a picture of the basic things Party members generally believe. Oklahoma has its own Platform created through a process that eventually ends in a vote of acceptance at their biennial convention. The Oklahoma County GOP has a very good one page summary of the OKGOP Platform here.

According to this OKGOP Platform, these are five reasons Republicans should NOT support ‘School Choice’ vouchers (please see “An Analysis Of Three Oklahoma Voucher Bills” for more information on what the bills say):

  1. Republicans believe in “limited government“. In fact, that is where the term “conservative” arises. We wish to ‘conserve’ the rights to the people by limiting government to the smallest footprint possible. Every universal voucher bill filed in the senate creates 6 to 7 sections of NEW LAW. In fact, they expand the Oklahoma Treasurer’s office by providing it not less than 20 new duties.
  2. Republicans believe in “personal, moral responsibility“. Taxpayers are forced to pay taxes to governments. If their taxes are not paid, the government will either take our property or our liberty (by throwing us in jail). Once the money leaves our hands, it’s not ours anymore. It is placed into one giant pot over which we have minimal control – through our legislators (taxation with representation) – as to how it’s spent. We can’t use government as a bank – our money isn’t earmarked as ours once it goes into the pot – all we can do is use the services our lawmakers choose to provide us for the money we must provide them from our budgets.
    • It is our personal, moral responsibility to raise and educate our children the way we believe is best.
    • It is the personal, moral responsibility of our elected lawmakers to do what is necessary to make government – including public schools – produce results and be accountable to the taxpayer whose dollars they appropriate.
    • It is the personal, moral responsibility of parents to move their lawmakers to force educational results (accountability) on our public schools, but it is also our personal, moral responsibility not to go to our lawmakers and demand more of our neighbor’s money so that we can put our children in schools we couldn’t otherwise afford without help. That is called welfare and/or socialism – definitely NOT a Republican ideal.
  3. Republicans believe in “individual liberty“. If the government gives a private school taxpayer dollars from the public coffers, taxpayers have the right to demand accountability for those dollars. This accountability can put boundaries on “individual liberty”. The Class Wallet debacle shows this to be true in spades.
    • In 2020, Oklahoma government officials – including now State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters – contracted with a PRIVATE organization called “Class Wallet” to disseminate over 17 million dollars in GEER funds (Governor’s Emergency Educational Relief). Parents who privately schooled their children were gifted $6500 for tuition to the tune of 10 million dollars total through the “Stay In School” program. Public school parents who needed help schooling their children online were gifted up to $1500 through the “Bridge The Gap” program.
    • Today, federal and state auditors are investigating over one half million dollars in GEER funds that were spent on things other than education, essentially defrauding the taxpayer. This same thing also happened in Arizona, through their private voucher program.
    • According to The Frontier, the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) is sending emails to identified users of the programs – for apparent accountability measures – asking, “What was the particular purpose surrounding your purchases during the pandemic?” And “were you homeschooling your children, or were they still in school?” ROPE has expressed continuous concern that homeschooling families taking government money would be assimilated by the government. The government gave away the money without guardrails – what good could it do to determine if families schooled at home or not?
    • Once the government begins to separate homeschooling families from private school families and online public school families from homeschooling families, Oklahoma’s previously undefined, but Constitutionally protected use of education “by other means” is in jeopardy of becoming regulated by the state, thus subverting the “individual liberty” of parents to school their children without state interference.
  4. Republicans believe in “state sovereignty“. Unfortunately, the Oklahoma legislature and public schools LOVE to get federal funding. In fact, according to this article from 2022, Oklahoma is 15th in the amount of federal funding we receive.
  5. Republicans believe in the “free market“. Public/private partnerships are not “free market”. Once the government – at any level – injects money into a private company/organization/school, the business to which the funds were given, now has an edge over the wholly-privately-owned businesses that weren’t able to, or didn’t, capitalize on on government handouts.
    • Nowhere is this better seen than the distribution of CARES Act monies. According to Forbes, private equity firms used federal funds to boost profits, crushing their competitors, the ‘little guys’ who weren’t able to capitalize on federal loans.
    • The “free market” describes a system of business free from government intervention, where businesses compete with each other so that the best companies prevail. Injecting public funds into a private school will create an imbalance in the private school system in which those taking state funding will grow and those that don’t, won’t. Sadly, the ones NOT taking public funds will do so to retain their autonomy, yet parents will slowly be denied access to an autonomous private school as the public-fund-sucking schools overpower their marketshare – leaving parents – AGAIN – with less choice than they had BEFORE government intervention.

Vouchers, like the Republican-pushed Common Core before it, are not based on Republican ideals and they will not work for Oklahoma families just like they haven’t in states like Arizona that have tried them.

As we’ve pointed out again and again, Oklahoma HAS SCHOOL CHOICE! We have a voucher program – the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship for children with disabilities. We have the Opportunity Scholarship Fund which uses donations to “help[s] low-income families bridge the financial gap between what they can afford and what is best suited for their student for specialized PreK-12 education”. According to the Oklahoma section of the “National School Choice Week” website, Oklahoma has approximately 60 charter schools, several magnate schools, over 200 private schools, six fully online public schools, Constitutionally protected homeschool, and “learning pods”. The idea that ‘vouchers’ are required to somehow provide parents with school choice, should make one wonder then – what exactly do the people pushing “school choice” legislation really want?

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Isn’t CRT Banned in Oklahoma?

Guest Post By Dayna Mooney – Chapter Chair, Moms For Liberty (Canadian County, OK)

Like many Parents, we have discovered things being taught to our children with which we disagree.

Some members have even taken it further and begun researching the curricula being used, looking into Teachers that are in our schools, books in our School Library or even considered running for a School Board seat themselves.

For me, it was the COVID lockdowns that lead me to see what my children were being taught and what they weren’t being taught, a discovery that eventually lead me to start a Chapter in Canadian County for Moms for Liberty. Moms for Liberty works to empower Parents to advocate for their children and take back their Parental Rights.

During each of our Chapter meetings, we review School Board Agendas for School Districts that are represented within our Chapter.

During the October 27th Chapter meeting of last year (2022) we discussed Out of State Approvals for Yukon Public Schools, in particular an approval for the District Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator to attend the National Council for Social Studies Conference in Philadelphia, PA, December 1-4, 2022. Curious, we researched further.

It turns out, this conference is one of the largest gathering of K-12 social studies classroom teachers in the US. While we have no idea which of the 500+ sessions this teacher chose to attend, these were the 6 Sub Themes covered in this Conference:

  1. Connecting Educators as Learners
  2. Teaching Civil Discourse
  3. Embracing Hard History
  4. Building Critical Media Literacy
  5. Fostering Global Citizens
  6. Navigating the Political Landscape in Teaching Social Studies

These were some of the Workshops/Sessions available at this Conference:

  • Teaching History for Justice
  • Critical Race Theory and Social Studies Futures
  • Be(com)ing Stranger: Towards a Posthuman Social Studies
  • Proceeding with Caution and Care: Examining Classroom Simulations Through the Lens of Educational Equity
    • Participants will investigate classroom simulations, focusing on the challenges and dangers that surround their use. Presenters will provide administrators and supervisors strategies for identifying harmful simulations and how to coach teachers away from using them and move toward more culturally responsive, culturally sensitive, and more equitable and inclusive classroom activities
  • Embracing Student Activism
    • How a Pride Flag led to lobbying in Congress: learn how a school district located on indigenous territory embraced student activism and the opportunities it created
  • Mind the Gap: Tackling Conspiracy Theories in the Classroom
    • Combatting the prevalence of misinformation available to students is a challenge in classrooms today. Discover strategies for debunking common 9/11 conspiracy theories that translate across a variety of content and subjects.
  • Exploring Primary Sources in Ethnic Studies: Using the Library of Congress to Create School District Professional Development
    • Learn how Houston ISD leveraged their Teaching with Primary Sources grant award to expand teacher access to ethnic studies knowledge, teaching resources, and curriculum
  • Teaching Critical Race Theory with Primary Source Documents
    • Learn how two educators used primary sources to support the curriculum of a dedicated Critical Race Theory class at the college level. Connections to the K-12 classroom will be shared
  • How to Teach the Truth and Not End Up in the Principal’s Office
    • The Library of Congress and the TPS Teachers Network have resources and professional support to aid educators in their quest to teach accurate history in an era of divisive topics laws.
  • Diversity and Inclusion Pedagogy for Teaching Global Learning and Leadership
    • Explore project-based instructional techniques and best practices that empower and immerse students more deeply in the Global Citizenship learning experience by utilizing diverse and inclusive student-led engagement activities
  • The 1619 Project, Critical Race Theory, Divisive Concepts Legislation: Empowering Teachers and Communities to Confront the Politicization of Social Studies
    • Unravel the politicization of the 1619 Project, Critical Race Theory, and divisive concepts legislation with other educators who seek to confront racialized rhetoric with truth
  • Fostering Community, Understanding, and Growth Through Civil Dialogue
    • Explore meaningful methods for creating, building, and fostering civil dialogue techniques with your students to increase content understanding, promote social-emotional learning, and maintain community among your students.
  • The Color of Law: Exploring Systemic Racism in Housing Policy Using PBL
    • Using the project-based learning model, U.S. History/Government teachers can position students to raise awareness of systemic racism in housing policy using Richard Rothstein’s 2017 book The Color of Law.
  • Truth and Reconciliation: Sexual Slavery During World War II
    • Inquiry about sexual slavery during World War II with embedded best Social Emotional Learning practices by examining transgressions of the past and truth and reconciliation
  • Don’t End up on the News! A Trauma-Informed Approach to Teaching Hard History
    • Don’t let the headlines scare you! New teachers, let’s talk about ways to approach hard history using trauma-informed best practices
  • Teaching Untold Stories to Inspire Children as Changemakers
    • Challenge the dominant discourse of the civil rights movement in elementary social studies and, instead, embrace teaching unsung heroes in an effort to create social justice advocates in our students
  • Combating Misinformation with Culturally Responsive Teaching
    • Explore innovative approaches for designing and implementing culturally responsive instruction. With a firm understanding of these techniques and principles, attendees will reap the benefits of these lessons
  • Reimagining Civic Action: Human Rights Close to Home
    • Hear youth scholars and educators share how Human Rights Education can serve as a blueprint for experiential learning that promotes student civic engagement and activism

As you can see, there was a theme to what was being discussed at this Conference. Any teachers in attendance will then bring what they’ve learned back to the District and share it with their fellow teachers, maybe even during a Professional Development, or other training day.

As you can see with the picture below Critical Race Theory, Cultural Relevant Pedagogy, Multicultural Education and Civil Rights Movement are all one in the same. Many use buzz words to get around Critical Race Theory laws within the State in order to continue teaching it in our Schools.

Another commonly known buzz word that we hear now is Social Emotional Learning or SEL, MANY Schools, if not all are using some type of SEL Program within our Schools. All of these are vehicles for Critical Race Theory, no matter what you call them and are designed to infringe on a Parent’s Right to educate their children in the worldview of their family. These programs promote feelings and behaviors that are not usually reflective of our teachings as the parent.

In December of 2020, CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning) updated their definition for SEL to showcase the value of SEL as a weapon for social justice. These SEL programs gather non-cognitive data using attributes, feelings, grit, mindsets and more that’s been gathered through various programs and different terminology. None of which can be fairly assessed with a computer.

Do you remember Common Core that’s also against the law to teach in Oklahoma? SEL, CRT are just the newest versions of Common Core, just a different name, pretty bow on the surface that ultimately pushes the same message that focuses less on academics and more on mindsets, feelings and behaviors. SEL claims to improve test scores, but as we are seeing by the latest release, it’s done the opposite. Just one of many claims, that have all proven to do the opposite.

All of these programs, no matter what you call them, get in the way of good, efficient teaching. Teachers are being asked to take on the role therapists, which they aren’t trained for, nor do they want to be therapists in most cases. Running off good teachers, to make way for the activist teachers to be the student’s parent, tell them how to think and how to hate their Country!

As Parents, we have to stand up against this agenda and do our part to get our Education System back on track! Even if your children are grown, you have a place in this fight as well! The more the merrier!

These are some results of SEL Teachings. You may already be seeing them in your School;

  • Larger Class Sizes
  • More about Diversity
  • Changes to what was once a Zero Tolerance Policy
  • Grading Policy Changes on some or all Levels
  • School(s) are becoming overpopulated

Follow the link below to see a graphic to connect CRT to SEL and more

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19j0O_0aAdQPjbazAA842ncsGfTAGxvz2/view?usp=sharing

For more information on Moms for Liberty feel free to visit www.momsforliberty.org or email me, Dayna Mooney at moms4liberty_canadiancounty@protonmail.com.

For more information on SEL, see Six Reasons Why The Oklahoma State Legislature Should Ban The Use of SEL – Social Emotional Learning Through SB1442

Senator Jett has filed SB1027 (2023) to stop the teaching of SEL.

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School Board Elections Are Coming UP! Be PREPARED With This Information!

For years, ROPE has been preaching about the importance of SCHOOL BOARD RACES to parents and students. Although many people don’t realize it, SCHOOL BOARDS have nearly ALL THE POWER in a school! NOT the superintendent – THE BOARD – which should be IDEALLY made up of parents with children in the school.

If you are interested in running for school board, you must RUN to your county election board ASAP. The date for filing for running STARTS TOMORROW – December 5-7th! Go to your COUNTY Election Board to file. Please see THIS LINK for the filing packet and all information regarding School Board Elections.

Here’s a table that gives you information on WHAT a School Board member should do – as opposed to what the Superintendent should do.

Here’s a link to Title 70 Section 70-3-104, “State Board of Education – Powers and duties” in the event you’d like to see for yourself.

In the event that you would like to have a candidate forum in your area – or simply ask questions of your school board candidates, we’ve developed the 20 below for your use!

20 QUESTIONS FOR SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES

  1. Do you know how to tell male from female in most species of mammals in North America? Should an educator be required to reach that level of competency?
  2. What are the pros and cons of A-B schedules?
  3. Should your Superintendent have the wisdom to fire teachers who provide litter boxes or sexual instruction for children?
  4. How many administrators does it take to provide programs that have nothing to do with education?
  5. How many federal grants does it take to prevent the need for parents?
  6. Are you opposed to parents taking the main role in raising their children (education, food, transportation, and entertainment, physical and mental health care, sex ed, spiritual guidance)?
  7. At what age is it educational for a teacher or librarian to offer your child pornography?
  8. Do you trust trained teachers to carry a firearm in class to protect themselves and their students?
  9. Will you have concerned parents arrested for attending school board meetings?
  10. Do you want to take your school board training from a “non-profit” who makes $Millions per year and considers concerned parents domestic terrorists?
  11.  Are you for or against adults having sex with minors?
  12.  Should school counselors be allowed to advise children to keep secrets from parents, or encourage them to have sex or to have medical procedures?
  13.  Who do school board members work for? 
  14.  Should children be masked and treated like lepers when .005% of them get sick? Should schools close down for those statistics?
  15.  What are the pros and cons of virtual schools?
  16.  Should parents be allowed entry to see their children or faculty during the school day?
  17.  Are you familiar with Social Emotional Learning, Critical Race Theory, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, as well as Environmental Social Governance programs and their application in the classroom?
  18.  Should schools follow the spirit of a law even if they can find a loophole?
  19.  What challenges do you expect as a member of your school board?
  20. Do you have the guts to stand strong against absurdity to protect Oklahoma children even when the globalists offer you or your school money?

Now that you have a big chunk of information to help you either RUN or VOTE for your local school board candidate – GET OUT THERE AND GET INVOLVED!!!

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Did A Boy Identifying As A Girl Severely Injure A Girl In An Edmond Memorial High School Girls’ Bathroom?  What Does The Police Report Say?

October 26th of this year, at 8:14 am police were called to Edmond Memorial High School after an incident in a girls’ bathroom that left a student with an, “injury to ( ) eye, face and head with possible concussion” according to page 5 of the police report filed with the Edmond Police Department embedded below.  [Ellipses ( ) indicate redacted information.]

In fact, the incident was so significant, the testimony of the school nurse as reported by the officer on scene states, “student’s left side of face is swollen, left eye lid swollen, complains of headache, dizziness, blurry vision, denies any nausea.  ( ) complains neck pain and ice pack applied and urge medical attention” (pg 5)

Recently, the police report for this incident was obtained by ROPE from the Edmond Police Department.  Filed police reports are available to the public at large, however in this case, names and gender information have been redacted – most probably because the victim and assailant are under the age of 18 – consequently, we are able to report only on the unredacted text from the officer’s filed narrative. 

The October 26th incident report includes six written statements: three from student witnesses and one each from the school nurse, Julie Drumm, Assistant Principal, Maryjel Cochrane and Principal Brandi Wheeler.

Why would we believe this to be a case of a boy using the girl’s bathroom?  Two specific reasons.

  1.  One witness statement says the following, “I was calming a friend down and I heard screaming so I stood up, went out of the stall so if I could jump in I could they were screaming, ( ) told ( ) to leave her alone and to stop looking at ( ) and then they started screaming at each other and then ( ) throug the first hit then basically jumped on ( ) started swinging to save ( ) live cuz ( ) is a man then I tried to jump in ( ) also hit ( ) from what I saw kicked ( ) in the head and the back 2 times and then we pulled ( ) up and ( ) collapsed and then the principal walked in.” (pg 4)
  2. The officer of record writes the following: “Some of the students involved informed me that they speculated that ( ) was a ( ) but did not know for sure. ( ) is enrolled as a ( ). I asked the registrar secretary for the ( ) birth certificate, but the certificate of birth did not identify ( ) gender. Another document in the file (Paternity Affidavit) had a section where ( ) was marked as being ( ). I informed the principal W-Brandi Wheeler about the discrepancy in A-( ) school record.  W-Brandi asked her to clarify.  P-( ) stated that ( ) was born ( ) but identifies as a ( ).  P-( ) stated that ( ) has suffered a lot of emotional and mental abuse in the past and they moved here to start anew.” 

Again, with pertinent information redacted, it is impossible to be sure of anything regarding the incident except that there was a fight in a bathroom that caused one person to sustain severe injury.  We can assume it’s a girls’ bathroom, however, simply because most boys do not go into a bathroom in a group, or escape there to ‘calm down a friend’.  Additionally, we can assume there is an issue with gender aspect to the incident as one witness does appear to identify the assailant as a man and the officer narrative includes a statement from the Principal that the assailant was born one sex BUT identifies as another.

The Edmond Memorial parents who spoke to us about this say they were not made aware of this severe assault – an important incident which should have been disclosed to parents no matter who was involved.  Moreover, if this was a boy in the girls’ bathroom – an issue that ROPE does not support in any way – PARENTS HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW.

Though there are poor souls who don’t wish to understand the concept of nature and biological fact – most men are much stronger than women (women boxers box each other, not other men, for example) – and that includes young men.

Girls/women deserve to be safe in their persons from rape or assault and to their personal PRIVACY while using bathrooms for girls/women – particularly at public schools and universities.  The example described by this police report could illustrate that fact perfectly.  Is this why this incident has not been publicly reported?  No matter the circumstances, schools should be absolutely transparent with parents about student safety. 

Apparently, Edmond Memorial, isn’t.

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Six Reasons OKC Residents Should VOTE NO On BOTH OKC Public Schools Bond Issues

Tomorrow (Tuesday, 11/8/22), Oklahoma City voters will go to the polls.  After voting for numerous candidates, OKC voters will have TWO PROPOSITIONS on which to vote to provide OKC Public Schools numerous opportunities for spending their property taxes.

Let’s look at the reasons to VOTE NO:

1. This bond initiative will SUBSTANTIALLY increase property taxes on Oklahoma City residents.  The Oklahoman says the issue would “raise the district’s mill levy to $26 for every $1,000 of assessed property value”.  This means if you own a house assessed at 175,000, your property taxes per year would be $4,550.  What will this do to the elderly and those on fixed incomes?

2. Oklahoma City Public Schools has HORRIBLE scores overall.  Let’s look at just a few of these (which you can verify here):

  • Britton Elementary: 90% BELOW GRADE LEVEL in English – 97% BELOW GRADE LEVEL in Math (demographics: 6.6% Caucasian, 41% Black, .5% Asian, 46.4% Hispanic
  • Quail Creek Elementary: 64% BELOW GRADE LEVEL in English – 75% BELOW GRADE LEVEL in Math (demographics: 44% Caucasian, 29.4% Black, 2.3% Asian, 10.3% Hispanic)
  • Bodine Elementary: 89% BELOW GRADE LEVEL in English – 93% BELOW GRADE LEVEL in Math (demographics: 13.3% Caucasian, 43.9% Black, 0% Asian, 29.6% Hispanic, 4.2% Native American
  • Cesar Chavez Elementary: 94% BELOW GRADE LEVEL in English – 95% BELOW GRADE LEVEL in Math – 95% BELOW GRADE LEVEL in Math (demographics: 8.3% Caucasian, 5.3% Black, .4% Asian, 81.9% Hispanic, 1.8% Native American

These scores mean that the students in these schools are essentially NOT BEING EDUCATED AT ALL.  Why in the world should anyone reward OKCPS for NOT DOING THEIR JOB in the first place.

3. If you are a renter, you do not directly pay property tax, but the company/organization/person who owns the building in which you live does.  How can the owners NOT pass such a significant property tax increase on to their tenets.

4. OKCPS Superintendent Sean McDaniel – who broke SB658 which prevented school boards from requiring masks – asked the Board to FIRE five teachers last year for following the law and NOT wearing masks while teaching.

5. Superintendent McDaniel also spoke out against the passage of HB1775, saying, “HB1775 is a solution looking for a problem that doesn’t exist.”  After passage of the bill, the entire eight member OKCPS School Board voted to FORMALLY DENOUNCE THE BILL.

6. This year – as in previous years since 2017 – OKCPS participated in the OKC Pride Alliance Parade WITH A TAXPAYER-FUNDED SCHOOL BUS.

OKCPS does not in any way exemplify – or even typify – a functional, taxpayer-supported, educational institution; they are – like so many public schools – a system of government-supported indoctrination centers serving to spread the ‘woke’ infection.

OKCSPS DOES NOT DESERVE ANY MORE HARD-EARNED PROPERTY TAX DOLLARS FROM OKLAHOMA CITY RESIDENTS. 

VOTE NO ON BOTH OKCPS BOND PROPOSITIONS!

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Democrat Education Policies DAMAGE Kids – VOTE NO FOR DEMOCRAT JENA NELSON for State Superintendent

With elections weeks away, Democrats are now scrambling to change history yet again. Though it was DEMOCRATS who were the main proponent of closing schools during the COVID 19 “pandemic”, the Biden administration is now attempting to shift the blame from Democrats for what we now KNOW damaged American school children possibly irreparably – the closing of public schools in favor of ‘distance learning’ for over a year.

According to the Washington Examiner, “Democratic-led states and teachers unions largely pushed school closures as a safety measure in 2020 and 2021, but both groups are now distancing themselves from those stances, as is the Biden administration.”

The article goes on to quote Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, blaming the virus itself, instead of Democrat union leaders for the school closures that kept kids out of classrooms.

“This once-in-a-generation virus upended our country in so many ways — and our students cannot be the ones who sacrifice most now or in the long run,” he said in a prepared statement. “We must treat the task of catching our children up in reading and math with the urgency this moment demands.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/distance-democrats-school-closures

Unsurprisingly, Cordona went on to try and bribe American parents away from their anger over the absolutely DISMAL NAEP scores recorded this year for English and Math, by assuring them there would be more money printed up to dole out as American Rescue Plan funds.

It’s important that American parents do not forget:

Randi Weingarten and the teacher’s unions worked with the CDC to keep schools closed according to FOIA’d emails.

https://nypost.com/2021/05/01/teachers-union-collaborated-with-cdc-on-school-reopening-emails/

If that article isn’t enough to drive that point home, here is another to review and here’s yet another…oh, and one more for your reading pleasure.

Sadly, not only has it been essentially proven (via 2022 NAEP scores) that American school students have ended up on the LOSING END OF LEARNING in the last several years, but studies have now shown NUMEROUS problems with Democrat-caused school closures.

For example, though this article sums up a number of issues, these would have to illustrate the most concerning issues beyond learning loss, including the death of students.

How the Closure of In-School Learning Damaged U.S. Children’s Mental Health During the Pandemic (TIME Magazine)

American Academy of Pediatrics: School closures, lockdown contributing to increase in children taking their own lives (Law Enforcement Today)

Covid-19 school closings linked to increase in depression and suicide, study finds (CNN)

These aren’t articles from just FOX news – or other independent, conservative-leaning news sources. CNN? TIME? Even these progressive bastions have spoken out about the damage caused by Democrat insistence that public schools be closed, though COVID 19 was NEVER indicated to have severe complications or spread in school-aged children.

But beyond even the damage done by the Democrat’s COVID policies, we can see from Oklahoma NAEP data that Oklahoma school children have CONSISTENTLY received a subpar education – and within the years of the Hofmeister superintendency, NAEP scores became legitimately ridiculous – probably because so much of public education is controlled by Oklahoma Democrats – including those in the Oklahoma’s Superintendent union CCOSA, and the Oklahoma School Boards Association OSSBA. (Please log on to our blospot and search both terms to find out how much damage these ‘nonpartisan’ (Democrat-run) organizations have done to Oklahoma education.)

Just get a load of Oklahoma’s NAEP scores:

VOTE NO FOR JENA NELSON for State Superintendent!

There can be no other way of reversing Oklahoma’s Democrat-caused public education damage than VOTING AGAINST A DEMOCRAT.

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