ROPE Report

For those of you who have followed ROPE since the days (2008-2014) when we were called Restore Oklahoma Public Education (ROPE), you’ll recognize the flowchart, that Lynn Habluetzel (former ROPE Board member) and I created together to show how Obama’s Race To The Top grant program was fueling ways in which the government would track YOUR CHILDREN all under the guise of ‘helping’ them. What did Reagan say, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help”?

This session, our ‘helpful’ legislature – particularly Representative Chad Caldwell and Senator Ally Seifried – have decided to add to the State Longitudinal Database System (SLDS) so loved by former REPUBLICAN State Superintendent Janet Baressi. Here is the text of the bill. In addition, Seifried and Dick Lowe (SB141) are directing the OSDE to issue RFP’s for a “statewide student information system”. I guess, we’re the only ones that remember the information below apparently.

I was going to publish a list of reasons why this bill shouldn’t even be considered, but I’ll just say this – WE ALREADY HAVE A STATE LONGITUDINAL DATABASE (aka Statewide Student Information System) and according to everything we learned years ago, it was set up to do all the same stuff outlined in the bill by the person responsible for setting the whole scheme up by the Obama administration in the first place, John Kraman – now the Chief Information Officer for the Mississippi State Department of Education.

Here’s what we know.

We know that the state got a Race To The Top grant for $4,997,082 to construct the SLDS in 2012.

We know that Oklahoma created a P20 Council via law to oversee the project which was supposed to have sunset (gone away) in 2015.

We know that The Wave is “OSDE’s primary system for collecting data from schools to perform necessary duties and functions” (Oklahoma’s SLDS). Incidentally, the link that is supposed to tell parents exactly what data is collected via The Wave is not working, which violates section C.1 of the law we helped implement in 2013 (2013 Student Data Accessibility, Transparency, and Accountability Act, 70 O.S. § 3-168) until we realized it didn’t say what we expected it to say – story on that here.

We know that the OSDE has a data governance board.

We know that the OSDE has a Data Privacy Program Plan.

Here is a list of The Wave Code Tables to give you an idea of the kind of data our SLDS is storing.

We know that the OSDE is continually updating the Schools Interoperative Framework (SIF) and has new updates ready this year (2025).

And finally, we know that The Wave allows data researchers/teachers/etc., to pull information on students regarding their post-secondary and (‘workforce’) ‘opportunities’.

In closing:

STOP COLLECTING DATA ON KIDS! THERE IS NO NEED FOR THIS UNLESS THE IDEA IS FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO EDUCATE STUDENTS FOR JOBS LIKE THE EU DOES.

And if there’s still any concern that Oklahoma needs more excuses to collect data on kids, below is the presentation I made to the House Admin rules, Government Oversight and Repealer Committee during October of 2013. It’s a MUST WATCH because it contains the flowcharts I prepared that show how the state – and the feds – collect student data.

Here is the paper that contains all the LIVE links to all the research Lynn, Julia Seay (former ROPE Board member) and I did on the SLDS during the time Oklahoma was implementing that monster.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE share this information with every parent and grandparent you can and IMMEDIATELY contact your Representative and Senator and tell them that they MUST vote NO for SB224 and SB141 and any other data collection bill in the state legislature.