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Neither The Oklahoma State Department of Education DEI Rules Or Gov Stitt’s Executive Order Will Stop DEI In Oklahoma Education – Here’s Why

Jenni White – 1.25.24

GOVERNOR STITT’S EXECUTIVE ORDER (EO-31) FOR DEI IN OKLAHOMA HIGHER EDUCATION

December 13, 2023, Governor Stitt signed an Executive Order 2023-31 (EO) that has been referred to as BANNING DEI by the general media. Heritage Foundation (a center-right think tank that also promotes School Choice, but was loudly vocal against Common Core) referred to the Executive Order as “condemning DEI” – a big difference from “banning DEI”.

EO-31 DOES prohibit Oklahoma’s Executive Branches from using “state funds, property or resources” to promote DEI via any of 6 different ways listed, including “(2) Mandate any person to participate in, listen to, or receive any education, training, activities procedures or programming to the extent such education, training, activity or procedure grants preferences based on one person’s particular race, color, sex, ethnicity, or national origin over another’s”. 

It also orders the heads of the Executive Branches to “initiate a review” of any DEI programs or activities under their purview and bring them into compliance with the parameters of EO-31 if not already. 

Here is a listing of Oklahoma’s Executive Branches:

  • Attorney General
  • Governor
  • Lieutenant Governor
  • Oklahoma Secretary of State
  • Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector
  • Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction
  • Oklahoma Treasurer
  • Oklahoma Agriculture Commission
  • Oklahoma Insurance Commission
  • Oklahoma Labor Commission
  • Oklahoma Corporation Commission
  • Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission

To be clear, according to EO-31, I can’t be hired by the Insurance Commission and have them give me training out of their budget that includes a DEI component. That is good and I do not want to overlook the GOOD part of this EO.

Now, though, let’s look further down in the Executive Order and note that the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education is NOT an Executive Agency. EO-31 is clear in the first statement of the EO, “Executive state agencies shall not utilize state funds, property or resources to:”. It says NOTHING about anything outside the agencies listed above.

Thinking in that vein, note the underlined in red below:

Let’s stop here. This paragraph says that EO-31 will not apply to COLLEGES and UNIVERSITIES or any of the executive agencies SUPPORTING them – INCLUDING THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION – if they apply for a GRANT or to comply with ACCREDITATION requirements. Unfortunately, GRANTS and ACCREDITATION are where so much of the DEI in higher education arises. If you don’t believe me, internet search “DEI in higher ed accreditation” and you will find article after article about how, the only way to really advance DEI principles in higher education is THROUGH ACCREDITATION. 

Here, in fact is an article from the Chronicle Of Higher Education titled, “The New Accountability: How Accreditors Are Measuring colleges’ diversity, equity and inclusion efforts“.

So what about grants? Well, we ALL know Higher Ed takes federal government grant money. Check this out:

And that’s just FEDERAL grants. There are other grants from non-Federal sources in abundance, like this group. 

Now let’s look even FARTHER down in EO-31. It says:

Alright. Let’s think about that. The order says the EO DOESN’T apply if a federal law supersedes. Here’s a Fact Sheet from the Feds that talks about how Title VI law CAN PROMOTE DEI. And not only that, President Biden also has his OWN EO mandating DEI in schools, so NO, EO-31 STILL DOESN’T STOP DEI in higher ed. 

We could go on, but EO-31 won’t stop higher ed DEI scholarly research either and a friend just sent this to me. Not only will EO-31 not stop, creepy research, it won’t stop “a student organization registered with or recognized by an institution of higher education”. This research is in conjunction with the BGLTQ+ Student Center and we all now know that the alphabet sex brigade and DEI go together like furries and cat boxes.

RYAN WALTERS PROPOSED DEI RULE FOR K-12 SCHOOLS

Here is the set of rules proposed by Walters to be heard by the Board on Friday, February 16th. 

The rules for K-12 actually do more than those for higher ed, but they still do not stop DEI.

Walters’ rules FOLLOW THE GOVERNOR’S EO-31 EXACTLY (with the exception of the removal of #2 and #3 under letter (f) of the Governor’s EO that apply only to higher ed). In point of fact, they would have to, as the OSDE is an Executive Branch and it must follow the Governor’s EO-31. 

But herein lies a bit of a problem.

Accreditation of Oklahoma public schools are done by the OSDE using their accreditation standards. So, as long as those standards don’t allow DEI, that window is closed – unlike with higher ed and Oklahoma private schools which can be accredited by the OSDE, or a myriad of other accrediting agencies.

Unfortunately, however, we still have the issue with GRANTS.

Here, Edmond Public Schools Foundation is thanking those donors who are helping to raise OVER ONE MILLION DOLLARS for SEL programs inside Edmond schools. Unfortunately, SEL is intricately tied to DEI in a million ways and any grant that comes into a school for SEL will ultimately bring in DEI as well. George Lucas’ educational non-profit Edutopia, has a whole page devoted to ways in which k-12 schools can obtain grants to push out SEL. 

Also unfortunately, we still have the problem with FEDERAL LAW being exempted as well as student organizations, with both of those issues similar in K-12 to my discussion on higher ed.

An article from OETA entitled, “D.E.I. In Oklahoma Schools“, quoted OCU’s DEI coordinator as saying:

Yet LGBTQ clubs such as this one from EPIC Charter Schools, is exempted from the new DEI rule because it’s a student organization recognized by the school.

To close out, since data collection is ALSO exempted, DEI also can come in through THAT door. I’ve written numerous times about how horrible some of the surveys being given by Oklahoma public schools are today. Here’s an article about Success Highways and its link to DEI. Here’s another about the Oklahoma Prevention Needs Survey.

And worse, here’s an exchange I had with a teacher on social media that shows that it’s often teacher training and teacher mindset that bring DEI ideals into the classroom on a daily basis without even needing a private or federal grant, or anything else.

Additionally, Oklahoma uses school counselors from the American School Counselor Association an organization DEDICATED to bringing DEI into every school and with every child. So there’s that.

Consequently, since we still have DEI coming into schools through data, teachers and counselors, whether or not Walters’ new rule on DEI is passed by the Oklahoma State School Board members or not

the bottom line here is this: BOTH THE HIGHER ED EO and the K-12 RULES ARE BETTER THAN WHAT WE HAD BEFORE – WHICH WAS NOTHING – but it’s important to remember that NEITHER STOP DEI. Really, the surest way to keep your child from being influenced by DEI ideology is to:

  1. Educate your child/children at home – not even private schools are ‘sure things’ in terms of rational, classical, non-ideological education anymore
  2. Monitor your child’s social media and internet access closely and lock down problem apps and sites
  3. Talk to your children constantly about your moral values and ethics – your worldview
  4. Make sure you’re clear with your children about what you as a parent – or guardian – expect from them in terms of their behavior
  5. Prevent as much government entanglement as possible, including the use of tax credits or vouchers for private school as these have strings that can bring unwanted influences in through the regulation
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Oklahoma Private Schools To Answer To The Feds? New OSDE Rules Appear To Say Just That.

Jenni White

Today I’ve been going through the NUMEROUS new rules that have been uploaded to the Oklahoma State Department of Education website in the last week. 

Midway down the page I found this:

Subchapter 17.  Federal Programs complaint procedures
210:10-17-1. Complaint Procedures [AMENDED]

Text of proposed rule
Rule Impact Statement

This is HUGE. 

You can click on the link above to bring up the changes to the rule. Remember, that rules are like legislation. Sentences that have been stricken with a line through them are going away and new sentences being added to the rule are underlined.

Note that most of the rule changes here appear to be simple ones made to the procedure for filing a complaint based on the Federal Title (rule) structure.  Our OSDE accepts federal funds for things like Title 1 programming that allows children to be fed at school on the public tax dollar – and much more.  I’ve written much about federal education law and how it takes away local control from parents on many fronts, one only has to search our previous blog linked in the right sidebar. 

If a public school parent believes their child is not getting services required by federal funding – such as that required for disabled children – they can file a complaint with the state and with the federal government. This rule above was originally written to make provisions for how to file such complaints.

What is HUGE is this: Under (b) covered programs, all the existing categories are revoked and new ones placed.  NEVER was this listed under covered programs previously, making it an entirely new category – (12) Part F, section 7881 of Title VIII (Participation by Private School Children and Teachers). 

WHAT?  Haven’t we heard Superintendent Walters say numerous times that he wanted to get away from taking federal funds?  In fact, in November of last year, here he is saying that he wouldn’t take federal funds that run counter to “Oklahoma values”. 

So, is it an Oklahoma value for an Oklahoma PRIVATE SCHOOL TO ANSWER TO THE FEDS?

What’s going on?  According to this rule, the OSDE must plan to take and disperse federal funds to private schools.  Why would there be a specific rule added so that private school-associated families can complain about private schools not following federal dictates if that weren’t the case? 

Unfortunately, this could make sense considering the Oklahoma Parental Tax Credit, because state tax dollars are going to pay tuition at private schools.  It’s NOT taxpayers getting their money back (in the vast majority of cases) these are public dollars going to enroll Oklahoma (hopefully) kids in private schools. 

Consequently, if public money is going to the private school, the private school would then fall under Federal education Title jurisdiction like a public school – especially if they choose to ask the OSDE to provide them federal funds.

And what’s great about Private schools getting public funds?  Here’s a screenshot from the Federal Department of Education Title regulations page.

So, while Ryan Walters wants to change OSDE rules to make sure prayer is acceptable in public schools, he apparently also accepts the plan to provide private schools with federal dollars, making them secular, neutral and nonideological in the process. So what is the point of having private (religious) schools then? 

I hope we will hear from the OSDE and Secretary Walters on this issue and somehow I will be proven completely wrong.  Until then, however, I think Oklahomans can only see this as an assault on the independence of our Private schools being allowed by our state through our Oklahoma State Department of Education.

FYI: A public hearing will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, in Room 1-20 (State Board Room) at the Oliver Hodge Building, 2500 North Lincoln Boulevard, in Oklahoma City for the following rules. Also, you can write rules@sde.ok.gov to let them know what you think of the rule.

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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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Once Again, OK Educrats Pull Students Into Their Activism – This Time Trying To Impeach Our State Superintendent

Heavy sigh…The liberal education establishment – Educrats as we like to call them – have once again scored an indoctrination goal.

Yes, this is from the Impeach Walters website. No, it’s not unprecedented for Educrats to pull in students for their little crybaby, bullying activities – see this post from a parent in Edmond during the 2018 teacher strike – or try on this news story from that same year for size:

In fact, teachers and the Oklahoma Commerce department alike LOVE indoctrinating children through what they call “Action Civics” brought to you by a non-profit called “Generation Citizen” whose motto is “Empowering Youth in Our Democracy Through Project-Based Civics” – doesn’t sound super Communist, does it? Okay, maybe a LOT. And guess what? Generation Citizen is funded by all the Lefty Liberals that like to spend money fighting conservatives.

They’re having an event in Oklahoma in December. I wonder how many lawmakers know about this?

But I digress. Back to the topic at hand. The crybaby bullies have established a website I won’t link here because I don’t want it to get traffic, but they have a logo very much like a logo a Conservative would design; an intact family with two American flags and the word “liberty”. In fact, the group that has created the website calls itself, “Families 4 Liberty”.

Here’s the kicker. THEY WON’T TELL YOU WHO IS BEHIND IT! They’ve been asked questions about their genesis because no self-respecting lefty Educrat wants to participate in something a Conservative would put together and the logo has been throwing them off, yet no answer is forthcoming. Their “about” page – instead of indicating that they have some transparency and guts by naming anyone involved – have inserted the portion of the movie “Spartacus” where everyone stands to say they’re Spartacus so Spartacus is not immediately drug out of the group and crucified.

Again, this seems to be a very bizarre attempt at humor, because the person involved with the largest group of Educrats – Oklahoma Edvocates – is Jami Cole who pushes switching voter registration for elections and demonizing (crucifying?) Christians.

I’m not allowed to know TOO much about what’s going on in the @okedvocates world because – like many Conservative Twitter (X) users – I’m blocked from seeing her content and can only search what she might be saying in another public forum.

Well, I’ll cry over that later, but right now, I want to point to one more thing on the Impeach Walters site I find seriously funny.

Here’s a helpful list of the mechanics behind impeachment. But let’s just look at the parameters of impeachment itself:

  1. Willful neglect of duty. ROPE doesn’t agree with everything Walters does, but he has been out doing his job faithfully whether you like what he’s doing or not. So, you’re out of luck there.
  2. Corruption in office. Walters will have to answer for the way Oklahoma’s COVID education funds were spent. There is an ongoing investigation, but I’m not sure it will rise to the level of corruption. We will see. I’m sure that sending out emails to gin up support for spending more taxpayer dollars on education through taxpayer email systems and colluding with an election PAC aren’t at all forms of corruption. Again, pot calling kettle black.
  3. Habitual drunkenness. Not Walters – though there have been numerous Oklahoma legislators meeting that metric in the last several years.
  4. Incompetency. I’ve not seen that yet and that’s a pretty hard bar to prove. As far as I’m concerned, the fact that Oklahoma teachers can’t educate students beyond 30% proficiency in math and English is incompetency, yet the legislators keep stealing from taxpayers to give them more money every year to do worse, so good luck with that category.
  5. Moral turpitude. Anyone know what that is? What teachers get in trouble for frequently. Like the picture at the top of the page. This category would actually surprise me from Walters, but again, it just seems too, well, hypocritical for a group of teachers to throw this one out when so many of them are having sex with their own students at the capitol, or in the band room, or their apartments.

The bottom line here is this: If Walters has done something impeachable, charges must be brought and answered. Until that happens, this is crybaby nonsense from people butthurt about the fact that they are getting slammed for the HORRIBLE jobs they are doing educating Oklahoma kids on the taxpayer dime and they DEFINITELY shouldn’t be bringing STUDENTS into their plans!

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Ryan Walters’ Video Shows Parents The Truth About The Education Establishment, Which Makes Them Mad – And That Makes Us Happy

To be clear, ROPE has not agreed with Ryan Walters on the concept of “School Choice” at all in any way – and this is a big thing because it limits the power of parents to care for and educate their children. HOWEVER, we agree with him on just about everything else he’s waded into in a big way. Especially his absolute fearlessness in calling out LEFTY teachers/administration/unions wherever they are.

For years, as ROPE attempted to STOP Common Core, or help create non-Common Core educational standards or complained about teacher walkouts – we’ve been absolutely ASSAULTED and DEMONIZED on social media by the Leftist teaching cabal in Oklahoma which is alive and well and going by the hashtag #oklaed. This hashtag encompasses many groups, but a few are Oklahoma Edvocates, Oklahomans for Public Education, Oklahoma State School Boards Association, OEA and Pastors For Oklahoma Kids. I’m not giving any links here, but all you need to do is get on Twitter and follow that hashtag to see the people who run education in Oklahoma and what they’re all about. They don’t suffer fools – and that category encompasses ANY Republican (other than Democrats in Republican suits), ROPE and Ryan Walters specifically.

#oklaed are not for parents, they are for schools. They are not for transparency, they are for money. They are not for equality, they are for power. They are everything we need to extricate from Oklahoma educational facilities – partisan, tone-deaf, angry, name-calling, social justice warriors who hide behind the “but it’s for children” mantra as a way to push their lefty agendas.

In fact, Jami Cole – the Duncan 5th grade teacher who runs the Oklahoma Edvocates organization – has blocked our ROPE account on Twitter. Why? Who knows for sure, but I re-tweeted an ‘incendiary’ tweet in which she says that people who push vouchers are Christian Nationalists. Okay, well, ROPE hates vouchers, but we ARE a group of Christian men and women and leftists have coined the term “Christian Nationalist” as a way to shush Christians – much like they coined the term “insurrectionist” to shut down Trump supporters – so I see that as a problem.

But it’s not just that. Cole goes on to tell voters to switch parties in order to vote for Hoffmeister and Nelson for Governor and State Superintendent. Fascinating. Why she didn’t want me to retweet the idea she clearly seems proud of – who knows?

Jump to yesterday, May 25th. The Oklahoman – in an article which lists no author – published, “Ryan Walters launches ‘incendiary’ video denouncing teachers unions“. Inside the article – which is only available for subscribers – is the video they label ‘incendiary’. It’s on the front page of the OSDE website too – though the Oklahoman article says it was uploaded to YouTube and then taken down – implying someone didn’t want it up.

The video uploaded with the Oklahoman story includes interviews with both Jami Cole (wearing her Oklahoma Edvocates shirt) and Erika Wright (founder of another Oklahoma left-of-center organization called the Rural Schools Coalition). Erika Wright is apparently familiar with the definition of ‘incendiary’ as her quote for the story was that the video would, “get teachers killed” and that Walters “needs to be impeached”.

Teacher’s unions are not for kids – they’re for teachers and social change. If you use a search engine OTHER than Google, you could simply search “NEA” and find out stuff that would make the eyes of most parents bleed.

THAT’S why #oklaed is so angry about this video – IT SHOWS HOW OUT OF TOUCH WITH AMERICAN PARENTS, TEACHER’S UNIONS and their supporters – ARE.

It shows that there ARE pornographic books being pushed into public schools, it shows that teachers DO want to subvert parental rights when it comes to gender issues – in fact it shows unequivocally the obvious agenda to push gender issues on KIDS, period. That’s why the Oklahoman published it without ANY OTHER VOICES beyond those they wanted to hear commenting about the video.

George Keiser-supported Oklahoma Watch did the same thing with the Jennifer Palmer-penned “Superintendent Ryan Walters’ Video Escalates Attacks on Teacher Unions”

So here’s the deal – QUIT PAYING ATTENTION TO THE NEWS MEDIA. Watch the video for yourself. If you don’t believe what’s on the video, research the topics for yourself. Ryan is right here. Teacher’s unions are not the friend of parents or kids and in fact, I believe they actually seek to harm children in the long run because that’s what Marxists do – ruin families.

Also, while we’re at it, research your kid’s teachers. Find out who they are and what they could be telling your children when you are not around. Many are simply good people trying to do a job today that is ridiculously tough by any standard, many think they are doing the right thing by being their student’s friends and removing parents from the parental equation, some are simply predators and we know this from the constant news stories about teachers who have sexually preyed on their charges.

We do not live in your parents world. Wake up. Do your research. And for God sakes pray for our State Superintendent. He wears a heavy yoke standing against this dark agenda and for parents and kids.

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Five Reasons Republicans Should Not Support Vouchers

Though few may pay it the attention it’s due, the Republican Party has a Platform snapshotting a picture of the basic things Party members generally believe. Oklahoma has its own Platform created through a process that eventually ends in a vote of acceptance at their biennial convention. The Oklahoma County GOP has a very good one page summary of the OKGOP Platform here.

According to this OKGOP Platform, these are five reasons Republicans should NOT support ‘School Choice’ vouchers (please see “An Analysis Of Three Oklahoma Voucher Bills” for more information on what the bills say):

  1. Republicans believe in “limited government“. In fact, that is where the term “conservative” arises. We wish to ‘conserve’ the rights to the people by limiting government to the smallest footprint possible. Every universal voucher bill filed in the senate creates 6 to 7 sections of NEW LAW. In fact, they expand the Oklahoma Treasurer’s office by providing it not less than 20 new duties.
  2. Republicans believe in “personal, moral responsibility“. Taxpayers are forced to pay taxes to governments. If their taxes are not paid, the government will either take our property or our liberty (by throwing us in jail). Once the money leaves our hands, it’s not ours anymore. It is placed into one giant pot over which we have minimal control – through our legislators (taxation with representation) – as to how it’s spent. We can’t use government as a bank – our money isn’t earmarked as ours once it goes into the pot – all we can do is use the services our lawmakers choose to provide us for the money we must provide them from our budgets.
    • It is our personal, moral responsibility to raise and educate our children the way we believe is best.
    • It is the personal, moral responsibility of our elected lawmakers to do what is necessary to make government – including public schools – produce results and be accountable to the taxpayer whose dollars they appropriate.
    • It is the personal, moral responsibility of parents to move their lawmakers to force educational results (accountability) on our public schools, but it is also our personal, moral responsibility not to go to our lawmakers and demand more of our neighbor’s money so that we can put our children in schools we couldn’t otherwise afford without help. That is called welfare and/or socialism – definitely NOT a Republican ideal.
  3. Republicans believe in “individual liberty“. If the government gives a private school taxpayer dollars from the public coffers, taxpayers have the right to demand accountability for those dollars. This accountability can put boundaries on “individual liberty”. The Class Wallet debacle shows this to be true in spades.
    • In 2020, Oklahoma government officials – including now State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters – contracted with a PRIVATE organization called “Class Wallet” to disseminate over 17 million dollars in GEER funds (Governor’s Emergency Educational Relief). Parents who privately schooled their children were gifted $6500 for tuition to the tune of 10 million dollars total through the “Stay In School” program. Public school parents who needed help schooling their children online were gifted up to $1500 through the “Bridge The Gap” program.
    • Today, federal and state auditors are investigating over one half million dollars in GEER funds that were spent on things other than education, essentially defrauding the taxpayer. This same thing also happened in Arizona, through their private voucher program.
    • According to The Frontier, the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) is sending emails to identified users of the programs – for apparent accountability measures – asking, “What was the particular purpose surrounding your purchases during the pandemic?” And “were you homeschooling your children, or were they still in school?” ROPE has expressed continuous concern that homeschooling families taking government money would be assimilated by the government. The government gave away the money without guardrails – what good could it do to determine if families schooled at home or not?
    • Once the government begins to separate homeschooling families from private school families and online public school families from homeschooling families, Oklahoma’s previously undefined, but Constitutionally protected use of education “by other means” is in jeopardy of becoming regulated by the state, thus subverting the “individual liberty” of parents to school their children without state interference.
  4. Republicans believe in “state sovereignty“. Unfortunately, the Oklahoma legislature and public schools LOVE to get federal funding. In fact, according to this article from 2022, Oklahoma is 15th in the amount of federal funding we receive.
  5. Republicans believe in the “free market“. Public/private partnerships are not “free market”. Once the government – at any level – injects money into a private company/organization/school, the business to which the funds were given, now has an edge over the wholly-privately-owned businesses that weren’t able to, or didn’t, capitalize on on government handouts.
    • Nowhere is this better seen than the distribution of CARES Act monies. According to Forbes, private equity firms used federal funds to boost profits, crushing their competitors, the ‘little guys’ who weren’t able to capitalize on federal loans.
    • The “free market” describes a system of business free from government intervention, where businesses compete with each other so that the best companies prevail. Injecting public funds into a private school will create an imbalance in the private school system in which those taking state funding will grow and those that don’t, won’t. Sadly, the ones NOT taking public funds will do so to retain their autonomy, yet parents will slowly be denied access to an autonomous private school as the public-fund-sucking schools overpower their marketshare – leaving parents – AGAIN – with less choice than they had BEFORE government intervention.

Vouchers, like the Republican-pushed Common Core before it, are not based on Republican ideals and they will not work for Oklahoma families just like they haven’t in states like Arizona that have tried them.

As we’ve pointed out again and again, Oklahoma HAS SCHOOL CHOICE! We have a voucher program – the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship for children with disabilities. We have the Opportunity Scholarship Fund which uses donations to “help[s] low-income families bridge the financial gap between what they can afford and what is best suited for their student for specialized PreK-12 education”. According to the Oklahoma section of the “National School Choice Week” website, Oklahoma has approximately 60 charter schools, several magnate schools, over 200 private schools, six fully online public schools, Constitutionally protected homeschool, and “learning pods”. The idea that ‘vouchers’ are required to somehow provide parents with school choice, should make one wonder then – what exactly do the people pushing “school choice” legislation really want?

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ROPE Endorses Dr. John Cox for State Superintendent

Every election since 2010, ROPE has announced support for a State Superintendent candidate.  We believe this position to be of paramount importance in the direction of education in our state.  This year is no different.

Four Republican candidates are vying for the State Superintendent’s chair:  Bill Crozier, April Grace, Dr. John Cox and Secretary of Education Ryan Walters.  ROPE held a candidate forum at Randall University on May 9th.  Mr. Crozier was unable to attend and April Grace backed out of her original commitment to appear.

WHY ROPE DOES NOT SUPPORT DR. APRIL GRACE

April Grace, Superintendent of Shawnee Public Schools, is under fire for allowing an alleged sexual predator to stay on the SPS staff.  In addition, her ethics filings find that her campaign is supported by American Fidelity Corp PAC, CCOSA administration, Former State Board Member Leo Baxter and Mid-Del Superintendent Rick Cobb, to name a few.  These are EXTREMELY concerning. 

Let’s not forget that American Fidelity, CCOSA and others were accused of conspiring with current Superintendent Joy Hoffmeister on a dark money PAC for her initial election.  Baxter and other State School Board members sued to stop the repeal of Common Core and, during the Oklahoma Standards re-write, spent significant time online lobbing verbal fireballs at any of us who dared to review the standards negatively.  In fact, there was an entire group of educators – including Rick Cobb – who fought any criticism of the standards during the re-write.  Anyone supported by a group of people so dedicated to the status quo and so hateful to others, need not be elected to statewide office.

BILL CROZIER

Bill is a very nice man – and a very interesting person – but, unfortunately, ROPE did not see him as a viable candidate in this race.

OUR TOP TWO CANDIDATES – Secretary Walters and Dr. Cox – WHY WE ENDORSED DR. COX

The ROPE Board interviewed both Secretary Ryan Walters and Dr. John Cox  several weeks after our Superintendent Forum.  They were very kind to take time with us – Dr. Cox via internet and Secretary Walters in person.

From our interviews and Superintendent’s forum, it’s abundantly clear both candidates love kids and are committed to pushing back against the educational status quo that so often inhibits parents from educating their children the way they see fit, but there are some divisions. 

ROPE has numerous concerns about the expansion of a voucher system in our state and fought vigorously to defeat SB1647 (2022) – the bill creating a voucher system for private schools.  Dr. Cox does not agree with implementation of a voucher system in Oklahoma.  Secretary Walters does.    

Though we also agree with Secretary Walters on many policy issues, he does not yet have the experience Dr. Cox has accumulated.  As Superintendent of Pegs School district for 28 years, Dr. Cox understands the difficulties imposed on educators – and superintendents – by unwieldy and burdensome state laws and federal programming, many of which negatively impact parental rights.

Recently, Dr. Cox stood up for the innocence of his students by telling a health official he would only give the CDC’s incredibly invasive, Youth Risk Behavioral Survey if he could send it home for parents to read.  He never received a return phone call asking the survey be administered.

History also plays a part.  Many of our Board remember Dr. Cox standing in solidarity with us and parents against Common Core – one of very few Superintendents who did.  We have witnessed him standing with parents and expect him to continue to do so. 

We appreciate Secretary Walters very much for running and we hope – no matter who wins the State Superintendent Chair – to work with both candidates in whatever capacity they find themselves.

Jenni White, ROPE President

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