Legislation

Legislators Exempt Legislators And Others From PFAS Liability; Saundra Traywick – ROPE Report Short

Saundra Traywick of Oklahoma’s only Donkey Dairy, has been studying the effects of BIOSLUDGE (Humanure/Biosolids) since it was first dumped next to her farm several years ago.

After nearly being run off their property by the smell, Saundra found that this, so-called fertilizer made from sewage solids, can contain ‘forever chemicals’ like PFAS that have been shown to cause cancer and ‘gender-bending’ chemicals like atrizine.

For three years, the Traywick’s have been working with Oklahoma senator Shane Jett to try and stop the use of biosludge in Oklahoma, where it’s usually spread on crop lands that are used for hay, or animal grazing.

Unfortunately, at least one permit for the use of biosludge, belongs to an Oklahoma legislator – Representative Kevin Wallace, Chair of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee.

How many other legislators are using biosludge on their farmland is unknown, however we do know that application is free for the farmer who uses it – unlike those who choose to pay for fertilizer application, or rent livestock to do that job. We also know from Saundra that no less than three bills have been run in the Oklahoma legislature to ban or otherwise control the use of biosludge, but none have passed.

Today, HB2305 will not only NOT protect the people of Oklahoma from the toxic effects of biosludge in their drinking water and/or food, but – as the EPA gets closer to regulating the amount of PFAS in drinking water – it will EXEMPT the sellers of this crap, like Synagro and the end users who spread it on their property, to name a few.

Just like BIG PHARMA’s vaccine manufacturers can inject people with substances all the while knowing they don’t ever have to be responsible for the end results, our Oklahoma House just voted nearly unanimously (thank you Rick West and Tom Gann for voting NO!) to protect everyone from the effects of biosludge – and the same with the Senate (and thanks to the whole 10 of you who voted NO! 👊💖) – but those who need protecting most – the PEOPLE.

Truly, it should be in the daily lexicon of every legislator – to ask before voting on ANY bill – does it protect the liberty of the people whom I represent? If it doesn’t, the VOTE must be NO.

There’s no way a bill that seeks to ‘hold harmless’ those people perpetrating and/or allowing biosludge to effect Oklahomans through their food, air and water, is protecting their liberty! Instead of creating exemptions, legislators should be working together to BAN the use of biosludge across Oklahoma!

Watch the FULL video here on our Rumble and YouTube channels.

April 24, 2024 1

WARNINGS From People Outside The State – Oklahoma Is BLUEING FAST – We Better WAKE UP!

Last Friday, Michael and I had former attorney and non-profit wrangler, Ken Malloy on the ROPE Report to talk about the NorthStar Project and how NorthStar is influencing Tulsa Public Education. From recruiting and helping school board candidates to run on a campaign of reforming TPS, to writing White Papers detailing TPS educational legacy, this new Think Tank formed last year is off to a running start.

Ken and his wife Maria Seidler (of Legal Overwatch For Parents Rights ), both retired attorneys, migrated from the East Coast to Oklahoma to be with family.

During the interview, Ken talked about how different the culture is in New York – where litigation against governmental entities is more commonplace – compared to here in Oklahoma where few of our governmental officials are ever called on the carpet and therefore, are not at all responsive to the citizens they represent and who pay their salaries. In fact, Ken likens Oklahoma’s citizens to mushrooms because we’re kept in the dark and fed ‘crap’, by our government officials.

Ken’s comments in the video struck such a chord with viewers that the first comment wanted to know “how we can get involved” and the second comment said this:

Jenni’s heard me say this approximately 386 times, but…once again: As a fairly recent transplant from the west coast who took the time to study OK and visit here TWICE before moving–I’m shocked at the complacent attitudes of most Oklahoma conservatives. I’ve heard, “Oh, that won’t happen here–it’s OKLAHOMA, not California!” more times than I can count, seriously.

I tell them I lived through “the fall of California”, was a young adult during the Reagan administration, saw the decline of that red state. I tell them I see Texas purpling. I tell them I see the exact same signs I saw in CA 40 years ago and if Oklahoma isn’t careful, vigilant, aggressive in defending it’s freedoms–it will be faced with attempting to take back ground instead.

We all know how much more difficult that is.

Instead of being well-received, or taken at least a bit seriously, my words are often pooh-poohed, and I’m treated as though I know nothing, as though I’m somehow “mistaken”. Many folks aren’t even old enough to know what California USED to be like.

“That won’t happen HERE, Lisa–THIS IS OKLAHOMA!” may be the last thing some of these folks remember thinking “back before the statists took over” if they’re not careful.

And THEY STILL WON’T LISTEN.

Sadly, the first video of the week on Wednesday found ROPE Report Regular V1SUT – instead of telling us how school officials are molesting students and seemingly getting away with it – telling us that our Attorney General, Gentner Drummond, hasn’t signed on to the Supreme Court case (Missouri V Biden) that COULD put an end to government interference in social media -for example, requesting the censoring of users whose opinions and ideas might be contrary to the state’s.

In addition, our own state legislators are using the recent suicide death of Owasso student Dagney Benedict, to to create language – in a gutted, already-filed bill – that could substantially chill free speech in Oklahoma. Please read SB1100 and then let your Representative know that this bill isn’t right for Oklahoma and that free speech MUST stand.

Listen to V1SUT explain what’s going on. Then write your legislator and our AG and let him know that he needs to sign on to Missouri V Biden ASAP as oral arguments are already being heard.

Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General – 313 NE 21st Street Oklahoma City, OK 73105 –

Oklahoma City: (405) 521-3921 Tulsa: (918) 581-2885 Fax: (405) 521-6246

contact@oag.ok.gov

Either we’re going to make our elected officials accountable to the rule of law and the Republican platform, or we’ll be New York or California.

It’s up to YOU!

March 24, 2024 0

While Working To Thwart A Bill To Move School Board Elections To November, Republicans Have Been Giving Away LOTS Of YOUR Tax Dollars

There was a wonderful monograph written in 1867 by Davy Crocket, who was serving in Congress at that time. It’s called, “Not Yours To Give” and it beautifully details why he argued AGAINST a bill introduced in Congress to appropriate money to a young widow of Naval officer. I URGE YOU TO READ THIS. It is very short, but in just a few pages, Crocket makes the case for why GOVERNMENT has no business giving away our tax dollars – NO MATTER HOW GOOD IT MAKES US FEEL – for items and issues which are NOT a function of government – things that don’t protect our liberty and don’t benefit the MAJORITY of taxpayers.

Below, I’ve pasted in the screenshots of just a FEW of the press releases that have come through my email account this year. Please note the amount of TAX DOLLARS that are being given away just in the few I’ve pasted in here – and this doesn’t even begin to touch the number of tax credits for businesses that our legislature dolls out.

But before we go there, let me start here.

I remember sitting in the Senate gallery in 2022. I was SHOCKED when a bill was run by Senator Jessica Garvin that would have tax dollars pay for tampons for women who couldn’t afford them.

Here’s the press release. It was literally titled, “Committee approves bill to fight period poverty“. Period poverty. Seriously. Worse even than the title, the bill would set up a revolving fund into which tax dollars would be deposited so that women who needed feminine hygiene products could have them paid for with tax dollars. She has run the bill each year since, with this bill asking for ONE MILLION DOLLARS in the revolving account.

Fortunately, it looks as though this bill will not get a hearing this year, but – knowing her history on the subject – we should expect to see it again next year; especially when there is a NATIONAL DRIVE to have tax dollars spent this way.

Why shouldn’t we fund tampons? Why shouldn’t we fund a rodeo, or brain tumor research, or the Oklahoma City National Memorial?

Who complains about our horrible roads and the lack of pay for fire and police? Lots of Oklahomans. These are legitimate functions of government, yet, when we give millions of dollars away for a prison rodeo, these are the things that get short shrifted. And if they don’t, THEN THE GOVERNMENT IS TAKING TOO MANY OF OUR DOLLARS IN TAXES IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Though brain tumors are horrible, so are all kinds of diseases – my son is a Type 1 (juvenile) diabetic – I’m not begging the legislature to give my tax dollars – AND MY NEIGHBORS – to fund diabetes research. I could give to PRIVATE RESEARCH centers if I wanted to. Private research centers raise money for ALL KINDS of research.
Private organizations should be supplying women who need feminine hygiene products, feminine hygiene products – NOT PUBLIC TAX DOLLARS. Maybe churches should go in together to fund a ‘feminine hygiene pantry’ if that’s what’s needed.
The MORE the STATE FUNDS, the poorer we ALL become. The MORE the STATE FUNDS, the less private organizations and churches do – why should they when the GOVERNMENT is doing it all for them?
BUT, bottom line, the MORE the STATE FUNDS, the bigger IT gets and the LESS LIBERTY – and money – WE CITIZENS HAVE to control our own lives.

March 13, 2024 0

ASAP ACTION ITEM: Oklahoma Republicans Stopping School Board, Ranked Choice Voting and Medical Freedom Bills!!

ASAP ACTION ITEM: Oklahoma Republicans Stopping School Board, Ranked Choice Voting and Medical Freedom Bills!! DEADLINE FOR BILLS TO BE HEARD IS THURSDAY, 3/14/24!

PLEASE WATCH AND SHARE: Republicans are blocking HB3563 moving school board elections to November.

Medical lobbyists are contacting legislators wanting to stop the panel on Medical Freedom being held March 26th at the Capitol in room 112.2. In addition, they don’t want the Kevin West bill supported by this study – HB3214, the Medical Ethics Defense Act – heard.

House bills preventing Ranked Choice Voting are also being denied a hearing – particularly HB3156 and HJR1048. (See our video about Ranked Choice Voting HERE)

Please IMMEDIATELY call your Representative and tell them that you – as a constituent, not a lobbyist – want these bills to get a hearing before the House.

If you don’t know their number, dial the general number here and ask for their office: (405) 521-2711

March 13, 2024 0

How To Find A Bill On The Oklahoma Legislature Website

This video was made from one of our ROPE Report Live podcasts (2.9.24).

If you’ve always wanted to look up – and/or understand bills once you’ve looked them up – check out this short video tutorial that can help you make a bit of sense out of the sometimes non-sensical!

February 12, 2024 0

Home Education Bills Oklahomans Need To STOP NOW.

Jenni White 2.11.24

Last week, we had our friends Jana Belcher and Carrie Bertrand from the Constitutional Home Educators Alliance, to talk about some REALLY HORRIBLE bills that have been filed which would adversely effect home education here in Oklahoma.

Below are a couple of video clips from that interview, with captions so that you know what was discussed in each. Bottom line, you may or may not homeschool, but homeschooling in Oklahoma is the freest form of education not only in our own state, but in much of the country as well. If Oklahoma homeschool freedom goes – individual freedom will eventually go too as we’re all funneled into government schools.

If you want to read about each bill after you watch the videos, you can find all the information on the CHEA website here.

See what bills CHEA opposes and how to find them on their website. Also, don’t forget the Legislative Impact Day at the State Capitol, Monday, February 12th.

Legislators need to protect the rights of ALL Oklahomans – including homeschoolers! Tyranny for homeschoolers can become tyranny for everyone…

February 11, 2024 0

Election Integrity Bills That Need Our Attention (as of 2.11.24)

Jenni White 2.11.24

This last week, we had Wendi Montgomery Dial on the podcast again – this time to talk about bills in the legislature that need our attention during the regular session of 2024.

The following video clips a bit of the podcast. If you want a brief synopsis of what Ranked-Choice voting is and a list of the bills Wendi is following this session so far, please watch. For a much more complete round-up of these bills, however, please look below the video, where I’ve pasted Wendi’s substack on the bills she’s tracking (with permission).

PLEASE! Contact your Senator and Representative and tell them that you’ll need their help getting the good bills heard (give them the bill numbers) and the bad bills OUT OF COMMITTEE. Session flies and sometimes, before you know it, bad bills have been assigned to a committee and are voted out to the floor by legislators who NEVER HEARD FROM THEIR CONSTITUENTS.

If you don’t know who your legislator is, or how to get in touch with them, start here.

Wendi Montgomery Dial – Election Integrity Bills To Watch in Oklahoma

by Wendi Montgomery Dial, Oklahoma State Director of Restore Liberty

This is an editorial piece analyzing various pieces of election legislation that have been filed for the 2024 Legislative Session.

This legislative session in Oklahoma, we have some very brave legislators who get it. They understand the issues and they see the writing on the wall. We have a growing number of representatives in our state that are working to help clean up our elections, so that We The People can retrieve our voices and our votes from a system that has stealthily tried to silence us completely and take over our state and our country. That is the only conclusion to come to after 3 years of watching election after election being stolen from the people in our state and across the country.

The best list that I have seen to date of steps to be taken to secure our elections still comes from someone Oklahomans are familiar with, former military intelligence Captain, Seth Keshel. He put together a list of 10 Points to True Election Integrity over a year ago, and this list remains, to my mind, in need of no alteration as a place to begin to reclaim our elections. The list is in his Substack here. In Oklahoma, this session we have legislation that will address several of these points, some legislation that makes little sense, and we are missing legislation to address at least one other important issue, which falls under the category of a rather large elephant in the room.

Legislation That We Must Have

SB1659 Stewart- Reregisters all Oklahomans to vote and requires proof of citizenship and residency in order to register to vote. Proof of citizenship includes a birth certificate, naturalization certificate, citizenship certificate, passport.

This is a bill that addresses a number one concern of election integrity experts. Our voter rolls. Bloated voter rolls are an obvious danger. When your rolls are so hopelessly bloated, any ineligible registrations are easy to hide. Ineligible registrations can be used to order absentee ballots by bad actors hoping to manipulate the results of any election. Reregistration and archiving old voter rolls is the most efficient way to clean up our voter rolls which have many errors. 104,000 invalid registrations were admitted to by the Secretary of the Election Board on video, as he testified in the House Elections and Ethics Committee against HB3677 by Sean Roberts, which would have reregistered Oklahomans on March 1, 2022. Watch here. That’s a lot of registrations that can affect a lot of races, including statewide and national races. There was no explanation forthcoming as to why these registrations were still on Oklahoma voter rolls. Had this legislation passed then, we would have completed reregistration by now and had clean voter rolls for 2024. As it stands, because the committee refused to pay just a million dollars and look into how to reregister and not run afoul of federal voter protection laws, our rolls are still compromised and bloated for this Presidential election.

SB2034 Dahm– Restricts absentee voting to military overseas and the truly infirmed. It is vital that we go back to the good old days of needing a very good excuse not to show up at the polls to vote, in order to secure our elections. We have all seen the last few years how mail in and absentee ballots can work with bloated voter rolls to compromise our elections. This, along with SB1659, would go a very long way to securing our elections in the State of Oklahoma. We should all be willing to make sure that we are in our homes once every four years in order to vote in person in our Presidential elections and once every two years to vote in our Congressional races. We must make sure that we consolidate our elections back to a single general election day for all of the matters that require a vote, or to just a couple of election days every couple of years. Why are we conducting several elections every year?

SB1414 Burns– Requires Photo ID to vote. Provides that a photo ID card be developed that includes a photo of the voter which would only be used to vote and provided to all registered voters free of charge.

SB1991 Jett, SB1610 Daniels, HB3156 Roberts, HB3592 Hill/Lepak, HJR1048 Roberts – Bans Ranked Choice Voting or any other form of voting by ranking candidates by preference. HJR1048 would amend the Constitution of Oklahoma to ban the practice in all local, county, state, and federal elections.

Ranked Choice Voting, or rather Ranked ‘Choice’ Voting has several problems, not the least of which is that votes are redistributed round over round resulting in the erosion of the lead of a candidate and the loss of an election by the person the most people vote for as their top candidate.

Besides the issue of redistribution of votes of losing candidates, the practice results in the reinforcement of the two party system, as moderates from other parties reach the bottom quickly and their votes end up redistributed to the more well known party candidates. The voters cannot vote against something; they can just rank a candidate lower than others, but they must vote for all candidates. Extreme candidates are more likely to win as the moderates get pushed out. Voters are actually disenfranchised as ballot exhaustion occurs because ballots are cast out if the voter doesn’t fill out the ballot properly and rank all the candidates, resulting in no more votes being available on the ballot to count as rounds progress. Due to the confusion of the process, localities that have implemented ranked choice voting have, not shockingly, experienced LOWER voter turnout. Also problematic is the necessity to move ballots to a centralized counting center for multiple rounds of counting, yielding chain of custody concerns, and it takes WEEKS to report the results of the election.

HB3080 Hayes– Makes general election day a holiday.

SJR23 Bergstrom– Strengthens language on what constitutes a qualified elector-only citizens of the US over 18 and residents of the state would be allowed to vote.

Bills We Like

HB3815 Dollens– This bill prohibits foreign funding for ballot measures in Oklahoma. We are not sure why it’s necessary when all we have to do is point to the ‘free and fair’ language of the Oklahoma Constitution to understand that it is already prohibited. However, this would be one bill grounded soundly in constitutional principle.

SB1374 Dahm– Watermarks absentee ballots with a symbol authorized by the State of Oklahoma. Any ballot without the watermark would be rejected, not counted, and retained.

SB2000 Deevers– Requires an oath to be taken by voters to attest to their physical address to obtain a ballot. If the voter refuses a provisional ballot is issued. This would result in the requirement of the address to be validated before the vote would be counted.

SB2032 Stewart- Provides that anyone receiving an absentee ballot through electronic submission must return it by hand delivery, US Mail or a private mail service.

HB3584 Pae– Places a space for voters under the US Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates to read “None of These Candidates”, for voters to reject the selections of the major parties.

Bills That Make Us Scratch Our Heads

SB1989 Haste and HB4127 Swope– Allows the various county election boards to devise a plan with the county commissioners by which the county employees may fulfill duties of Poll Officials. With citizens who wish to volunteer in their elections waiting on phone calls and hundreds of names on lists that the parties in the counties must compile, this bill is certainly mystifying. The last thing we need, in our opinion, is the county employees working the elections instead of citizen volunteers. This would mean the state controls our elections from the top ALL the way down to the bottom. Please call and respectfully voice your opinion on these bills. We strongly oppose these bills.

HB4140 Turner– Allows certain prisoners to be issued an absentee ballot while in jail. With all of the issues surrounding absentee ballots, why are we even considering sending ballots to prison for even less transparency?

SB1409 Brooks– Once again, provides driver’s licenses for illegal aliens. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, until we repeal the law entirely that allows multi state private agencies to maintain our voter registration rolls, we will be fighting this every single year. Regardless if the license is marked the information regarding citizenship cannot be transmitted by contract to ERIC, and allowing a valid form of state issued ID to illegal aliens would allow them to switch them out in other states that perhaps don’t have our requirement to mark the licenses, thereby giving them a way to come back and then turn in the cleaned ID for an Oklahoma clean ID. Think money laundering with personal identification.

Legislation We Are Missing, the rather large elephant in the room

We must outlaw machine counted ballots in Oklahoma and go back to hand counting votes in a manner that can be monitored and audited directly by the people. The machines, according to CISA and other cyber and computer experts, have been proven time and time again to be risks to our national security. Please don’t take our word for that. The National Academies of Science, just to name one organization, looked into the matter in 2018. Read that article here. CISA issued an advisory in 2022 in response to the now famous Halderman report you can access here from a case in Georgia brought in 2019. Why are we using black box machines to count votes? With these machines, ‘elections’ are an illusion.

With all of the attention on elections given the 2024 Presidential race, it is incumbent upon all of us, as citizens, to be informed on the legislation and the facts surrounding elections in Oklahoma. With an already potentially compromised election system and a lack of investigation by the appropriate officials, pushing for good election legislation and fighting bad legislation is imperative to hold the line until we can, once again, hand count our ballots with public witnesses and put in place a rigorous system of accountability with serious prison time for those who commit voter and/or election fraud. We must ensure, to the best of our ability, that the will of the people is what is being expressed at the ballot box and in the vote count.

February 11, 2024 0

A List – With Commentary – Of The Newest Rules Added To The Oklahoma State Department Of Education Website For Review

Jenni White

I have simply copied and pasted much of the information from the OSDE website’s Administrative Rules page into this document, so please pay attention to the PUBLIC HEARING DATES in BOLD. Also, if you’d like to provide any commentary on these rules to the state prior to the hearing, you may do so here: rules@sde.ok.gov, or through their address:

Office of Legal Services
State Department of Education
Hodge Education Building
2500 North Lincoln Boulevard
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105-4599

A public hearing will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 15, 2024, in Room 1-20 (State Board Room) at the Oliver Hodge Building, 2500 North Lincoln Boulevard, in Oklahoma City for the following rules.

Subchapter 3. Standards for Elementary, Middle Level, Secondary, and Career and
Technology Schools
Part 22. Standard XII: Academic Performance
210:35-3-210. Purpose. [NEW]
210:35-3-211. Applicability of the Standard. [NEW]
210:35-3-212. Metrics for Academic Deficiencies. [NEW]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

These appear to be reasonable rules to specifically address schools with low academic proficiencies. The only question here is, upon what tests will the school year district data assessment be predicated? Oklahoma’s state tests, NAEP, or something else. Without knowing from what assessment tool the data to be considered will be culled, how can the rule be enforced? That issue needs to be addressed.

Subchapter 3. Standards for Elementary, Middle Level, Secondary, and Career and
Technology Schools
Part 9. Standard V: The School Staff
210:35-3-86. Qualifications; personnel records; health and safety. [AMENDED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

This rule appears to be addressing the issue at Western Hills Elementary School exposed by ROPE Report Regular V1SUT.

These rules, under the NEW heading of Health and Safety, require all administrative assistants in a school building overseeing staff or an education program to have appropriate teaching certification for the job they hold. Same for staff. All certifications must be filed in the school of employment throughout the school year.

Additional PROPOSED rules say:

(g) Health and safety regarding certified employees. If a district maintains the active employment or contract of, or renews a contract of, a certified employee currently under investigation for certificate revocation, and that employee’s certificate is revoked at the conclusion of that investigation, the district shall be given a health and safety deficiency.

(h) Health and safety regarding non-certified employees. If a district maintains the active employment or contract, or renews a contract, of a non-certified employee currently under investigation by law enforcement for a felony; and that employee is convicted of a felony, pleads guilty to a felony, or pleads nolo contendere to a felony at the conclusion of that investigation; the district shall be given a health and safety deficiency.

The problem to me here is the word CURRENT. It appears to be a grandfather clause. If there are staff or teachers with a felony record in the past, there is no provision for that. This is an absolutely REQUIRED rule to protect the safety of children in public schools, but – in my mind – it should include ALL CURRENT employees regardless of whether they are ‘currently’ under investigation. If a teacher or employee in a public school has a felony record, they should – more than likely – not be around children.

Also, what impact is a “health and safety deficiency” in a school’s accreditation? If it is a slap on the wrist, why even create the rule? This question speaks to the rule below.

Subchapter 3. Standards for Elementary, Middle Level, Secondary, and Career and
Technology Schools
Part 21. Standard XI: Accreditation Status
210:35-3-201. Statement of the standard. [AMENDED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

I’m unclear how specific are these rules. Here’s an example of the 3^rd accreditation standard:

3. Accredited With Deficiencies: A school site or district fails to meet one or more of the standards but the deficiency does not seriously detract from the quality of the school’s educational program.

Question: We learned above that a “Health and Safety” deficiency will be added if schools continue employment of certified or non-certified personnel under current investigation for a felony or found to have a current felony. One could argue that employees under investigation of a felony do “not seriously detract from the quality of the school’s educational program”. Consequently, this needs to be tighter language – or it should at least be made clear that the State School Board retains the right to use recorded deficiencies based on the evidence at hand for each school. Even that doesn’t work, however, because that kind of language will be construed in whatever way an Administration decides to use it – for good or for evil.

Maybe we should keep the number of ‘deficiencies’ very small and very meaningful and then make the accreditation based on the number of deficiencies alone.

A public hearing will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, February 16, 2024, in Room 1-20 (State Board Room) at the Oliver Hodge Building, 2500 North Lincoln Boulevard, in Oklahoma City for the following rules.

Subchapter 1. General Provisions
210:25-1-2. Equal Protection [NEW]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

This is the highly anticipated DEI rule that our Superintendent has been talking about. I see no reason for this rule. What the rule states in a-d is effectively wiped out by e-f. Here’s what I mean:

(e) Nothing in this rule prohibits the Department or any recipient of funds from the Department from applying for a grant or complying with the accreditation requirements by an accrediting or licensing agency, including, but not limited to, submitting to the grantor or accreditation agency a statement that:

And then it goes on to specify services for poor and underserved populations. Following this, the rule exempts situations:

(f) This rule shall not be construed to apply to the Department or any recipient of funds from the Department with respect to the following:

Included under (f) is this specification:

a policy, practice, procedure, program, class, or activity required for compliance with state or federal laws, rules, or regulations for obtaining or retaining institutional, academic, or discipline-specific accreditation or licensure;

Here’s an example of an accreditation organization for K-12 institutions including Catholic schools;

“Standard 1 Leaders cultivate and sustain a culture that demonstrates respect, fairness, equity, and inclusion, and is free from bias.”

So, if the OSDE is going to exempt accreditation organizations, you’re gonna get DEI. There are other exemptions in this list. I’m not going to list them all here, but I’ve pasted in the URL, please look at it yourself and let me know your thoughts, but if these rules DON’T APPLY to any of the items listed under (f) – THEY ARE COMPLETELY MEANINGLESS IN TERMS OF STOPPING DEI.

A public hearing will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, February 16, 2024, in Room 1-20 (State Board Room) at the Oliver Hodge Building, 2500 North Lincoln Boulevard, in Oklahoma City for the following rules.

Subchapter 29. Standards of Performance and Conduct for Teachers
210:20-29-5. Principle III [AMENDED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

Here is the text of the rule:

(e) A teacher may be dismissed, refused employment, or not reemployed after a finding that such person has, either in the presence of a minor or in a manner available to a minor online, engaged in sexual acts, acts that appeal to the prurient interest in sex as found by the average person applying contemporary community standards, or acts that excessively promote sexuality in light of the educational value of the material and in light of the youngest age of any student with access to said material.

Again, this seems to be a perfectly reasonable rule that SHOULD stop predators from being around public school kids. HOWEVER: here are some concerns:

This is similar language to that used by many parents to try and remove sexually inappropriate library books from school libraries – this has only worked in isolated incidences. Sexually inappropriate library books are still littering the shelves of libraries across the campuses of Oklahoma public k-12 schools.
The left will argue until they turn blue in the face that whatever sexually disgusting nonsense they’ve brought into the classroom “has educational value”.
In addition, they MAY be dismissed etc? What does THAT mean? That means that no one could be removed from the classroom.

This rule basically needs to say that ANY STAFF MEMBER OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL WILL be dismissed if – after a law enforcement investigation AND/OR a school inquiry of the individual – has found that they engaged in ANY sex act with a minor student – including inappropriate online communications.

So much of this stuff ends up being useless because the wording doesn’t say what it needs to say (not that mine is perfect either, just saying what’s written is NOT good)

A public hearing will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, in Room 1-20 (State Board Room) at the Oliver Hodge Building, 2500 North Lincoln Boulevard, in Oklahoma City for the following rules.

Subchapter 3. Departmental Precepts
210:1-3-4. Annuities contracts. [REVOKED]
Subchapter 5. Due Process
210:1-5-7. Teacher evaluation, dismissal, and nonreemployment. [REVOKED]
Subchapter 9. Interlocal Cooperative Agreements [REVOKED]
210:1-9-1. Purpose. [REVOKED]
210:1-9-2. Definitions. [REVOKED]
210:1-9-3. Enabling provisions/restrictions. [REVOKED]
210:1-9-4. Conditions applicable to interlocal cooperative agreements. [REVOKED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

Not sure why all these are being revoked, but nothing much to say about revoked law. The more revoked laws we can get, the happier I’ll be!

Subchapter 1. General Provisions
210:1-1-1. Purpose Declaration of Foundational Values [AMENDED]
210:1-1-7. Purpose [NEW]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

Oh my goodness. So much of this is completely unnecessary. While I agree with many of the sentiments, this is a Department of Public Education supported by the tax dollars of ALL Oklahomans. This entire document should be scrapped excepting the BASICS contained in (a), (b) – I suppose, (e), (f), (i) and (j). Because it’s been said in many of the other rules that the Department of Education of the State of Oklahoma follows that State and Federal Constitutions, there is no reason to take up space banging that ideal on the head. It simply serves to put liberals into spasms and why should we use tax dollars for that? We must educate kids properly as asserted in letter (e) and move on. The more strife this department stirs up with the Left, the harder it becomes to get business done.

Subchapter 5. Due Process
210:1-5-6. Suspension and/or revocation of certificates [AMENDED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

This rule inserts a single paragraph that states the number of days in which the OSDE must be notified if contesting the revocation of a teaching certificate. Nothing here out of the ordinary.

Subchapter 1. General Provisions
210:10-1-6. Computer assisted pupil accounting [REVOKED]
210:10-1-10. Accreditation rating [REVOKED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

It appears the accreditation rating was revoked in favor of the language submitted under 210:35-3-201. Statement of the standard.

Subchapter 1. General Provisions
210:10-1-16. Oklahoma Academic Scholar and other student recognitions [AMENDED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

This is VERY HELPFUL. It adds language including the CLT (Classic Learning Test) – a test that is being used by some universities now instead of the SAT and ACT (or at least in conjunction with). My kids took the CLT as 8^th graders and while there was still some iffy gunk on it about global warming for example (according to my kids), there was nothing at all as just downright confusing and indoctrinating as some of the ACT and/or SAT language.

But again, this goes back to my question about Metrics for Academic Standards at the beginning of this document. What test will the state use to make those determinations? We can’t have some kids tested with the state test, but then include ACT/SAT or CLT scores. We need to pick a test and we have long advocated for an independent testing service like CLT or the Iowa Test of Basic Skills as the ACT is HORRID.

Subchapter 2. Parental Rights
210:10-2-2. Definitions [AMENDED]
210:10-2-3. Requirements [AMENDED]
210:10-2-4. Noncompliance [AMENDED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

This language has been added to the existing rule:

“Independent Contractor” means an individual, organization, or entity that is engaged by and/or contracted by a school district to provide services or instruction, whether directly or indirectly, to students or within a school district on a temporary or contractual basis and is not an employee of the school district.

Does this person have to be certified? The school is responsible for them ultimately, but it makes me uncomfortable. I’m not sure exactly what this might be. If it’s a health coordinator, what information could they bring in the parent might not be aware of. It’s a tricky business. We have always wanted the public schools to have more ability to be flexible, but with all that has been going on in the last 10 years, one could argue that many are already way more flexible with education providers than we want them to.

Subchapter 13. Student Assessment and School Accountability
210:10-13-2. Oklahoma School Testing Program (OSTP) scope and general administration [AMENDED]
210:10-13-18. Oklahoma School Accountability System [AMENDED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

I couldn’t really find anything that was problematic in either of these rules. Basically it’s allowing for remediation for schools who do not score at least satisfactory on the state criterion-referenced tests (very specific test, thankfully). The only problem is that the school only gets remediation if there’s funding.

The second rule gives schools a way to challenge their A-F score and makes it clear that F schools must get comprehensive support and show improvement – but then it doesn’t say here what will happen if they don’t. It’s always the follow-up that kills the best rules/laws/plans…

Subchapter 17. Federal Programs complaint procedures
210:10-17-1. Complaint Procedures [AMENDED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

This is HUGE! So huge in fact, that I wrote a whole blog just about that. Please read it.

Subchapter 9. Professional Standards: Teacher Education and Certification
Part 1. General Teaching Certificate Requirements
210:20-9-12. General education requirements of individuals who already hold baccalaureate
degrees [REVOKED]
210:20-9-14. Alternative plan for student teaching requirements [REVOKED]
Subchapter 11. Professional Standards: Accreditation Standards for Approved Teacher Education Programs
210:20-11-1. Evaluation process [REVOKED]
210:20-11-2. Specific Standards for Program Approval [REVOKED]
210:20-11-3. General education and professional education [REVOKED]
210:20-11-4. Specialization standards [REVOKED]
210:20-11-6. NCATE/State joint visits [REVOKED]
Subchapter 15: Residency Program
210:20-15-3. Residency committee [REVOKED]
210:20-15-4. Variations to the residency program regulations [REVOKED]
Subchapter 24. Science and Mathematics Advanced Recruiting Technique (SMART) Program
210:20-24-1. Purpose [REVOKED]
210:20-24-2. Science and Mathematics Advanced Recruiting Technique (SMART) Program [REVOKED]
Subchapter 26. Academic Achievement Award Program
210:20-26-1. Purpose [REVOKED]
210:20-26-2. Selection and payment criteria [REVOKED]
210:20-26-3. Qualified employees [REVOKED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

Again, not sure why, but happy to revoke any laws, rules or regulations. LOL

Subchapter 23. School Board Members
210:20-23-3. Requirements for new and incumbent school board member training [AMENDED]
210:20-23-4. Requirements for continuing education; certificates; costs [AMENDED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

Interesting; the only thing changed about this rule is that the Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA) has been removed from the wording of the rule under training. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how this will help anything because state law has not been changed. We tried to get it changed, but we were not successful. Several times in the rules I’ve read today it says that if the rule disagrees with state law, state law prevails, so I’m not sure how this will do anything. If you’d like to see why I say that, please read this article.

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

Subchapter 5. Budgeting and Business Management
Part 1. Implementation
210:25-5-4. Accounting [AMENDED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

Apparently this removes the ability of a charter school to appeal any changes in the data they’ve sent the OSDE regarding their financial reporting and accounting. They can show cause that changes are warranted before the data is locked, but the appeal process no longer would exist.

Subchapter 3. Standards for Elementary, Middle Level, Secondary, and Career and Technology Schools
Part 5. Standard III: Administration and Organization
210:35-3-48. Local board responsibilities/staff relationships [AMENDED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

Nothing really much to say about this. These look to be changes required by reorganizing the text after removing this statement:

(3) The local board and its individual members shall refrain from involvement in or interference with the administrative functions of the school.

I’m surprised that was in the rules, but then I was also surprised that THIS was in the rules previously:

(B) Lack of harmony in the teaching staff, board, or community, when such conditions affect the quality and effectiveness of instruction and climate of the school, shall be considered sufficient cause for not accrediting a school. Political and special interest groups or individuals shall not interfere in the operation of the schools.

Subchapter 3. Standards for Elementary, Middle Level, Secondary, and Career and Technology Schools
Part 17. Standard IX: Financial Support
210:35-3-167. School District Transparency Act [NEW]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

This is a new section of rules that basically say that if a school’s website does not comply with accountability law they’ll get a deficiency on their accreditation if they don’t fix it within 30 days.

A public hearing will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, in Room 1-20 (State Board Room) at the Oliver Hodge Building, 2500 North Lincoln Boulevard, in Oklahoma City for the following rules.

Subchapter 3. Standards for Elementary, Middle Level, Secondary, and Career and Technology Schools
Part 25. Standard XIV: Freedom of Religion [NEW]
210:35-3-251. Voluntary prayer [NEW]
210:35-3-252. Minute of silence in public schools [NEW]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

I’ll be honest. I think this is nonsense. I think it’s detracting from the REAL issues which are that our kids can’t read or do math proficiently, and while I love Jesus personally, I don’t think adding one minute of quiet time to their school day will affect a single thing about that. Making teachers teach properly and schools follow the law will do more for that than a single silent minute.

In fact, I don’t see anything different in this section of ‘new’ law than what has already been happening in public schools for many years.

The only thing different about this ‘new’ rule is that it provides for a complaints process if the school isn’t following the law and:

(c) The State Department of Education shall annually verify that districts have adopted policies that comply with this rule and shall recommend an accreditation deficiency to the State Board of Education for any school district that fails to comply.

Getting an accreditation deficiency for not enforcing a single silent minute is way over the top to me. Now, if a school is not allowing a coach to say a prayer before a game, or teachers to keep Bibles on their desks – I think there’s a problem, as those are personal issues, not state issues – but those situations aren’t addressed in this rule, most probably because they’ve been adjudicated frequently at numerous levels of the judiciary.

January 22, 2024 1

Representative Jacob Rosecrants Files Bill To Force Accountability For Education Tax Credit Dollars

1.16.24 – Jenni White

File under ROPEtoldyaso. In fact, thanks to this, ROPE and homeschoolers across Oklahoma will take the prize for “prophets of the year” already for 2024.

Yesterday, Oklahoma’s Channel 9, interviewed Representative Jacob Rosecrants who had the following to say about Oklahoma’s Parental Tax Credit for private school tuition.

Woah… Weird… Sounds exactly like what we’ve been saying could happen since nearly the beginning of the “Parental Choice” movement, right?

Yes. All one has to do is search this site to find out how many articles have been devoted to attempting to educate people about this specific issue.

“But Jenni, Rosecrants is a DEMOCRAT! This will NEVER happen here!”

Well picture me as Santa Clause in this quote from the movie Elf:

I’ve watched the legislature for nearly 15 years now and I’ve seen Republicans do some super UNRepublican stuff – the biggest example here being jumping on the Common Core bandwagon, where a majority of Oklahoma Republicans wanted a national curricula for Oklahoma kids until we began going to them individually with facts that showed how harmful such a program would be (and now we know – for the states who used it – how harmful it was).

In fact, one would have HOPED that Republicans – people whose platform indicates them to be bastions of smaller government and private enterprise over public control – would have spotted the whole tax credit/VOUCHER scheme from a mile off. Yet, how can we forget that there wasn’t a single Republican lawmaker who voted AGAINST the tax credit/VOUCHER – scheme last session. Not one. Here are the votes for the HOUSE. Here are the votes for the Senate so you can check me up on that.

So ask yourself…how did not a single Republican Senator or House member think it wouldn’t be problematic to give private schools public tax dollars?

Frankly, that’s a great question, and if we can’t answer that question, how in the world could we trust our legislature not to simply double-down on the whole thing and then turn around and tell us it’s a good thing – which is what they did with the tax credit/VOUCHER scheme in the first place.

“This is a tax credit, not a voucher”, they said.

“This is to help underserved/underrepresented kids”, they said.

Already, however – not even two months into the program – nearly every Republican talking point for the program has been debunked.

Not only is the program over budget 4 million dollars by using the globalist data collecting vendor MERITS INC. to administrate the program instead of the Oklahoma Tax Commission as stated in the bill, but there’s more.

In this video, I make the point that out of the 4 income categories proposed for the “tax credit”, only the upper two income categories are a true tax credit – and that’s only for one child – the lower 2 income categories are 100% VOUCHERS. So it’s just a boldfaced lie to have sold the program as a tax credit right there. Why were none of the Republicans crunching the numbers to find this out for themselves? This was easy info to find.

Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Act (OPCTCA)

Then we have the idea that it’s to help disadvantaged kids/families.

According to Carmen Forman at the Oklahoma Voice:

The Tax Commission has received more than 30,000 applications for the tax credits approved by the GOP-led Oklahoma Legislature last year. About 45% are from priority applicants and 55% are from families earning more than $150,000 annually, Haxton said.

So, there you go. If you have a household income of $150k and you can’t put your own kids in private schools, OTHER PEOPLE SHOULDN’T BE SENDING YOUR KIDS TO PRIVATE SCHOOL FOR YOU. That’s 100% socialism – especially when I just showed that you don’t even get ONE KID as a tax credit at that level. Our household is near that income level and we had one kid at Oklahoma Christian School for two years, scrimping and saving and homeschooling the others. Why should I pay for YOUR kid when you didn’t pay for mine?

Meanwhile, back in Arizona, School Choice Inc’s MODEL for school ‘choice’ legislation – including full universal vouchers like Oklahoma’s Governor signed into law just last year – Democrat Governor “Katie Hobbs unveils plan to rein in Arizona school voucher program“. Yup, regulation of private schools on even a WORSE level than Rep. Jacob Rosecrants has suggested, including the following:

A requirement that private schools provide the accommodations and services in a disabled student’s Individualized Learning Plan or Section 504 Plan.
Require manual approval of any ESA purchase over $500. That should ensure the taxpayer dollars that fund ESAs are spent on academic purposes, Hobbs said. She also called for an end to ESA awards for items such as ski passes and luxury car driving lessons, although it’s unclear how those “luxury” items would be defined.
Give the state Auditor General authority to review and report on how ESA money is spent by private schools. This is a standard practice for Arizona’s public schools.

So, how in the world did a REAL threat that private schools be regulated for purposes of accountability and essentially turned into public schools over a tax credit bill rear its ugly head? How does this happen in Oklahoma? Aren’t we smarter than that?

Whelp…NO. According to EdWeek, Oklahoma was 49th in education in 2021. So, maybe we aught to be putting more effort into MAKING public schools actually educate kids instead of growing government to the point that it becomes the blob that ate private schools.

January 17, 2024 1

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