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Liberty Chained

Guest post by Ann Kerr

School choice. Parental choice. It sounds good. It looks good. But, is it really all that it is cracked up to be?

A new Oklahoma law, hailed by Governor Stitt as a major victory for parents and
students in Oklahoma, is just about to move into action with the Tax Commission’s
adoption of an emergency rule this week.

While the text of the bill originally failed and faltered, it was “saved” by some resourceful legislators, who simply gutted another bill, pasted in the language, and ran it through under a different number.

The new law does two things. First, it provides families that are not in the public school
systems – either brick and mortar or virtual charter schools – with reimbursement for
certain educational expenses. Public money, potentially millions of dollars out of the
state budget, is promised to private schoolers and traditional homeschoolers, who up until
now have been completely private and parent-directed.

Second, the new law lays the groundwork to gather a wealth of information about private schoolers and traditional homeschoolers alike. Previously private information will now be public information shared between government agencies.

The law is not simply about school choice or parental choice. The “parental choice” law
results in government control and involvement. When eligible families seek
reimbursement, they will be required to give information to receive public funds.
Specifically, the reimbursement law necessitates that the Oklahoma Tax Commission
analyze requests for certain reimbursement of fees, curriculum and other educational
expenses and cross-reference requests with the Department of Education for validity. If
the Tax Commission reviews the information and finds that money was handed out
improperly, then the tax man will come back to families and “capture” what was lost.
Further, the Department of Education is required to create an online platform for the
exchange of information, ratings and reviews of educational providers. (Look out
Amazon)

These rich sources of unnecessary and intrusive information-gathering could obviously
be used by the state to paint a picture of the entire private and homeschool communities
and would likely lay the groundwork for future regulation. Opting out would no longer
be an option.

While private school and homeschool freedom has not been obliterated yet, the chain is
now placed around educational liberty – just as a choke chain is put around an animal‘s
neck – as a sign of warning and threat to obey.

When the government offers something “free,” it is never free. It appears that the chain
may only grow tighter and tighter, until parents have no educational choices at all. The
real losers will be the children.

Warning – homeschoolers and private schoolers. Look out for the knock on the door and the man on your porch, who says, “Hello, I am with the government, and I am here to help.”

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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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Governor Stitt Says He Wants Oklahoma To Be More Like The Voucher States Of Iowa, Virginia, Florida and New Hampshire Where Homeschooling Is Significantly More Restricted Than Oklahoma

To hear the Voucher cabal talking, you find out a couple things quickly;

  1. there is simply no downside to private school vouchers and
  2. long-time homeschoolers or private schoolers don’t seem to be part of the discussion.

Why?

Probably because, like most things that vastly enlarge the imprint of government, the effects of any government program are far downstream from the initial creation – it’s the frog in the boiling pot syndrome if you will. No one sees a giant hook coming from backstage to pull all the homeschoolers and privately schooled kids into the pit of homogeneity and government regulation, yet it’s still there. It’s moving so slowly the audience doesn’t really notice it until – suddenly – the kids are gone.

Just recently I became aquainted with a woman who is a former high school counselor who does high school/college/career counseling for the homeschooling community, in addition to running an online learning academy and homeschooling her own kids.

Today, she sent me the following:

I work with homeschoolers from across our nation in an advisory role.  All too often here lately, I am talking with families in other states that have recently passed vouchers or other forms of monies for ‘school choice.’  I hear the same story from most of them.  The bills passed with minimal regulation, affording families choices in curricula and services, but after a year or two, those regulations increase and tighten, constricting those choices.

I spoke with a homeschooling family in another state yesterday, where they’ve had these vouchers in place for nearly a decade. When the family first began homeschooling, they were very loosely regulated and had the freedom to choose their curriculum. Now they spend a good portion of the school year ‘checking off boxes,’ ‘meeting with state officials,’ and trying to make sure they ‘jump through all of the hoops.’ The mom was very frustrated because it wasn’t helping her; it was wasting her time. The son was frustrated because he was no longer allowed to explore the classes that interested him (he wants to go into computer engineering, not underwater basket weaving), but instead had to complete a series of worksheets and other things his state-compliance-officer said he had not checked off in the “thousands of check boxes.” The mom said they literally spent four hours in a meeting last week with said officer going through a list of boxes of things to see if her son had covered the topics. Mom says the vast majority of these changes have come down the pipe in the past three years.

When I talk with homeschooling families in states where vouchers have more recently passed, I hear a similar story, but on a fast-tracked timeline. They were sold one idea, and then it was changed a year or two later. It’s the legislative bait-and-switch. While my examples are all about homeschooling families, as that is the population I work with, I’m sure that there are elements of bait-and-switch that are going to apply to non-homeschooling families as well. Don’t give up your freedoms in the name of getting a little bit of money. In fact — every family I speak with says that money flows freely at first, but then becomes harder and harder to get. The CA family from yesterday still has 85% of their allotted funding left for the year because they can’t access it since they haven’t jumped through all the appropriate hoops yet. Mom ended up paying for all of their curriculum out of pocket and is still required to follow the state voucher rules.

My experience is with homeschooling families, so I cannot speak to how school choice is affecting families of private or public school students.  But from a psychological perspective, it’s much easier to control the mouse in the maze once you have it used to getting the free cheese. 

Okay, one could call this “fallacy of small sample”. This is one woman I know, who talks to homeschooling families.

But what we can do is this: Governor Stitt is quoted in a recent Daily Oklahoman article about his committment to a voucher plan for Oklahoma, as saying,

“Other states like Iowa and Virginia and Florida and New Hampshire have already figured it out,” Stitt said in his remarks. “Providing more options for students leads to better outcomes. Oklahoma cannot afford to be left behind.”

Oklahoma Gov. Stitt proposes $130M school voucher program. Will rural opposition sink it again?

So, let’s at least do this: let’s go out and see what the Homeschooling Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) says about the homeschooling requirements for each state.

Iowa: Good grief. Iowa’s homeschooling regulations are too numerous to bother with here. The link is on the state name, good luck getting through all that in under 15 minutes. Also include a VACCINATION REQUIREMENT for kids.

Virginia: Same song second verse. Homeschooling regulations too numerous to mention including a VACCINATION REQUIREMENT for kids. Yup, very, very free so far.

Florida: Well, there is no vaccination requirement, but if you’re going to school your kids at home, you’ll need to show the state a portfolio of your work and take a normed achievement test yearly and provide those results to the state, or have your kid/s evaluated by a psychiatrist or psychologist. Gosh, I can see nothing going wrong there. What if the kid ever wants to run for public office or be a CEO? “Well, son, I can see that you didn’t pass a psychiatric evaluation by the state to graduate your homeschool…”

New Hampshire: Great. New Hampshire is better – NOT! Here you have to register as a homeschooler, TEACH REQUIRED SUBJECTS, keep and retain a portfolio for two years and REPORT TO THE STATE if you graduate your child before the age of 18.

OCPA just reminded us today of new statistics put together by EdChoice.org – a multimillion dollar, 501c4 organization. OKLAHOMA PARENTS CHOOSE TO HOMESCHOOL MORE THAN ANY OTHER GROUP OF OPTIONS OUTSIDE PUBLIC.

In fact, I’ve met more people recently – including my neighbors – who’ve moved here from another state to HOMESCHOOL thanks to the right of parents via the Oklahoma Constitution to educate their children by “other means“.

Last year, during our fight to prevent Republicans from making homeschool and private schools public via SB1647, a lady reached out to us on our Facebook page and said,

Why there are legislators in Oklahoma who want to make Oklahoma LESS FREE for parents to educate their children, I have no idea. It literally makes no sense. But, our Governor – in his own words – has said he wants Oklahoma to be MORE LIKE the four states listed here.

THAT IS NOT GOOD NEWS FOR HOMESCHOOLERS – OR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO HOMESCHOOL – HERE IN OKLAHOMA.

2

Parents Have To Parent – It’s A Tough Job To Be Sure – But No One Can Do It But You

The other morning I read a horrible news story about a 12yo girl who was beaten and tortured by 2 other 12yo girls at what was supposed to be a ‘sleep over. That is a horrible situation and the girls must be punished – but let’s talk honestly here.

How many parents know the families of the children with whom their children interact? Sorry to say, I expect MOST don’t.

Sadly – and factually – most all the nonsense going on in public schools about which parents have (rightly) complained, could have been solved by parent involvement at even the basic level of knowing the families of their children’s friends – yet I will go so far as to say that a majority of parents have abdicated so much of the responsibility of caring for their children to the now-government-sponsored systems of daycare and school, that knowing the families of their children’s friends is simply meaningless and unnecessary to them.

How could I make such a statement? I’ve seen it firsthand.

I taught science for 7 years in the public system and 3 years at a homeschool coop. In between those years, I sat on the PTA of our kid’s government elementary before they were pulled to become educated at home. Consequently, I have about 30 years of involvement in many different forms and levels of education.

In EVERY educational situation in which I’ve found myself, I’ve seen FEW parents actually interact with the education of their children.

In fact, there’s even a segment of parents who call themselves “homeschoolers’ who simply drop their children off at ‘coop’ and go about their merry way – they don’t interact with other families, help with coop duties, or even inquire as to how their kids are doing in their subjects – they simply EXPECT others to do their job for them because, for whatever reason, they can’t or won’t do it for themselves.

Since the 1960’s and LBJ’s War On Poverty – where the government offered the benevolent hand of government to ‘help’ families care for themselves – we’ve seen SKYROCKETING dissolution of families, SKYROCKETING single-parenting and SKYROCKETING abandonment of even basic parental duties. 

Why would a couple stay together when they can get ‘free’ money from the government to raise their kids separately? Why would a parent make the effort to educate or feed their children when the government does it for them without them having to expend any effort to do so? ‘Free’ daycare, ‘free’ education, ‘free’ lunch… the government programs are endless.

Human nature tends toward laziness – it’s the main reason we have technology – our very nature tells us we have to “work smarter, not harder”.  Consequently, when the government inserts its ‘helpful’ hand, society is destroyed. 

Solomon said, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece” (Proverbs 16:27) because humans will – by and large – attempt to do very little work. Once we don’t HAVE to keep ourselves fed, or clothed, or a roof above our heads, we’ll simply stop trying and allow others to do those jobs for us.

Then comes the death spiral; government provides ‘help’ to citizens, citizens stop providing for themselves, personal responsibility fails, government increases to counteract the lack of personal responsibility by creating more and more laws, citizens become oppressed, free society falls.

America is in this death spiral – and at this point we may not be able to recover. 

If we ARE going to recover, however, MORE GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IS NOT THE ANSWER. The answer is MORE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.

So here’s my request: If your child is in a government school of any kind – get them out and assume the responsibility of educating them yourself without excuses. In this way, citizens can create lifeboats of self-educated families and individuals who can then extend a hand to those who need help exiting the system for whatever reason through their church or other non-governmental group.

Taking control of the personal responsibility for our own actions and consequences (and modeling this for our children and others) is THE ONLY WAY to improve ourselves and this country in a lasting way for generations to come.

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Is SB1647 (Education Voucher) Now Only For Homeschooling Families? An Analysis.

Often, it takes hours to really read a bill because it’s important to look up associated laws and terms that may not be obvious to the reader. Then it requires reading passages over and over and comparing them to other passages to make sure of context. Truly, to do it right, each bill requires a substantial time investment to read properly. And to think – legislators must read hundreds of bills during just one half  of session alone…

I am not going to paste the entire bill into this post. Please find it here and download the version that was posted March 3rd, labeled, “Senate Floor Version March 2, 2022”.

PLEASE NOTE: ROPE will never be for an education voucher system – only a tax credit system. This analysis simply explains the major issues we’ve found in the bill.

*Page 1: Section 1B: “by directing State Aid for which each child is eligible to the education provider of their choice”. 

Page 16: Section 5 lines 3 and 4 – fund is to contain “appropriations, gifts, grants, donations, and bequests”.  

This is a mixing of public and private funds and certainly not simply “State Aid” making these sentences inconsistent.

*Page 2: Section 2 A3: “OEA means the account in which funds are deposited by the Agency…” 

Page 7: Section 2G1: “The Agency shall notify the State Department of Education and request calculation of the amount of State Aid for which the student is eligible.”

Page8: Section 2 G2: “The State Department of Education on a monthly basis shall transfer to the Agency for deposit into the OEA Revolving Fund”

Page 15: Section 5 creates the Oklahoma Empowerment Account Revolving Fund to which “All monies accruing to the credit of the fund are hereby appropriated and may be budgeted and expended by the office of the Agency (State Treasurer) for the purpose of implementing the provisions of the OEA”. Monies “received by the office of the State Treasurer from appropriations, gifts, grants, donations, and bequests”.

Another apparent inconsistency: The Agency deposits funds, the OSDE transfers funds, “appropriations (State Aid?), gifts, grants, donations, and bequests” are placed in this account. 

*Page 2: Section 2 A4: “Education Service Provider means a person, business, public school district, public charter school, magnet school, institution within the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education or organization that receives payments from a parent directing an OEA…”

Why would the OEA pay a PUBLIC school for any service? Wasn’t the idea for kids to go OUTSIDE the public school? So this bill uses state and private funds to pay public schools? Why? For what function?

*Page 2: Section 2A5: “Eligible student means a resident of this state who is eligible to enroll in a public school in this state…” 

“Eligible student shall not mean a student who is educated pursuant to the other means of education provided for in subsection A of Section 10-105 of Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes”.

An “eligible student” then is: 1. Any student who can go to public school 2. Whose family income is 300% of free/reduced lunch price and 3. Not educated by “other means”.

*Page 3: Section 2A6: “Empowerment student” is an OEA eligible student. 

 Page 5: Section 2Cb – (parent must sign an agreement upon application for the OEA to):

– b. not enroll eligible student as a full-time student in a public school district, public charter school or magnet school AFTER acceptance of an OEA

– d. not accept a scholarship from the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship for Students with Disabilities Program while participating in OEA

Page 5: Section 2D – “Nothing in this act shall be construed to require that an empowerment student be enrolled full time or part time in a private school or a nonpublic online school”.

Let’s review: to be a student ‘eligible’ for the OEA, that student 1. can’t be enrolled in public school 2. can’t be a student in the LNH scholarship 3. isn’t required to be enrolled at a private school 

Granted, 2D is so poorly written it’s hard to make heads or tails of, but if it’s saying that an OEA Empowerment student isn’t required to be in private or non-public online school or public school, or an LNH scholarship student – the ONLY category left would have to be HOMESCHOOL student. I would doubt that’s what’s meant, but that appears to be what was said.

This bill as written, then, creates two types of ‘homeschool students’: those who get state funds and those who “Constitutionally educate” their children and don’t take state funds – but it doesn’t appear to apply to private schools.

This is a HUGE issue. EPIC (public school at home) has already muddied the water in the mind of the public as to what Constitutional “by other means” homeschoolers are (parents pay taxes for public schools and assume all economic responsibility for the raising and education of their children). How in the world would anyone be able to tell which homeschoolers are NOT taking public funds and which ones WERE?  And how would a homeschooler that takes public funds be any different than an EPIC user now? While this may seem like a nothing to most people, once a form of homeschooling is identified by state law and regulated, it will be very easy to regulate the other – it’s precedent. To date, homeschooling in Oklahoma has been so successful and unprecedented because of the “by other means” language in the state Constitution, which has NEVER been defined and therefore very hard to be regulated. 

*Page 3: Section 2A8b: Qualified expenses – “tuition and/or fees for non-public online learning programs”

2A8d: “services contracted for and provided by a public school district…”

Why would the state provide state funds to send an Empowerment Student to an already-funded state school when the idea was to remove the student from a public school? 

*Page 4: Section 2A8k: “tuition, fees, instructional materials, and assessment fees for a curriculum or program offered by a technology center school 

Page 5: Section 2A8m: “tuition and fees for concurrent enrollment at an institution with the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education.

This seems like an open door for fraud. Students in Oklahoma under 18 may attend technology center schools without paying for the service. Universities charge for books and fees, but not tuition for concurrent coursework.

 *Page 7: Section 2F: “Any unused funds remaining in the OEA at the end of the applicable calendar year shall be remitted to the General Revenue Fund.”

Page 8: Section 2H: “An education service provider shall not share, refund or rebate any amount of an OEA with the parent or empowerment student. A refund or rebate for goods or services purchased with an OEA shall be credited to the OEA.”

Why shouldn’t ANY unused or rebated funds return to the OEA? The General Revenue Fund is a ‘slush fund’ that can be used for any reason. Why take money from the state coffers and then not return it to the account from which it was to be distributed in the first place? 

*Page 9: Section 3 C: “participation in the OEA program shall have the same effect as a parental revocation of consent pursuant to 20 U.S.C. Sections 1414(a)(1)(D) and 1414(C) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act”…

It appears that parents who take the voucher may not have their child evaluated for a disability while on the program. I assume because the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship already covers disabled children.

*Page 10: Section 3 F, 1, 2: All of this information from lines 12-23 appear to be creating the Digital Wallet.

ROPE has had major concerns with the Digital Wallet program. We believe it pulls kids into the State Longitudinal Data Base where reams of data are collected and sent to many, many state agencies and it’s a perfect place for implementation of ESG (social credit) scores. 

Superintendent Ryan Walters is not only the state’s Secretary of Education, but he runs an organization called Every Kid Counts OK (ECKO). During the pandemic, Governor Stitt applied for federal CARES ACT funds. Eight million dollars was funneled through ECKO using a digital wallet private vendor called “Class Wallet“, so the program has already been beta tested. Now that they’ve used the program and a private vendor to take payments, it appears the next step is to take the program state wide as the backbone of an educational voucher system.

Since federal money was funneled through a private organization, there is no direct oversight set in place for the movement of those funds at the state level. This is not at all a transparent way to handle tax dollars at any level – but then again, creating an entirely new bureaucracy in the State Treasurer’s office isn’t the way to make government smaller, more local and more responsive either.

Early in the session this year, ROPE noticed that Representative Martinez in the House and Senator Quinn in the Senate, both had “Creating the Digital Wallet Program Act” bills. We went to both authors, explained our issues and asked them to please not run the bills. Both actually agreed, yet we were stunned to see Senator Quinn’s on the Senate Ed Committee roster 2/22/22.

That afternoon, I made a phone call to our Secretary of Education, explained our concerns to him and asked that Oklahoma not go down the digital wallet road. Fortunately, Senator Quinn’s bill was pulled from committee and Representative Martinez’ bill was not heard. 

In politics, however, those with an agenda ALWAYS have a fail-safe. It appears SB1647 contains the language that is that fail-safe for this program.

In closing, though I read – and marked up every line of the bill – I didn’t cover every line of the bill here – I just stuck to the issues of greatest concern to us.

Since we have begun lobbying against this particular bill, our group – and me personally – have been the brunt of numerous character assasinations – I’m a liar, I don’t care about others, I’m an elitist, I want kids trapped in failing schools. 

Certainly, this is disheartening and frustrating, but no matter what dissenters say, our stance is defined upon the following three concepts – the same three upon which our organization has stood from the beginning; 

1. Personal Responsibility 

2. Smaller government 

3. Individual Liberty

SB1647 grows government, infringes on the individual liberty of those who have taken the personal responsibility to care for their own children to the point of paying twice (taxes and tuition) and takes responsibility from churches and individuals to help those who need help. The concept is wrong and the bill is poorly written. That’s really about all there is to it.

Jenni White

Education Director, ROPE

1

Government Take-Over in Invented Emergencies (SB1647 – The Oklahoma Empowerment Account Program)

Guest Post by Emily Hladik (Bio below)

SB 1647 creates the Oklahoma Empowerment Account Program under an emergency declaration. As an Oklahoma homeschool mom, I oppose this legislation.

While I believe the state of Oklahoma’s public education is in a state of emergency, this legislation attempts to expand publicly funded education without addressing the actual issues with existing public education. Private schools and homeschooling families that participate in this government expansion will do so at the price of their own autonomy and constitutional freedom. This bill is being promoted as a silver-bullet solution, touted as not growing government and heralded as a champion of protecting private schools and homeschooling in Oklahoma—absurdities.

Supporters of this legislation claim the Oklahoma Empowerment Act (OEA) is the solution to the ills of public education. 

It names an “Agency” to be created within the OK Department of Treasury and allows for private contracting of services (see Page 3 and Page 10). The “Agency”, remember that’s the Department of Treasury, will be in charge of creating and approving applicants and setting standards for educational vendors and determining qualified expenses for parents. 

Not the OK State Department of Education, not the parents (their choice is limited to the approved vendors list), but the Treasury Department (or the contractor they hire). 

You don’t ‘cure’ public education simply by re-assigning it to a new bureaucracy.

In fact, the only mention of the Department of Education comes on Page 8; their part is to report the cost per student enrolled in the OEA program to the Treasury Department. If the Department of Education can’t provide quality education via public schools, charter schools, and virtual schools, why would the Department of Treasury do any better at picking curriculum, programs, and schools to be participants in the OEA scheme?

The OEA is being labeled as an alternative to failed pubic education and promises on Page 15 that the program will not to expand the regulatory authority of the state beyond the means necessary to enforce requirements in the act. Geez, I wonder if it will be as limited and narrow as the US Congress’ use of the necessary and proper clause. From the text of SB 1647, there’s actually much expansion of the regulatory authority of the state already planned.

First, there’s a prohibition on “educational services providers” from sharing empowerment funds with parents (see Page 9). So parents can use funds to pay for a math tutor, but not themselves if they are teaching their children math? Each school and family that participates in the program will be subject to an audit. 

Next, the state will approve educational service providers (see Page 9-10), so will homeschool families that want to participate have to be approved? What are the standards and when will those be available for review? What is the process to challenge rulings? 

Finally, there will be random annual audits of 10% of OEA accounts, with cases of suspected fraud being referred to the Attorney General (see Page 11-12).

What protections are there for small private schools and parents from bureaucrats, armed with the power to audit and intimidate? What’s the oversight on the audits? And that’s just the “necessary to enforce” regulation authority that’s been disclosed, can you imagine how much more this program will grow government?

Supporters of this bill have made the outlandish claim that this government program actual protects private education and homeschooling. According to these “experts,” government intervention will increase the rights and freedoms of private businesses and individuals. It’s inconceivable, but if it wasn’t for this illogical headline I may have missed this conversation altogether. 

I’ve homeschooled in several states, most of which have illiberal requirements. 

For example, in Virginia homeschooling families must notify the state of their intent to homeschool. I had to verbally notify the school and filed a letter with the school district of my intent to homeschool my children. 

In South Carolina homeschooling families are required to join associations that certify academic progress is being made to the state. I don’t know the history of these states’ homeschool laws, but I do know only Oklahoma has the constitutional right to homeschool. It is a major reason we choose to live in Oklahoma. 

If 2020 has taught me anything, it’s to fight for what I believe in and never trust politicians who push radical agendas through invented emergencies.

Here’s the link to SB 1647 Oklahoma Empowerment Act . I encourage you to read it for yourself and tell your legislator to oppose this government power grab and FIX the publicly funded education system that already exists!

Bio, Emily Hladik:

I am a homeschool mom, creator of www.GreatAmericanStudies.com, and co-founder of Enid Freedom Fighters. I have a M.Ed., have been an adjunct instructor of history and political science, and married to my U.S. Marine (Ret.) husband for over 20 years.

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The Problems With “School Choice”

Every legislative session in Oklahoma, the topic of “School Choice” rears its head. People become “School Choice” advocates because they believe the concept will put parents back in the driver’s seat for their children’s education. But what does the term “School Choice” actually mean?

EdChoice, an organization that has been touting “School Choice” for many years, provides this definition: 

School choice allows public education funds to follow students to the schools or services that best fit their needs —whether that’s to a public school, private school, charter school, home school or any other learning environment families choose.

This makes sense to me. School Choice has to be about MONEY. It can’t be about a choice of schools, because Oklahoma has a near smorgasbord of choices to provide parents for schooling their children. Let’s look at them:

  • Here in Oklahoma, our Constitution makes it clear that parents have the absolute right to direct the education of their children through homeschooling. Homeschooling is an educational choice.
  • Oklahoma has 1784 public schools. Last session (2021) SB783 was passed. This law allows parents to be able to transfer their child/children among public schools instead of them being assigned to a school according to their zip code. Transfer amounts to a choice.
  • Here in Oklahoma, we have a thriving private school network of 96 schools. Parents who are able and would like to do so, may CHOOSE to send their child/children to a private school. 
  • Oklahoma also has a thriving Charter school network – some brick and mortar – and others virtual. Parents can choose whether or not to send their child/children to either type of charter school.

So, it seems it would be hard to be an Oklahoma parent who then argues you don’t have much of a choice as to where you sent your child to school. Yes, not all parents can afford to homeschool or put their child/children in private school, yet that doesn’t negate these as valid choices and many parents work hard to scrimp and save in order to keep their children home or send them to a private school.

Fortunately, Oklahoma has a HUGE NUMBER OF SCHOOL CHOICES available to parents, so why do we continually talk about “School Choice”?

Returning to EdChoice’s definition, because legislators feel that parents should be able to send their children to ANY school they want, something that can only happen if tax dollars are appropriated to people who can’t afford to send their child/children to private school or keep them home for homeschool.

Herein lies the problem. Once money leaves the hand of a citizen as a tax, it becomes property of the government who receives the tax. Now, it’s the government’s job to make sure that tax dollar is accounted for transparently. 

Let’s say that Oklahoma gives parents part or all of the money it would have spent to educate their child and says, “Here, you can use this any way you’d like to educate your child.”

The thrilled parents then take that money to a private school and enroll their child. Unfortunately, the private school that receives the funds is now accountable to the state to make sure that money is spent properly. 

In order to do that, the state now has the ability to ask the private school to perform certain tasks to assure them of the way in which that money is spent and suddenly, the private school now has strings from State government it never had before. How many strings can a private school have to the government for state money before it’s no longer really a private school? At what point does the State government get to tell the private school what kind of curricula they may offer, or regulate the type of teachers they want to hire because, well, accountability of taxpayer funds?

Unfortunately, there’s more. Oklahoma has never fully repealed Blaine Amendment language from our Constitution. The Blain Amendment is a failed federal law created in the late 1800’s proposed to ostensibly prevent Catholic schools by denying them access to public funds. Though the federal law failed, many states added similar language to their Constitution, as did Oklahoma.

It would be an extremely difficult task to take funds designated as public, give them to parents and allow them to finance a child’s private school education – especially at a private religious school.

We’ve all seen the mess that has been created by Epic Charter School’s administrative arm – Epic Youth Services. If state funds are given to parents to use for expenses related to the homeschooling of their children, how could the state not expect parents to account for every dime of state money provided them? They certainly would have every right to do so, yet now a homeschooling parent could find themselves in the unenviable situation of having to report to the state on behalf of their homeschool. 

What if the state doesn’t ‘like’ a type of curricula a parent chooses, or the type of activity a child prefers? What happens to the autonomy of the homeschooling parent in that case?

Granted, it seems like a stretch – and legislators would be sure to say that would never happen – but who in the world would have ever thought that in the last two years the government would force people to wear masks, take vaccines and shut down businesses? Hopefully, if we’ve learned anything else from the pandemic, we’ve learned that governments are less about individual rights and more about power and control.

And what about taking public money and giving it to parents to allow their children to homeschool or attend private school? What about the families who scrimp and save to provide these options for their children? Isn’t that the state creating an equity program?

TRULY, THERE SEEMS TO BE NO WAY FOR THE STATE TO ALLOW PARENTS TO HAVE STATE MONEY TO FINANCE THEIR CHILD’S EDUCATION. The only way to do anything of the sort is some form of TAX CREDIT:

1. Allow parents to keep the money they WOULD HAVE given to the state in taxes for public education. This way, the money is only ever the parents – it never becomes the property of state government. Parents can use that money to help finance a private education, or homeschool their child/children.

2. Allow parents who are unable to finance their child’s private or homeschool to apply for ‘scholarship’ funds placed into an account by people who want to donate to the scholarship. Oklahoma already has the Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship, that can simply be broadened.

3. Parents should begin planning for their child’s education early on and make after-tax deposits into the State 529 Plan.  Though ostensibly a college savings program, funds may be deducted to pay for homeschool or private school expenses as well.

Unfortunately, like with so many things, there is no free lunch in education. It’s important to understand the issues surrounding “School Choice” and not merely carry the flag of “School Choice”.  Private schools do not need any further state regulation and homeschoolers want absolutely no interference from government in their schools. Let’s be VERY CAREFUL then, when we discuss the term “School Choice” and keep government sequestered in its own lane.

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Running List of Curricula, Courses, Online Resources and Books to Help Your Family’s Educational Journey

parents and kid

I’m beginning this list January 18 of 2016. I hope to add to it every time I find a resource that I believe would be helpful to Christian parents, so bookmark the page and keep looking back! If you have any great ideas, post them in the comments section and I’ll add!

CURRICULA

Learn Our History: Positive, Patriotic, And Unbiased History; Learn Our History is US history for kids at its very best!  Each exciting animated history film features a group of time-traveling history students who go back in time to see US history in the making.

COURSES

Homeschool Programming: Computer Programming Courses for Kids and Teens; Your students can learn to create their own websites, games, and smart-phone apps with our self-study curriculum.

ONLINE EDUCATION RESOURCES

Classical Conversations: Online resources, books and helpful information to anyone looking to homeschool or enhance their child’s public education.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Religious Freedom Day – A Guide For Commemorating Religious Freedom At School;  This guidebook is intended to help all Americans join the President in celebrating Religious Freedom Day as well as to clarify students’ religious liberties.

BOOKS

How Should We Then Live: In this brilliant book Francis A. Schaeffer analyzed the reasons for modern society’s state of affairs and presented the only viable alternative: living by the Christian ethic, acceptance of God’s revelation, and total affirmation of the Bible’s morals, values, and meaning.

The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education:  In this book, Leigh Bortins gives parents the tools and methodology to implement a rigorous, thorough, and broad curriculum based on the classical model.

America’s Schools, The Battleground for Freedom: America’s Schools will inform, alarm, and provoke you to action for education that promotes scholarship and freedom.

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Resources for Parents to Use to Begin Educating Their Children At Home

Though the vast majority of parents want the very best education possible for their children, few parents consider schooling their children at home for various reasons.

Some don’t believe they have the education necessary to educate their own children and that the experts in education are to be found in schools. Others work outside the home and believe they are unable to devote enough time to properly educating their children on their own. Often, those that are interested in homeschooling their children simply don’t know how to access resources necessary to begin.

Believe it or not, not only are there working parents and single parents who homeschool their children, but parents are much more ‘expert’ at raising and schooling their children than someone in a school that sees them only a portion of a day. Here are some ideas and resources to get any parent considering schooling their kids at home, on the way to a successful homeschool experience.

GENERAL OKLAHOMA HOMESCHOOL RULE 

Any parent may homeschool their child in Oklahoma simply by withdrawing them from school. It is best that you send your school a letter informing them you intend to remove your child/children in order they not be counted truant, and because it provides a record for your files in the event your homeschool would be challenged. Oklahoma does not require lesson plans, tests, or any other form of accountability from homeschooling parents, leaving parents free to educate their children in any way that works for them.

School Choice Options

EDUCATIONAL CHOICE OPTIONS IN OKLAHOMA (graphic copied from OCHEC.com)

Please note in the graphic above, that online schools such as K12.com, administered by the State Department of Education, though utilized by students at home, are NOT considered homeschooling. While these programs work for many, many families because they allow a child to work at their own pace, these programs are an extension of public schooling.

There are online private schools such as A BEKA Academy – , Freedom Project Education  (other private K12 online schools can be found here) that provide students the ability to log on and take virtual classes as desired by the parent.

OKLAHOMA ORGANIZATIONS DEDICATED TO ASSISTING HOMESCHOOLING PARENTS

Oklahoma Christian Home Educators’ Consociation (OCHEC) –  – has links to resources, support groups and answers to many questions frequently asked by parents interested in beginning the homeschool journey. They also have a Facebook page as well.

Oklahoma Homeschool provides curricula ideas and other information – . They are also on Facebook.

Our State Department of Education has homeschool resources at this link.

Home Schooling in Oklahoma covers a vast number of topics on everything from homeschooling as a single parent to methods for homeschooling and teaching aids.

The Homeschooling Mom is another great site for boundless information.

NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS DEDICATED TO ASSISTING HOMESCHOOLING PARENTS

There are many national organizations dedicated to homeschooling, but probably the best known organization with the widest reach is Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). HSLDA provides curriculum resources and legal advice in the event your homeschool or parenting would be challenged.

ORGANIZATIONS/COMPANIES THAT PROVIDE FULL HOMESCHOOL CURRICULA PACKAGES

Several organizations/companies provide full homeschool curricula packages. These allow parents to follow a predetermined course of study for any or all subjects instead of creating themselves. These are excellent choices for parents timid about homeschooling or who have limited time to devote to the process.

o Sonlight Christian Homeschool Curriculum
o A Beka Book
o Classical Conversations

Believe it or not, homeschooling in Oklahoma is accessible to nearly every family that wants it badly enough to make it work. Though this is by no means an exhaustive list, if you are interested in homeschooling your child, please visit any of the resources provided here and start researching your path TODAY!

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