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Oklahoma Inc., Part 2 – Republican OK Governor Kevin Stitt Channels Democrat Obama With His New Education “Turnaround Team”

Oklahoma Inc.

First, why do you suppose it’s important to use the word “Workforce” to describe people who are – or will be employed? Answer: so that people become accustomed to being widgets – not individuals. Who is the Constitution made for? Individuals. Who votes in elections in our Democratic Republic? Individuals.

What about the phrase “community”? Answer: it’s a group of individuals. Groups are much more easily led and studies show this to be true. This is where we get the tongue-in-cheek term, “Sheeple”. So why move to this use of the word “community” to describe multiple groups of individuals? Because

What about the phrase “data-driven”? Answer: Data is science. Science has become the God of many today (COVID anyone?) Therefore, science knows better about people than people can know about people. There’s no argument about a child’s trajectory in life, then, if the “data” lines out that trajectory. No muss, no fuss, no messy, “but mom and dad, I’d like to be a firefighter when I grow up”. If the data says “aerospace engineer” (because the state is giving the industry millions in tax credits), then Johnny gets to be an aerospace engineer.

In 2008, Barack Obama became our 49th president. Let us never forget that under the one-word campaign slogan – CHANGE – Obama set about creating a socialist paradise in this country which dismantled nearly every LOCALIZED state institution – including education – almost thoroughly.

In the place of localized educational standards, Obama worked with the National Governor’s Association (of which Governor (King) Stitt just become Chair – please review his Igniting The Dream initiative below) and of which Mary Fallin was Chair during her term, 2013-14) and the Counsel of Chief State School Officers (all state superintendents) to create top down (national) educational standards to make sure every student in America was learning like every other student in America, which they called the Common Core State Standards. Unbelievably, (wink, wink) The CCSS have been found to be a failure in every state that adopted them (please internet search the term “Common Core failure” for more studies describing this boondoggle).

He also ramped up the State Longitudinal Database System. Working with the The National Center for Education Statistics, the Common Education Data Standards Initiative was created where thousands of data points were developed so that every school around the country could collect information on every student enrolled in public school in the United States to help them ‘learn’ better. (To find more information on Common Core and the SLDS, see our former blogspot.) This initiative has not failed, and in fact, has gained more steam the more tyrannical governments at every level realize how easy it is to control a populace on which they have millions of datapoints of information.

Besides an initiative to grade teachers (which has created part of the mess we now see in public education) – the Teacher Effectiveness system – the last of Obama’s four pillars was to create a TURNAROUND MODEL for ‘turning around failing schools, funded by School Improvement Grants. This roundly debunked initiative has been an absolute failure, yet it cost US taxpayers BILLIONS of dollars.

And so, this last week, Governor (King) Stitt, took full advantage of ELECTED Ryan Walters’ decision to quit his job instead of upholding his compact with his VOTERS to finish his term and made SWEEPING changes to Oklahoma’s upper education infrastructure – which he called Oklahoma’s “turnaround”. Hopefully, you’ll understand from the brief synopsis above, why I’m not in the least inspired by this turn of events.

Now, let’s review all that has happened since Ryan Walters quit:

  • Governor King-Stitt tells the public he’s going to ask the legislature to make the State Superintendent position appointed because there isn’t enough alignment between the Governor’s office and the state superintendent if the position is not appointed. (NO. JUST NO. This is at minimum a CHECK AND BALANCE. Number 2, I’ve had enough of Governor Stitt’s failed appointments and number 3, we are a Representative Government, not an oligarchy or a private business – things Governor King-Stitt forgets on a regular basis.)
  • Governor King-Stitt moves around his office staff – hiring what can only be called “swamp creatures” to help him finish out his term. This included trying to move long-time associate Donelle Harder into the Secretary of State position (don’t worry, after telling him to exit, I’m sure Stitt will find a cozy new deal for perennial government satellite Josh Cochroft) when she wasn’t eligible. How did no one in Stitt’s office seem to know the actual rules? If you’re King, or CEO, what do rules really matter?
  • Governor King-Stitt appoints a new Walters replacement – Lindel Fields – whose pronouns are “nice/kind”, who, in a very OPPOSITE RYAN WALTERS MOVE shed actual tears during the press conference, whose accreditations come from a place called Giant Worldwide (which includes a certification in “5 Voices“) – and include an SSGI/Baldrige Foundation Diversity and Inclusion Yellow Belt Certification from Six Sigma Global Institute. Very NOT GLOBAL! Don’t we have some law thingy against DEI?
  • Governor King Stitt appoints a new Secretary of Education, Daniel Hamlin, whose background includes University of Oklahoma professor, and who was educated both in Asia (MA Sejong University, Seoul, Asian Studies) and Canada where he received a Ph.D. from Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) Educational Leadership and Policy. So, advanced degrees from socialist countries. That’s comforting. Though he’s worked at OU the last 7 years, before that, he was at Oxford for 8 and University of Toronto for 4. Very Oklahoman! He is also Jeb Bush adjacent and seems to have an itch to control HOMESCHOOLING!
  • Governor King Stitt appoints his Obama-styled “turnaround team” at the Department of Education that includes (among others):
  • Current Okemah Chamber of Commerce President Connie Reilly, will now take over for Oftedal as the head of OEQA. She was a decades-long educator in Okemah schools, who was appointed to the Board of Regents of the Regional University System of Oklahoma by Brad Henry in 2007 – a post she has kept through 2 successive Republican governors now. Why a retired teacher would want to suddenly become president of the local chamber flummoxes me. And yet she will now be in a position where she can work with the Chamber and Dr. Oftedal, to hook all the databases in the state together so we can follow all children from birth to grave. Yay.
  • Governor King-Stitt then replaced two of his friends he had earlier appointed to the Oklahoma State Board of Education, but who haven’t been showing up much lately – Zach Archer and Sarah Lepak (who was Assistant General Counsel at Gateway Mortgage Group, from Apr 2012 – Mar 2017) – with Brian Bobek and Wes Nofire. Stitt has already appointed Bobek to the state board, where he served from 2019 to 2023. Bobek left BP Oil after 23 years to come to work for Governor Stitt, where, so far, he’s been his Deputy Chief of Staff, Chief Operating Officer (of something, I guess Governor Stitt?) and his Director of Faith Based Initiatives (another made up job not found in the Oklahoma Job Catalog so we have no idea what taxpayers pay for his salary). Nofire – like all the others – has been appointed by Stitt to something before: he’s a Commissioner on the Board of the State Athletic Commission and he’s also the Native American Liaison to the Office of the Governor since 2024.

Interestingly – neither our new, nice, State Superintendent, nor King-Stitt, notified our friend – and former Oklahoma State School Board member Kendra Wesson, that she had been fired as the Chair of the Oklahoma State Textbook Committee. She only found out when I read it in a ‘news’ media article and shared the information with her. Just another way we know that King-Stitt’s agenda is NOT about We The People.

I think it’s worth noting that in SEVERAL articles I read, the local “news” media have managed to quote Oklahoma Edvocates (a group for leftist teachers, not for parents or students), President, Jami Jackson Cole on King-Stitt’s Obama-like Turnaround, which she appears to be all for.

So, in closing, let all that sink in. Governor King-Stitt has now put into place all the “yes” men he’s previously appointed/worked with in some capacity as stewards of our Oklahoma Education funds and students. It is clear to me that this “turnaround” is one in which parents will be left behind. It has to be that way for the Jeb Bush/Chamber of Commerce-focused agenda of driving students into jobs so the elites can save money on job training can play out in real time.

Gone will be the effort to remove predators from schools and smutty, developmentally-inappropriate books from the library. Incoming will be the giant cookie cutter of big government, stamping children into widgets through collection of reams of unnecessary and invasive data for the benefit of private businesses. Watch.

__________________________________________

Governor Stitt’s Reigniting The Dream initiative as Chair of the National Governor’s Association, 2025:

The yearlong Reigniting the American Dream initiative will focus on three policy pillars:

  • Unlocking Economic Opportunity: Advancing the American Dream through entrepreneurship, creating a good jobs economy and economic mobility
  • Empowering Every Learner: Reimagining education and creating real on-the-jobs experiences for youth
  • Energizing the Future: Powering America’s next chapter by powering our AI future

Throughout the year, Governor Stitt will lead a series of convenings bringing together governors, private-sector leaders, and changemakers to explore policy and practice to forge a more hopeful, prosperous future for every American.

NGA also announced leadership for NGA’s three Governor-led task forces. The task forces foster a collaborative environment for Governors to focus on NGA’s top federal priorities. The task force co-chairs are:

  • Education, Workforce and Community Investment: Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon
  • Economic Development and Revitalization: Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong
  • Public Health and Emergency Management: Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein
2

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.

1

ROPE’s Right Again…Sigh. Two Muslim Schools Among 174 Registered/Registering For The Oklahoma Parental “Tax Credit”

For years, ROPE has been fighting ‘city hall’ all for a parent’s right to educate their child the way they wanted without interference from the government. Unfortunately, our advocacy for educational self-reliance appears to go out the window when money comes into the picture as we watched over 30,000 parents line up to take money from the government for their child’s education while waving the banner of “it’s my money”.

Early on in the push to get universal school choice in Oklahoma, ROPE sounded the call: 1. Once tax dollars are removed from you (by force) by a government, they are no longer YOUR dollars, they are the state’s dollars. They are not earmarked as Jane’s dollars, or Sam’s dollars – all dollars go into a pot to be divided up among government agencies and programs to be used the way the government sees fit – often, giving tax dollars away to businesses to make it desirous for them to do business in the state. 2. If the state gives private schools tax dollars, those private schools become public schools. Alex Newman, an excellent education researcher and a recent guest on our podcast explains:

LOTS of Christians have been pushing this program. “But, wait!”, we say; this will break the barrier of church and state, where the state will gain control private religious schools. It doesn’t matter, we’re told, THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE FAAAIIILLLLIIINNNGGGG, and the state will stop the program once public schools don’t have enough money to educate kids anymore (because the state has stopped, Medicare and Medicaid and Welfare….insert eyeroll). “But, wait!”, we say; once the state gives out money to a Christian school, they’ll be bound to give money to ANY SCHOOL THAT DECLARES A RELIGION, including Satanists. No, we’re told, the Satanists won’t come here and the state won’t let that happen.

Lucien Greaves is the Co-Founder and the Spokesperson for the Satanic Temple.

As of 12/10/23, I counted 174 registered schools – two of which are Muslim/Islamic.

So here’s the problem. Many people in Oklahoma identify as members of the Christian faith. Unfortunately, no matter how the ‘religion of peace’ likes to bill itself, Islam is not friendly to/toward Christians. In fact, Christianity Today marked the 50 countries where Christians were most persecuted in 2021 and says this:

Islamic oppression (29 countries): This is the main source of persecution that Christians face in more than half of the watchlist countries, including 5 of the 12 where Christian face “extreme” levels: Libya (No. 4), Pakistan (No. 5), Yemen (No. 7), Iran (No. 8), and Syria (No. 12). Most of the 29 are officially Muslim nations or have Muslim majorities; however, 7 actually have Christian majorities: Nigeria (No. 9), Central African Republic (No. 35), Ethiopia (No. 36), Democratic Republic of Congo (No. 40), Cameroon (No. 42), Mozambique (No. 45), and Kenya (No. 49).

A Guardian article from 2019 on persecution of Christians in the middle east said this:

In Saudi Arabia, the report says, school textbooks “teach pupils religious hatred and intolerance towards non-Muslims, including Christians and Jews”.

The website Jihad Watch, documents what the Quran says about Christians throughout its many articles. Here is but one paragraph:

A Shafi’i manual of Islamic law endorsed by the most prestigious institution in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, says that the leader of the Muslims “makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians…until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax,” and cites Qur’an 9:29 in support of this idea: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day and who forbid not what Allah and His messenger have forbidden-who do not practice the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book-until they pay the poll tax out of hand and are humbled.” (‘Umdat al-Salik o9.8)

Why should ANY taxpaying Oklahoma Christian be alright with their tax dollars funding an Islamic school in Oklahoma?

Look, I don’t care who you worship, or marry, or anything else you do, frankly – unless you commandeer the government to force me to do it too – or spend my money on it. I’m certainly willing to live and let live, but I’m not okay with the government using state funds to support a school of people whose holy book tells them to fight Christians until we are humbled and become Muslim. This. Is. Not. Okay.

Additionally, we’re told that Oklahoma Public Schools are GOING WOKE and we HAVE to get kids into private education to SAVE them from the WOKENESS. Well guess what? Christian schools are going woke too.

In this article from Capstone Report, Analysis; WOKE Comes For Christian K-12 & Homeschools, the author points to the fact that the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) has “partner[ed] with UnifiEd to offer Christian schools resources on Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Reconciliation with focus on Multiculturalism”. From the article:

And multicultural is the goal of Dr. Strickland’s organization, according to the press release: “The majority of our resources are designed to assist leaders with the ongoing challenge of implementing a God-glorifying diversity strategy that fosters a multicultural environment.”

Interestingly, an unrecorded phone call on Tuesday, November 7th with Dave Bond of OCPA and Jennifer Carter of American Federation for Children – ostensibly to help private schools become registered as vendors for the tax credit – included OPSAC, the Oklahoma Private School Accrediting Commission which, itself does not accredit schools, but is an association of organizations that accredit Oklahoma private schools. OPSAC’s “Association” page lists ACSI – thus, ACSI accredits Oklahoma private schools.

Here’s some information from OPSAC’s webpage referencing accreditation of Oklahoma private schools:

An accrediting agency that requires schools to uphold standards comparable to State standards may apply to an agency for accreditation. These standards include, but are not limited to, consideration of the school’s goals and objectives; compliance with applicable state and federal statutes; effective governance and administration; the teaching of a balanced curriculum; implementation of personnel practices which ensure the hiring of qualified and degreed instructional leaders; and standards for student achievement.

WHAT? So, if Oklahoma accredited private schools – the ONLY ones that can register for the voucher/tax credit – have to comply with state and FEDERAL statutes (you know, like the ones that say that boys can use girls bathrooms), can someone please tell me how OKLAHOMA ACCREDITED PRIVATE SCHOOLS ARE ANY DIFFERENT THAN OKLAHOMA PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

In addition, at least one private school on those approved for enrollment, Mt. St. Mary’s, has/is suffered/suffering through a sex abuse scandal.

So, to sum up – ROPE was right yet again. We fought our own Republicans TOOTH AND NAIL against Common Core only to find that everything we warned about had come true in the states and schools that used that ploy to dumb down all kids trapped in the program. We’ve fought our own Republicans for the last two years they’ve tried to foist universal school choice on Oklahomans, yet, here we are.

What is it going to take to wake up Oklahomans to the FACT that they’re being deluded into thinking – just like with Common Core – that taking money from some Oklahomans and giving it to others so their kids can go to a private school IS A VERY BAD THING? THIS?

PS: Here’s my research on the Tax Credit Rules that contains lots of information on the concept of school choice.

1

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

0

We’re Not So Jolly About Common Core Clark – Vote NO For Clark Jolley For State Treasurer

Clark Jolley at the Jeb Bush, Foundation for Education Excellence National Summit on Education Reform in Boston, MA with former Oklahoma State Board of Education member Amy Ford.  Clark Jolley was the lead author of the bill that adopted Obama-pushed Common Core State Standards throughout Oklahoma.

Sadly, Clark Jolley and ROPE have never been famous friends.

It all started in 2010, when he authored SB2033 (described by the title, “Teacher Incentive Pay) with Coffee, Jolley, Ford, Rice and Leftwich of the Senate.  This bill was created as a vehicle by which to apply for federal Race To The Top funds.  The bill is 34 pages and codified into law the Teacher Leader Effectiveness Evaluation System (a nightmare that Senator Adam Pugh tried to put an end to last year in a bill that was ‘committee’d to death’), the Race To The Top Commission, The Common Core State Standards Initiative, and failing school intervention program – three of the four aspects of the Obama Administration’s Race To The Top grant paid for with ARRA funds.

So, there’s that.  

In fact, I STILL can’t consider any Republican in the legislature who signed on to OBAMA’s education plan a real Republican – including Clark Jolley.

There is more – so much more – but to post all of that here would more than likely cause some kind of catatonic state from which the reader might not recover.  Let me simply say this; Blogspot has an excellent ‘search’ function.  I highly suggest – before casting a vote for Clark Jolley for anything – you search his name on the ROPE blog.  There are dozens of entries from which to choose where we’ve dissected and discussed legislation created by Senator Jolley and his cronies that we simply could not – AS SMALL GOVERNMENT REPUBLICANS – support.

The blog from which this picture was taken, “Oklahoma Legislative Education Leaders Take Advantage of Free Boston Trip Sponsored By Jeb Bush Foundation“, most probably says it all, however.  

In closing – and yes I am closing, as I feel my point should have been made solidly with the opening line – I do want to copy and paste an encounter we had with Senator Jolley (originally posted here) while we were lobbying against Common Core.

During 2011, there was a bill of Senator Jolley’s (SB264) with which we had issue.  It was advertised as a deregulation bill for schools, but there were an additional number of components – including a reference to the SLDS (State Longitudinal Database System) we didn’t like – and we didn’t want it passed.  Unfortunately, we found it late in its legislative cycle – after it was going back to the House a second time.  

Three of us were walking the halls talking to Representatives, sharing our concerns about the bill, when Clark Jolley strides by us at a ferocious clip, points a finger at us and says, “I want to see you in my office” and marches off.  We felt as though we were to follow, so we shrugged our shoulders at one another not knowing what was going on, and followed dutifully. 

Senator Jolley strode into his office directly behind his desk, told us to sit down, sat down himself and immediately launched into a very thorough berating, replete with pointed finger.  Now, mind you, one of us was actually a constituent of the Senator and NONE of us on the ROPE board are paid in any way – we are all mothers, housewives (and business owners) who take it upon ourselves to study the legislative process and become involved.  This fact, however, did not stop Senator Jolley from taking the time to tell us exactly how the cow ate the cabbage.  

We were NOT to go around behind his back, he explained vociferously.  If we had a problem with one of HIS bills, we needed to come to him first and not let him hear about it from someone else.  He wanted to make sure HIS bills get passed and he would work with us but he was not going to have us going around him taking matters into our own hands.

I have NEVER been such a combination of flabbergasted, annoyed and angry all at the same time.  I thought Senators were supposed to be public SERVANTS.  At one point I finally decided I’d had enough and told him that we weren’t paid lobbyists and didn’t know the system inside and out – heck one of us was even a constituent – we were simply doing what we felt was right.  It didn’t require a lecture.

I have never forgotten that incident…

True public “SERVANTS” don’t behave like Clark Jolley.

PS:  Todd Russ was always kind to us, listened, and more importantly voted YES to repeal Common Core from Oklahoma law.  I’ll be voting for Russ.

0

More Reasons We Support Dr. John Cox

In case you’ve not seen our Facebook posts with further explanations as to why ROPE has chosen to support Dr. John Cox for Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction, I’m going to paste them into the blog where you can share them with all your smart friends who are NOT on social media!

From June 7th:

A story about Dr. John Cox and why history is important: (update at bottom)

Back in 2012 (or so), the Carter County Republicans asked me (and ROPE) to do a presentation for them about why we needed to fight Common Core. They had the meeting at a hotel near I-35. After speaking, Julia Seay and I and a few others went to Two Frogs down the road to have dinner. Dr. Cox had been to another of our presentations previously and came to dinner with the group that night.

Julia and I both wondered why on earth a Democrat was so interested in fighting Common Core, so, we grilled him – beginning with abortion. He shocked us. He said he was 100% pro life. We asked him about gun ownership and he was 100% pro-second amendment.

As we got further into our discussions, Julia and I both started laughing. Julia actually told him something like, “You’re more Republican than many Republicans we know!” He explained that he’d been brought up as a Democrat and where he lived, there weren’t any Republicans to vote for anyway. If he wasn’t a Democrat he couldn’t vote except in a general election, where he traditionally voted for Republicans.

During the Common Core fight, John consistently showed up to do what he could to push back against an initiative he knew would tie his hands as an administrator and dumb down learning for his students – WHEN FEW OTHER SUPERINTENDENTS – REPUBLICANS OR DEMOCRATS – ANYWHERE IN OKLAHOMA DID.

Today we know that ROPE, Dr. Cox and all those who fought so hard against Common Core and federal intervention into state public education systems WERE 100% RIGHT about everything we said would happen with implementation of CC.

Since coming out with our endorsement of Dr. Cox yesterday, we have been lambasted and castigated by a prominent Christian once-supporter and had subscribers drop our email newsletter. This is all fine, as ROPE will fight to the death to allow people to express their opinions, but it is UNBELIEVABLY hurtful and frustrating.

To think – after all these years – that ROPE (or me) would support someone who supports policies I/we HAVE NEVER SUPPORTED is nonsensical. Why on earth would someone look at a label before taking the word of others who may know more about the person than they themselves – or even better – INTERVIEWING THE PERSON THEMSELVES?

Ronald Reagan was a Democrat. TRUMP was once a Democrat. One of the – hands down – most courageous, competent public servants we have in office – Cindy Byrd – was a Democrat and WE SUPPORT CINDY BYRD TOO!

I know that the devil has been seeding distrust since the beginning of time. I know he is the Father of Confusion and Lies. I know Conservatives have been through the ringer lately and trust is hard.

HOWEVER, allowing ourselves to tread water in a sea of emotion, where we all get spooled up in the back-stabbing, intrigue of ‘politics’ to make us feel as though we’re ‘doing’ something – we need to STOP AND THINK – and use discernment and reason to chart our course.

I’m not saying ANY man is perfect – only Jesus gets that label among humanity. All I’m saying is, the more we use emotion over reason and the more we desire to fight with one another, the faster we lose any chance of gaining the ground we’ve lost to the Communists – who are our REAL ENEMY and threat to individual liberty.

**I’m also going to add here – ROPE is not funded by anyone. We tried to be a PAC but it didn’t work. We have always supported this group on gas donations and out of our own pocketbooks. We don’t owe allegiance to anyone or any group. About what other advocacy group can you say that?

And from my personal Facebook page June 9th:

Yesterday, a person tagged me in a post that said they didn’t understand our stand for Dr. Cox because he has ‘never stood for parents’.

Here is the truth: Dr. Cox STOOD WITH PARENTS AGAINST COMMON CORE when only one or two other Superintendents did. But even that isn’t the issue here.

While Dr. Cox was labeled a Democrat, he STOOD WITH PARENTS against a FEDERAL TAKEOVER OF EDUCATION.

Here is the list of REPUBLICANS who stood AGAINST PARENTS and FOR FEDERAL EDUCATION: Former State Superintendent Janet Barresi, former governor Mary Fallin, former Senator Clark Jolley (who is running for state Treasurer and who wrote the bill to insert Common Core AND OTHER OBAMA EDUCATION INITIATIVES – into our state) and the state Chamber. Oklahoma Council For Public Affairs (OCPA) NEVER GOT INTO THE FIGHT FOR PARENTS AT ALL ON THIS ISSUE.

Who was right about Common Core? #ROPEWASRIGHT all it takes is a bit of internet search to find all the studies indicating just that.

As I’ve said before HISTORY IS IMPORTANT and if you choose to overlook it, you do so at your own peril.

In the end, who knows what Dr. Cox will do if elected – we can only go on our past experience with the man and the things he’s committed to us and the public. Obviously, Dr. Cox is human – as are we all.

We continue to remain friendly with Secretary Walters, but I did tell him, when I called to inform him of our endorsement, that one of the gravest concerns we have about his candidacy, other than his desire to see vouchers implemented statewide, is all the people with whom he associates.

In fact, his associates – all on ECKO’s Board of Directors – include former Policy Director for Mary Fallin, (Jake Yunker) – who, with former Secretary of Education Janet Baressi fought the repeal of Common Core – former Representative Lee Denney who fought against the repeal of Common Core and Jennifer Monies, who has worked extensively with the State Chamber who fought Common Core. This election cycle, Secretary Walters has had fundraisers thrown for him by both Jeb Bush – a Common Core and school choice proponent – and Betsy DeVos whose family runs the American Federation for Children 501(c)(4) and PAC; the (c)(4) of which reported 8 million dollars in revenues in 2019. Those names don’t inspire the idea of ‘parental rights’ to us, but the top-down, administrative, big government solutions of which we need to rid Oklahoma, not double-down.

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

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

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

WHAT IS SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING

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

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

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

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

CONCERNS WITH SEL:

#1 Brings CRT Concepts Into Schools and Classrooms

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

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

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

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

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

#2 CASEL Foundation Supporters Have Leftist Political Philosophies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#3 SEL Trains Students As Activists

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

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

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

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

#4 SEL Uses Lots of Behavioral Surveys

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

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

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

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

Here are some questions on the Success Highways questionnaire:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#5 Not All School Counselors Respect Parent Authority OR HB1775

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Supplemental Links and Information:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3

Parents, Books Like “The Glass Castles” – And Worse – Have Been In Public Schools For Years – We Need To Get Them Out Now

I have to say, I’m more than mildly happy to read that parents have finally discovered the disgusting books being foisted upon their children in public schools and metropolitan libraries all across the nation – including Oklahoma – yes, “of all places” – but I have to say, I’m more than mildly frustrated that we’ve been trying to alert parents to this phenomena for over 10 years and not gotten much traction.  

So, parents, please know; this is a trend that started years ago and is quickly getting progressively worse.  There’s really no choice but to stop it NOW!

Those of you who have been followers know my story, but for those who don’t, suffice it to say that putting my kids into a nice public elementary in the nice neighborhood where I grew up as a kid, didn’t go the way I planned.  You can read about some of our adventures here, here and here that led me to homeschooling three kids through high school with one still in high school left to go.

I didn’t begin parent life with the notion that I would be spending 24/7 with four kids, but that’s how life turned out and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Neither did I have any idea that I’d become an education researcher and activist, but putting my kids into public school sent me down that road, leading me to many, many days where I homeschooled with one hand while researching and writing a blog with the other.  After seeing what I’d seen in our “Blue Ribbon” elementary in a nice, well-to-do neighborhood, I knew I HAD to wake up parents to either make their schools start educating their kids or get them to take them out!

Throughout our homeschool years, I’d take the kids to Half Price Books.  They offer a 10% discount for homeschoolers/educators, plus, it’s always a great place to find any kind of reading material.  

Unfortunately, my second-oldest daughter, Barbara, always seemed to pick out the most awful books every time we went – they had no compelling story line, there was nothing edifying or uplifting in them and they all seemed to be about vapid boy/girl relationships.  I wouldn’t let her read them and we’d usually have some kind of argument, but my point always has been; why spend time reading something that doesn’t elevate you either mentally or spiritually, or teach you something you didn’t know?

She had been telling me she wanted to read some Judy Blume books – and I had heard they were fine – so one day while we were at Half Price Books, she pulled out several Judy Blume books to look through. One of them was a paperback called, “Forever“.  It was used and without a cover for research so I skimmed several pages. 

Unfortunately, I involuntarily screamed aloud (Barbara nearly died of embarrassment because people actually looked at us) when I reached a page with such sexually explicit detail that there was no way to refer to it but as pornographic!

Immediately I approached the young girl working close to us, held out the book and reported that it was NOT material for young teens.  I then asked her to remove it from the Teen section.  She shrugged affably, but seemingly uninterested so I thrust at her the page that had caused me to scream.  Surprisingly, even this young, pierced and tattooed girl gasped and promised to immediately remove the book to the adult section where it would be away from young girls.

Not long after that incident really, I got an email from a member of our (previous board) telling me that one of her friends was really mad about the reading list in Edmond Public Schools, and asking if she could put her in touch with me.

After meeting with the mom, I wrote, “One Mad Momma Takes On Edmond School Board Over Sexually Explicit Books Assigned to Sophomores“, published in 2014.  Today it has 9000 reads and 16 comments.  I urge you to read them.  It’s readily obvious someone read the blog and hit social media with a post about it claiming we were trying to “ban” books.  Trust me when I say, leftists use the ‘straw man’ argument constantly and this was a perfect example.  No one suggested the books should be banned, just not offered as class reading material to sophomores in high school, but that doesn’t matter.  Leftists love to call names if for no other reason than it completely stops conversation on the topic.  If someone is labeled a “BOOK CENSOR”, discussion stops in exactly the same way it does when you’re labeled a ‘racist’.

I didn’t use that blog to point to specific passages in the book, but because there was so much whining and crying about the blog and the poor mom’s (very brave) decision to speak out on the topic, I ran another blog copying and pasting actual passages from the book, “Complaints About Sexually Inappropriate High School Reading Material Part 2 – Garbage In – Garbage Out“.

Interestingly, THIS blog only got 889 views and only 4 comments, one of which was mine in response to leftist education political organizer Claudia Swisher, who – of course – called the mother and I “book banners” and “disingenuous” for ‘cherry-picking’ passages – because explicitly detailing everything in a sex scene needs context, right? <<insert rolled eyes emoji>>

So as not to relive the entire post here, check out the blog for the x-rated ‘cherry picked’ passages that made me a “disingenuous book banner”.

Not long after that, I received an email from a friend, Macey France, in Oregon who had found Tony Morrison’s, “The Bluest Eye” on the Common Core reading list.  A blogger herself, she quoted portions of the book – including the unbelievably explicit child rape scene – in her blog and then linked it to the CC reading list, earning her a virtual firestorm of name-calling and derision from the Left all across the internet.

With everything in my blogs echoing what Macey was saying about the Common Core reading list and “The Bluest Eye”, I decided to pitch an article to my longtime editor Joy Pullman at the Federalist about the smutty books kids were being fed in public school through the eyes of the parents that were objecting to them – in 2014!

That article was my first for the Federalist, has been read thousands of times and is still – sadly – very timely today.  I urge you to stop and read the whole piece because it explains very well WHY sexually explicit literature is not appropriate for K-12 students.  There are reasons other than, “I just don’t want my kid reading that”.

But, I digress a bit.  This is the article I wrote on our old website back in 2011 archived through the Way Back Machine (btw – support them so we don’t end up like 1984!)  I recounted the story about Barbara, but here’s the IMPORTANT part.  My Co-Founder, Julie McKenzie had gone out to the Norman High School Library website and pulled down the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA – which appears not to be a serviceable organization any longer) 2009 Best Books For Young Adults, copied the books and their descriptions and pasted them in the document.  You can see all of them at the link, but let’s pull out a few here:

  • Geerling, Marjetta. Fancy White Trash. Penguin/Viking. 2008. 978-0-670-01082-0 $16.9  Abby Savage is determined not to be like her mother and sisters-each became pregnant as teens-but her only confidant is Cody who has his own sexual issues.
  • Harmon, Michael. The Last Exit to Normal. Alfred A.Knopf. 2008. 978-0-375-94098-9 $18.99 To get him on the right track, Ben Campbell’s dad and stepdad accompany him to Montana, where he encounters small town life, homophobia, an abused boy, and a special girl.
  • Scott, Elizabeth. Living Dead Girl. Simon and Schuster/Simon Pulse. 2008. 978-1-4169-6059-1 $16.99  Abducted at the age of ten, Alice has lived as a live-in rape victim for Ray for 5 years until he informs her that she’s “too old” for his love.

Okay, that’s enough, you get the idea.  Sincerely?  How many of you want your kids reading ANY of those?  This was 2010!  

WHERE HAVE PARENTS BEEN?

You think The Glass Castles is bad, try the new and improved Sequoyah Reading List for 2022, which you can conveniently find through the Oklahoma Library Association portal (with the convenient URL of OKLIBS).

We’ll tackle that in the next post – What Does The Library Want Your Child Reading?  Shouldn’t You Know?  

The last in the series will be, What To Do About Inappropriate Books in Your Public Libraries to give you a method to clean up your public reading spaces.

In the meantime, check out “Molly’s X-Rated Reading Room” on our website where ROPE Board member Molly Jenkins and our friend Andrea Crouch take on the inappropriate and awful books for kids in public school and the public library!  Sign up to be alerted of their posts, so you don’t miss one!

Jenni White

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Oklahoma Republican Legislators Enacted President Obama’s Education Agenda During 2010 Creating Many Of The Problems We’re Seeing In Public Education TODAY

As a pre-Halloween trick, this article was released in the Tulsa World – Teacher shortage milestone: New record set for nonaccredited teachers given emergency certification in Oklahoma.

I urge you to read the article – it’s short – but even if you only have time to scan it, read the section that says;

A decade ago, applications for emergency certifications used to be a rarity, with just 32 emergency teaching certificates approved in 2011-12.  But as Oklahoma plunged into a statewide teacher shortage, school districts became increasingly reliant on underqualified new hires who had not yet completed the state’s requirements for either traditional or alternative certification. The numbers have increased annually since 2012, save for a one-year dip last year to 2,801.

Okay. This clearly says that until the 2011/2012 school year, there were only about 35 emergency certifications provided by the OSDE. So what happened in 2010 in Oklahoma?

Well, if you don’t know, I can certainly tell you because I wrote about it and studied it furtively and constantly for five years.

In 2010, House and Senate Republicans along with Governor Mary Fallin ushered into Oklahoma law, The FOUR PILLARS OF THE OBAMA EDUCATION AGENDA – Common Core, State Longitudinal Database, Teacher Accountability Measures and Turning Around Underperforming Schools – through an ENORMOUS omnibus bill – SB2033 – made possible by former Democrat Governor Brad Henry’s acceptance of State Stabilization Funds (SSF).

Why in the world would Oklahoma Republicans sign on to law created by a Democratic President with Marxist tendencies?

Because it would result in an ability to receive federal funds to implement something called “Race To The Top“, President Obama’s education initiative. And later, because Congress refused to re-authorize the billion page law called the ESSA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) which President George Bush renamed the “No Child Left Behind Act” (NCLB), President Obama came up with a scheme to provide states with even more money – I mean “flexibility” – not to have to have students meet the NCLB requirement of 100% proficiency in math and reading by 2014. And guess what? Then State Superintendent Janet Barresi applied for and got those funds as well.

Unfortunately, those ALSO required the state to develop all four pillars of Obama’s education reforms.

In 2011, former colleague Lynn Habluetzel and I sat down for 2 days to come up with a map that would show as many of the players in the Obama money scheme that our Republican elected officials had bought into. Here’s what we came up with.

It went viral. You can actually internet search this thing because people were so disgusted by it. Why? Because every group on this ‘map’ exerts some kind of control over YOUR DISTRICT SCHOOL in some way. That’s what federal funds do. They tie states to FEDERAL programs whether they’re good for the state or not.

Now, let’s mosey on up to 2014 and add on to all you see above with the “Dear Colleague Letter” penned by Obama which basically told schools that they could be brought up on Civil Rights charges for disciplining black students.

The consequences of the aforementioned 4 pillars is HUGE, but the latter is the worst of all. Ask ANY teacher why they’re quitting and DISCIPLINE ISSUES are in the top two.
Schools do what they’re told by the federal government so they can get federal government money (this is why they DON’T respond to parents – parents don’t have the money carrot there to make it worth it for them in their world view of ‘kids deserve schools with more money’ whatever that means).

Look at mask mandates if you simply can’t believe me. Ask teachers the next reason they’re leaving and they’ll tell you PAPERWORK.

There’s all this data to collect on each student, there’s SEL which is used to conduct Climate Surveys and grading teachers all for the School Grade card that allows schools to get their ESSA money. (More info on school grade cards)

JUST STOP IT.

If you really want to know what’s causing the teacher shortage, it’s the results of the OBAMA-DIRECTED EDUCATIONAL GARBAGE INFLICTED UPON THIS STATE BY REPUBLICAN ELECTED OFFICIALS. Look no further. Schools got what they wanted – their Obama grants and ESSA money – so stop your griping already. You’re just reaping what you’ve sown!

Here’s the thing: I’m convinced that school officials are one of two things – ignorant of everything I’ve just outlined and documented (like the Board member at the teacher termination hearing last night who didn’t know what her job was) – or they know exactly what goes on and know it’s in their best interest to keep parents as far away from making them accountable for it as possible.

Parents, let’s quit letting the latter category think we’re simpletons who can only do Common Core math (2+2=5). TAKE BACK YOUR SCHOOL BOARDS. It’s the only way to make the madness stop and for schools to once again be accountable to student learning and the will and wishes of parents.

Jenni White – Education Director

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