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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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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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Anatomy Of A Political Pushcard

Maressa Treat – wife of State Senate ProTemp Greg Treat (who was challenged for his position as ProTemp for the 2023 session) – is running for Court Clerk.

These are photos from Mrs. Treat’s pushcard which I received in the mail the week of January 23rd. These cost money to design, print and mail. Because of this, Oklahoma Ethics Rules require that Ethics forms be filed – for transparency sake – with the Oklahoma County Election Board (OCEB) in the case of a County election such as County Clerk.

This morning, I called the OCEB. The woman who answered had to ask someone whether or not they ‘could’ provide the reports to me. She returned to the phone and explained that I would have to come to the OCEB where I could “look” at them. They would not provide these forms electronically.

Cleveland County provides Ethics forms electronically if you call them and Muskogee County posts Ethics forms online. What is the matter with the OCEB? This is PUBLIC information. Something else here to be considered.

These are photos from Mrs. Treat’s LinkedIn account that describe her work history. I see nothing in her previous work history that is NOT involved in politics. Her work in the ‘private’ sector has been with the State Chamber, or firms that work as/with political consultants.

So, let’s ask the following questions:

– What makes Treat a ‘Conservative’ – let alone a PROVEN Conservative? What in her work history speaks to this statement? Her work for James Lankford? What about the State Chamber? Maybe GRPro – essentially a political consulting firm who also represents Mrs. Treat’s husband? Because she worked for Americans United for Life?

– What makes her ‘trusted’? By what group of people? Political consultants? State Chamber members? Unfortunately, none of these categories emblazon the word TRUST on my mind.

– What does being ‘pro law enforcement’ have to do with being the County Clerk? How is this connection explained on the card? Is there a connection at all, or is it a sales pitch?

– Why would it be important that she is ‘pro business’ or ‘economic growth’? What does that have to do with being the County Clerk or doing the job of County Clerk? Is this a sales pitch too?

– How does Treat provide ‘increased transparency’ and ‘accountability’? Nothing on the card speaks to that assertion at all, nor does anything in her published work history specifically.

– How do we ‘share values’? How can she make that statement without knowing mine, or anyone else’s in the County?

When you get a PUSHCARD In the mail from a candidate, ASK YOURSELF THESE TYPES OF QUESTIONS and then contact the candidate and ask them directly if you can’t ferret the answers out for yourself, or draw conclusions from their work history. DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING WRITTEN ON POLITICAL MAILERS – or anything for that matter. Study everything and anything political for yourself.

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The Prison We Don’t Know We Are In

Let’s get to the root of the problem. When school personnel or school boards disrespect parents, they are teaching children to disrespect their parents. That goes against the very nature of mankind. It is destroying the health of our society physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually, financially… The ONLY reason for schools to exist is so parents have people they approve of to come alongside to assist them in educating their children. Everything educators from outside the home do should be at the request and under supervision of the parents. What we have going on now completely goes against nature and nature’s God.

Marxism is a religion that intends to destroy families so that people can be oppressed into slavery. Schools are collecting data on your family to control people. It has NOTHING to do with education. Do not submit. It is way past time to turn the tables. You collect information on them. Ask personally intrusive questions about everyone in your child’s circle from the producers of the curriculum and library books, to everyone in administration, to every person in your child’s building.

They work you for you! Would you hire them to mentor your children?

Whenever you look to government to solve a family issue, you are participating in Marxism. Marxists naturally disrespect parents. Currently, government schools want to educate, give spiritual guidance, transport, feed, entertain, counsel, and provide health care to your child. Then if you have an issue, there will be parent training available. You are surrendering your inalienable rights and the rights of your future generations. You are confining yourself to prison.

We all have different life stories and a plethora of life situations. Don’t focus on the obstacles; focus on the solutions. If something has been done before, that proves it can be done. If something has never been done before but you’re thinking about it, it may be you who breaks that glass ceiling. So consider only HOW to solve the problem for your family or for several families. It isn’t going to be by bowing before the school boards to beg them to stop abusing your children. If that’s who they are, they will never be good for your child’s education.

We often hear that there is no solution for working parents. We also hear from other working parents – single or married – that make private school or home school work. One of those who made the leap may have a solution for you. Let’s open up communication for an exchange of ideas! There are some great teachers out there now who recently retired because they see what we see as unacceptable. Churches should be concerned enough to open their doors. Let’s work on that one.

Bottom line, public schools as we know them must become obsolete. Government sponsored education is spiraling downward and the disrespect for parents and downright indecency is through the roof. Public school children are intentionally being confused and confounded. Counselors are being trained to divide children from parents. Some children even come to school dressed as animals. That has been going on for years IN OKLAHOMA! Mental illness is being promoted. The plug has been pulled; it is going down the drain. Pull your children out of the vortex. God first, family second, government…well, take a hike. Stay tuned for ideas and solutions and connections for greater possibilities for real education!

Julia Seay

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The Empress (Joy Hofmeister) Has No Clothes

Guest Post by Don Krumme, Stop Common Core in Oklahoma

Around 10 years ago, Bill Gates and other liberal and conservative elites, Corporate America, and Federal and Local elected officials, began to implement an educational scheme known as “Common Core”, whose goal was to radically indoctrinate our children by lowering expectations, dumb down education, even the playing field for all, and create a class of workers that couldn’t think for themselves. In essence, it was ObamaCare for Education and we knew it. 

Many of us from all walks of life across the USA banded together to expose Common Core for what it was, and formed a formidable nationwide coalition. @Retain Oklahoma Parental Empowerment and @Stop Common Core in Oklahoma joined in to spread the word on Facebook. 

In 2013 Oklahoma State School Superintendent Janet Baressi came up for re-election, and Joy Hofmeister challenged her. Not fond of Baressi, many of us got behind Hofmeister after she reassured us that she would not support Common Core.  This was a big mistake.

Naturally, this all changed during the fight for new, non-Common Core, state standards when we were deceived by Hofmeister so they could usher in shiny new “non-Common Core” Common Core standards, leaving us once again to fight our State Superintendent. 

We learned then and there what an expert manipulator she was, and she had a real knack for twisting the facts. We were there. Do not fall for her story. She will not help our state in any form or fashion. DO NOT vote for Joy Hofmeister.

The Empress has no clothes.

For more information:

Lies and Truths About ROPE and the Oklahoma Academic Standards

Oklahoma State Board of Education Approves Final Draft of New (Non-Common Core) Educational Standards

Repealing Common Core Means Nothing If Oklahoma’s New Academic Standards Are Not Better than Common Core

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To Student Survey Or Not To Student Survey

Our State Board of Education has an overall impressive resume!  We have several attorneys, teacher of the year, a General, a CPA, and many other impressive accomplishments.  How can it be then that not one of these members asked for evidence student surveys improves teacher effectiveness or improve student outcomes? How is it that not one board member  understands student surveys are human judgements and therefore NOT a quantitative measure?

Oklahoma State Board of Education, Dec 17, 2015 accepted, in part, the TLE Commission’s recommendation to add measures to the Quantitative part of the teacher evaluations.  I say, “in part”, because the State Board decided to reject the TLE Commission’s recommendation to NOT add Students Surveys as a quantitative measure and the State Board in their wisdom ADDED Student Surveys as an optional quantitative measure to evaluate teachers.  Stay with me here, they make it complicated on purpose.  Read about the failed vote on Student Surveys by the TLE Commission here.

Listening to the State Board rationalize why Student Surveys should be added was excruciating!  Board Member , Bob Ross brought up Student Surveys when the TLE report by Robyn Miller, Deputy Superintendent for Educator Effectiveness & Policy Research,  was presented and they were absent in the recommendations. Board Member Bill Price, chimed in on que that Tulsa Public Schools uses this, and “…if done properly it ascertains the quality of teaching from the students…”  Why did no one at this point ask if Tulsa Public schools has increased student outcomes or increased the number of effective teachers in the last 5 years they have been giving student surveys? Where is the evidence this works?  General Baxter  did ask a few questions: what age are these surveys given; Is it a written survey;  Does this turn into a popularity contest? Good questions General, however please next time ask for technical reports validating any arguments given to support the claims instead of taking vague statements for fact!  Bill Price assured the other board members the surveys are “done in a good way” and are given to “even young kids” and “no, no, … it is not written”.  WHAT?  They are written, they are given to children as young as Kindergarten and what is the definition of “done in a good way”.  Read here many concerns about students surveys from teachers in Tulsa  Public schools. Joy Hofmeister, who also Chairs the TLE Commission, and Robyn Miller let all of these statements  stand as fact and  not correcting these erroneous statements is negligent.

There have been TLE working groups to discuss all the quantitative options presented. I have attended all of these meetings, either online or in person. The researchers brought in for the student survey group were all representatives of companies trying to sell their student surveys! There were no neutral researchers presenting.  In fact, such a researcher, Dr Audrey Beardsley, was requested to present at a TLE meeting but was denied by the OSDE.  Why?  Dr Audrey Beardsley did present at Representative Park’s interim study on October 7, 2015 ( Dr Beardsley begins at 1.06 min) and again in person November 3, 2015 ( Dr Beardsley discussing student surveys begins at 1.59.30).  Over 30 superintendents were present at the November 3 meeting as well as legislators and others.  The first point Dr Beardsley makes about Student Surveys is they are NOT quantitative.  Student surveys are self reports; human judgements.  Applying a number to these human judgements does NOT make them quantitative.  It is subjective.  And in fact Bill Price said this during the Board meeting, …” it’s really pretty subjective…”  How then can this be quantitative? Dr Beardsley looked at how TPS is using student surveys and has concerns how TPS has “reformatted” the instrument for use.  This destroys the reliability, validity, and consistency of the data. Hear Dr Beardsley explain  in this video of her presentation.  Her portion on student surveys begins at 2.00.00 min.

Any school that has the funds can choose to give student surveys as an observation of the teacher.  We do not need this in law and  using student surveys as a quantitative measure is  flat out wrong .

Please call your Oklahoma State Representative and Senator and tell them this does not need to be in law and  leave teacher evaluations to the districts!

 

 

 

 

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