Without spending a lot of time re-hashing our stance on the Parental Choice voucher program – the state should NEVER, ever, ever, EVER, allow tax dollars to be used as tuition to a private school – no matter how hard you have to work to find the ‘right’ words to make it sound palatable to the plebes. More on this later this week.
Friday, December 1st, the Parental Choice voucher program was supposed to be open for enrollment. Next thing I know, there’s a communication in my inbox from Senate Pro Temp Greg Treat:
Interesting. KOSU reports that the vendor MERIT is to blame for the delay.
KOKH reports that MERIT is a vendor for the voucher picked by the Oklahoma Tax Commission from a list supplied by OHMES. It wasn’t a competitively bid job. The job of collecting applications wasn’t done inside the OTC, it was farmed to an out-of-state vendor. (Remember when that happened with Federal educational funds dispersed to Oklahoma during COVID? If you’re not sure, look here and here.) All that local Oklahoma student data – to an out-of-state vendor that uses a data warehouse called SNOWFLAKE that functions in the cloud. All one needs to do is look at this page on the Merit site where you see the term “digital wallet” and there’s no way a parent SHOULDN’T wonder where the data associated with their family’s application will go.
Julianne Romanello has done a very large amount of research on Merit and the tax credit/voucher and has found that this whole scheme – vouchering private schools under the government umbrella while collecting huge amounts of data on students – is just another way to connect students to the global education workforce pipeline. She’ll be the first guest on the FIRST ROPE Report after the holidays (Wednesday, January 10th – so mark your calendars NOW!) BEFORE our legislature goes into session, to talk about this. In the meantime, please find our video about all the data collection pathways and the State Longitudinal Data Base on YouTube. Parents, it’s time to OPT OUT of these systems of tracking your children. That’s all I’ll say for now.
In addition, it’s important to note that the tax credit/voucher program started out in the hole. The deal struck with MERIT was for nearly 4 million dollars, yet the legislature had only appropriated one million dollars for set up. Imagine that, the government over-budget on something. But then, imagine the government actually doing the job the legislature intended them to do.
So, Jenni, you gripe and moan but offer no solutions. Well, not exactly. For years our mantra has been, “don’t tax us for failing schools” or alternatively “don’t tax us for public education we don’t use”. So, instead of providing a blanket voucher to people to take government tax dollars to a private school where they’ll then be subject to government regulation, just let us keep our money – period. Don’t take it, make it government property and then return it to me with strings (or to a private organization or individual with strings), just let me keep my own money. If you want to argue that these dollars are not tax dollars, that they’re yours, you’re just getting them back, watch these two short videos culled from interviews we’ve had on the ROPE Report.
Also, please take the time to watch my video on the Oklahoma parental tax credit. You might be surprised what you learn.
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.
Few ideas for ‘big’ legislation DON’T come as boilerplate ideas from national think tanks. Many times, though they may work in other states, they are not appropriate for Oklahoma, yet legislators bring them into the capitol because of the hand that offered them.
[Position Statement: ROPE firmly supports Parental Choice in Education as personified by charter schools, online learning, homeschooling and private school. We also support tax credits and tax credit scholarships to help families who need assistance with finding the education that is right for their child/children. We do not, however, support vouchers – money provided by the state injected into the private solutions of homeschool and private school.]
Gillham said he got the idea for that bill from a summit he attended last November in Florida, held by ExcelInEd, an organization started by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Here’s the ENORMOUS problem with this: Jeb Bush pushed Common Core throughout the nation and Oklahoma though it was a decided federal takeover of state schools. In fact, Bush’s Common Core Problem was thought to be but one of the reasons Bush fell so far behind former President Trump in the 2016 elections – well that, and his firm position as a member of the Republican establishment – the very team Trump was sent onto the field to beat.
THE JEB BUSH OKLAHOMA LEGACY
Throughout the tenure of former State Superintendent Janet Barresi, Bush was a prominent figure in Oklahoma education ‘reform’.
In 2013 Bush sent a letter to legislators (while ROPE, other organizations and parents worked hard to push back against the nationalization of state standards under one umbrella), saying:
“There is a lot of misinformation flying around about Common Core State Standards. Below is a roundup of recent articles, opinion pieces and posts by policy advisors, debunking Common Core myths and highlighting voices in the transition to these new standards. You’ll also find quotes from teachers weighing in on Common Core and see how state and business leaders are supporting the higher standards.”
Yes, what in the world do parents know Mr. Bush, when state and business leaders support Common Core? Ever the elitist, Bush has always been about POLICY over PARENTS – wining and dining legislators as he works to help ‘the little people’ he loves so much.
During 2014 (though Common Core was repealed from state law that year), while Governor Mary Fallin was head of the National Governor’s Association and Superintendent Baressi was a member of Bush’s organization “Chief’s For Change”, Baressi, a State Board Member and then-Senator-turned-current-candidate-for-State-Treasurer Clark Jolley (a co-author of Oklahoma’s Common Core bill) all attended Bush’s National Summit in Boston. {Incidentally, as an aside, it is a bit interesting that Senator Treat’s SB1647, money is to be dispersed through a department inside the treasury…}
BUSH’S ORGANIZATION EMBRACES LEFTISTS RIGHT, AND WELL, LEFT
Unfortunately, it seems as though we’re seeing near repeat of the Common Core battle here this session (2022) over Governor Stitt’s desire to increase school choice by offering vouchers (state money) to PRIVATE EDUCATION SOLUTIONS (home and private schools).
GOVERNOR STITT INVITED JEB BUSH TO SPEAK TO LEGISLATORS ABOUT EDUCATION REFORM
In May of 2021, Governor Stitt invited “his friend” Bush to visit with members of the legislature and others – including Robert Ruiz of Oklahoma’s Choice Matters and Secretary of State Ryan Walters, who is also the Executive Director of an organization called Every Kid Counts – about ‘education reform’.
Look at Oklahoma. The state stands out in the NAPCS analysis for having the largest growth in charter school enrollment by both percentage gains and by absolute number. The number of new charter students in Oklahoma alone accounts for 15 percent of all new charter students in the nation.
It then goes on to say this:
When families face huge challenges they don’t wait for solutions. Again, look at the homeschool numbers from the US Census Bureau. Families didn’t wait for policymakers to adjust the boundaries or enrollment caps in 2020. They created their own path forward. Such policies as arbitrary enrollment caps and exclusive school boundaries carry a heavy irony. By protecting a system that limits flexibility and mobility, policymakers encourage families to create their own solutions outside the system, thereby endangering the very system they are trying to protect.
WHAT? Maybe I’m reading this wrong, but it sounds to me like this policy article from ExelInEd basically says that LEGISLATORS SHOULDN’T WANT FAMILIES CREATING THEIR OWN EDUCATIONAL SOLUTIONS OUTSIDE THE SYSTEM because it endangers the choice systems they’re trying to create!?
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?
So, let’s think on this. If the government infuses money into PRIVATE education solutions, the entire enterprise ceases to be private – homeschoolers (and private-schoolers alike) who ‘use’ state-provided money for homeschooling will – at a minimum – be pulled into the state data collection system when there’s likely NO DATA ON THEM IN THE SYSTEM PREVIOUSLY.
Gosh – to put the old tin foil hat on here – if the state’s elitists do away with ALL private education solutions by inserting the hand of government to the point where all students become part of the system like they began with Common Core – how close are we to the Great Reset and One World Government?
Yes, that was a leap, but let’s look at some facts:
Jeb Bush is a member of the BIG GOVERNMENT Bush “Legacy”. His father gave us Agenda 21 and his brother gave us The Patriot Act (government surveillance means nothing if you’re not doing anything wrong).
Bush has always stood firmly on the side of government-backed national standards (ie; Common Core). Just internet search “Jeb Bush and Common Core”. You’ll find pages and pages with the same theme.
And then there’s this: “The 3rd largest FEC fine in history was just levied and it’s against someone you might not expect. The Jeb Bush Super PAC that eventually morphed into a prominent Never Trump effort, “Right to Rise,” has been caught red-handed accepting an illegal $1.3M donation from a Chinese corporation.”
Truly, why in the world would anyone in Oklahoma government billing themselves as a conservative hear a word Jeb Bush has to say?
What does it say that Oklahoma legislators and elected officials seem to have such a love affair with this man?
Why would Oklahoma Republicans put ‘blinders’ on and go along with ANY bills/laws/ideas simply because ‘Republicans’ say it’s a great idea – especially without researching first?
Hopefully, these questions are really good wake up questions for us all to ask ourselves NOW.
