ROPE Report Short - '24 Legislation Shows OK Republican Legislators Aren't Conservative

Every year we go through this. The grassroots want just a few bills, but the bills that we want, aren't popular with Republican leadership and either don't get a hearing in Committee, or they PASS COMMITTEE but are KEPT OFF THE FLOOR for votes. The same thing is happening this session (2024) and the session ends, 3/14/24. Why do we not get laws - like moving School Board elections to November? Because (for the most part) our Republicans are not conservative and our Republican LEADERSHIP definitely IS NOT. Addendum: Apparently, the Ranked Choice Voting bill WAS heard on the floor and voted off to the Senate for week after next.

One Two Three, What Are We Voting For?

After spending nearly a decade heavily involved in politics, it's quite a departure for me to admit I can't name all the candidates running for Lt. Governor off the top of my head. I'll be honest...I'm not even sure I can name all 27 - or however many - gubernatorial candidates.

Sadly, I'm not dying about it. Why? I'm still plugged in enough to know who to go to for voting advice and I still READ. Yes, it's true! There are actually things you can READ to get information enough to make informed voting decisions!

Common Core Conservative Re-Tread? Smart Oklahomans Won't Buy It!

WOW! Welcome to the New Year in Oklahoma, where we find the liberal Oklahoma news media ringing in their year with a tired and somewhat expected re-tread of 'Common Core as pillar of Conservative doctrine' by reproducing a blog from a former Mitt Romney spokesman, "Common Core popular in many quarters" by the Daily Oklahoman!

Goodness! Does this article coincide with the Governor Fallin-appointed Steering Committee's commencement into the re-write of Oklahoma's educational standards, ostensibly away from Common Core? Well, interestingly, yes, yes it does. Has the calendar changed over to a new year, signifying that Oklahomans will now forget the happenings of last year - including the REPEAL of Common Core - as easily as they have forgotten the color socks they wore last Tuesday?

Sadly, I imagine this thought to be the reason the Common Core indoctrination/re-education machine has begun to spin again. 

Here, former "conservative" presidential candidate Mitt Romney's former spokesman, Shawn McCoy, articulates a theme only summarized by the statement, "Conservative friends, if  “fellow Conservatives" like Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney and John Kasich LOVE Common Core, then YOU should too!" 

Yes, McCoy isn't shy in his assertions; he comes right out and says he knows for a fact Common Core is loved by all "Conservatives" because it has NOT been an election issue. McCoy tells us, "…election results nationwide have proven Common Core's popularity". To back this theory up, we’re told that 'fellow' "Conservative", John Kasich, supports Common Core and he won his state's gubernatorial election by a landslide. He "even received 26 percent of the black vote". WHAT?

This statement makes my eyeballs bleed. At what point do you consider an essentially unchallenged election as a scored point for Common Core? Please note the very first line in this article from Human Events,

Ohio Gov. John Kasich trounced a disastrous Democrat for his November re-election win, but in 23 of 88 counties Kasich received fewer votes than he got in 2010.

Later in the article, we’re given even more information about this less-than-stellar win for Governor Kasich

An Oct. 1 Quinnipiac University poll found 25 percent of likely Democratic voters planned to pick Kasich over FitzGerald. Election results suggest Kasich won tens of thousands of Democrats who would have supported a credible Democrat challenger. Every down-ticket Democrat running for a statewide executive office received more votes than FitzGerald in almost every county.

So, honestly, the Democratic challenger was SO bad that “Fox News exit polling indicated 26 percent of self-identified liberals and 25 percent of Democrats voted for Kasich” and we’re to believe that Kasich won reelection not only because Common Core didn’t matter, but because it’s popular with “Conservatives”, leading to the unspoken thesis that all “Conservatives” support Common Core?

Man, I haven’t had a ton of logic in my studies, but I can assure you THIS notion amounts to a zero sum logic game.

While there’s no great exit polling on this race like Kasich’s, it might be instructive to look at “Conservative” Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin’s reelection bid.

In 2010, Mary Fallin ran for Governor against Democrat Jari Askins. Fallin received 625,506 votes (60.45%) against Askins - a strong Democratic candidate who left the post of Lt. Governor for her gubernatorial run.

In 2014, Fallin received 460,298 votes (55.8%) against an outgoing state Representative, Joe Dorman (338,239/41%), whose campaign began after a late announcement.

During her first term, Governor Fallin served as the Chairman for the National Governor’s Association – one of the progenitors of the Common Core – and made all of President Obama’s NCLB education ‘reforms’ the center of her education ‘reform’ initiatives. Why, would Governor Fallin lose 26% of the vote for her second term, if Common Core didn’t matter and conservatives supported this and other education ‘reform’ efforts?

Then there’s the case of former Oklahoma State Superintendent Janet Barresi, a Jeb Bush Foundation for Excellence in Education, Chief For Change, who supported all Governor Fallin’s initiatives. She lost her bid for reelection in the primary election where she came in third out of three, below a candidate that didn’t even mount a campaign.

I ascribe most of McCoy’s faulty logic to the idea that Romney, Kasich, Jeb Bush and Fallin are conservative. In fact, back in 2013, as former “Conservative” Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee came out in the Common Core camp, I wrote a blog about conservativism and what it means to be a conservative (I refer to the unrepresentative label as “Conservative”, I refer to the actual philosophy in lower case without quotes). I went on to contend that because Common Core is antithetical to the definition of Conservativism, there is no way conservatives can support Common Core.  

I know as long as Common Core lives ANYWHERE in the nation and as long as voters are not well enough educated on the principle of conservatism to understand they’re being played, this argument will arise again and again. We simply must educate others about what it means to be conservative if we’re to prevent Oklahoma from producing a Common Core re-tread that real conservatives don’t want and the state doesn’t need.

Janet Barresi Believes You're a Liberal If You Disagree With Her?

I watched the excellent video made of the 2nd District GOP meeting with Linda Murphy and Janet Barresi (Thank you for sharing Don Krumme). I came away with several thoughts, not the least of which is the meme:

1. So businesses are SCARED they can't find workers for their jobs and that is why we must push School to Work and Common Core? What happened to On The Job Training provided by the company? Did you know that even early engineers were trained OJT? But then, that would be expensive for the company. Wouldn't it be better for them if the state paid the cost of their OJT and they just got the 'trained' worker? Gosh, how can I get someone trained for free to start my farm?

2. At 54:00 into the video Dr. Barresi tells the crowd that "Governor Fallin is directing me" to work closely with Robert Sommers, Secretary of Education and THE WORKFORCE (hired in from Ohio after Phyllis Hudecki resigned - which is also when the job title was changed to add THE WORKFORCE) to make sure - in essence - Oklahoma's children are trained for jobs. So it's Governor Fallin - intent upon pushing her School To Work initiative for the National Governor's Association - a national organization that does not promote initiatives good for specific states but initiatives that expect to get states on COMMON ground. Is that what America is about? Common? I thought it was EXCEPTIONAL!

3. "Rigorous Standards will transform communities" Dr. Barresi says after speaking with great affection for US Grant High School in Oklahoma who has - according to her - made leaps and bounds of improvement. Of course we are ALL ecstatic when students and schools do well, but here's the question; how do we know they are doing well? The A-F grading system is SO flawed that there is really no way of knowing exactly what it means for schools to get either an A or an F. Not only that, but isn't it the job of the COMMUNITY to grade the schools and NOT the state?

4. Finally, ROPE is liberal? We disagree with Dr. Barresi vehemently. We're liberal? ROPE's board is populated with mothers who are all registered Republican voters. I can't count the number of people who have unfriended ROPE's Facebook page because of our level of CONSERVATISM. Is education about Republican or Democrat or is it about what's best for Oklahoma kids? Superintendent Barresi's seeming necessity to reduce all of Oklahoma education policy to the point of PARTISAN POLITICS shows me she really has little idea about the concept of education policy in any substantive form and has no business being elected for a second term.

Part 2 of the video has not yet been released. We look forward to hearing the kinds of questions Dr. Barresi entertains from this even - and her answers...

*I would like it understood that we do not intend this to be a personal attack on Joel Robison.  We have no disagreement with Joel as a person.  We merely intended to point out the inconsistencies in Dr. Barresi's statements versus her actions.

Are the Common Core Conservative? An Answer to Mike Huckabee's Common Core Support Letter

Maybe he mixed up Common Core with common sense?

The Okie Blaze asked me to pen a response to Mike Huckabee's Common Core support letter sent to Oklahoma legislators June 3, 2013.  I have permission to post it here as well.

Is Common Core Conservative?

An answer to Mike Huckabee’s letter to legislators, June 3, 2013.

Jenni White, President, Restore Oklahoma Public Education

July 24, 2013

First, let us define; What is a “Conservative”?

Readers may feel this to be a rhetorical question – something not unlike “What is the measure of a man?”  I assure you, it is not.

In fact, through countless political races I have heard, and on the pages of immeasurable numbers of articles of journalistic intent I have read, words to the effect of, “I am a Conservative.”  

Our Governor said it during her campaign.  Governor Fallin would have gone on to collect millions of dollars to implement a health care exchange here in Oklahoma on the way to a full blown implementation of ObamaCare – a notion thoroughly dispelled by vote of the people in 2012 – had she not been stopped in her tracks by angry citizens.

Our State Superintendent said it during her campaign.  Dr. Barresi – with help from the Governor – has gone on to accept, or apply for, one federal education grant after another to instill yet more controls over the way Oklahomans educate their children.

Though we can hardly say with a straight face that the Common Core State Standards, pushed endlessly, illegitimately, needlessly, deceitfully, by Dr. Baressi and Governor Fallin are federally promulgated, are they a Conservative notion?

What is Conservative?  The word has many different meanings, but the political meaning, as copied from the Merriam/Webster online dictionary is:

a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change; specifically : such a philosophy calling for lower taxes, limited government regulation of business and investing, a strong national defense, and individual financial responsibility for personal needs (as retirement income or health-care coverage)

I’d actually call that fair, as I self-identify as a Conservative.

What about Mike Huckabee?

Governor Huckabee penned a letter to Oklahoma’s “Conservative” legislators last month to,

“encourage you to resist any attempt to delay implementation of the improved standards adopted by your State Board of Education in 2010.”

In the first sentence, he self-identifies as a “Conservative, so let’s put Common Core to the “Conservative” test.

1.    Will it lower taxes: NO.  Schools all over Oklahoma have had (will have) to either raise money through school bonds or apply for ERate grants to be able to afford the upgrades to their broadband systems necessary to take the ‘next generation’ tests necessary to appropriately assess the behavior, thoughts and ideas of students related to Common Core.  Taxpayers pay for school bonds.  Citizens pay taxes on their cell phones to fund ERate.  In addition, the state education budget has increased by 74 million dollars (and even that’s still not enough) – does that grow on one of the trees on the Capitol Complex?  No, those are taxpayer derived funds.

2.    Will it limit government?  NO.  As noted by the increase in the education budget, the Department of Education grows, hiring 4.3 million dollars of REAC3H coaches to train teachers in the Common Core – oops, sorry, the Oklahoma Academic Standards – oops, sorry, the C3 standards…

3.    Will it strengthen individual responsibility?  NO.  Schools will soon fall under the A-F grading scale.  Right now, no teacher, administrator, or school janitor has any idea of the manner in which students will be tested on the Common Core standards next year, but we are quite sure state test scores will be rolled up into the A-F grade.  If a school gets a D or an F (according to our NCLB waiver document), the school can be taken over by the State Department of Education or one of its contractors.  So how can administrators maintain individual responsibility for their schools?  How can teachers? 

Governor Huckabee says a number of other things to which I take umbrage.

1.    “Many of you voted in favor of these standards in 2010.”

Strange, but many of the legislators we have spoken to over the years were either not in their legislative seat in 2010, or knew much – if anything – about the standards themselves (encompassing 1 paragraph in a 35 page bill) when the bill that codified the standards into law finally passed on the second try (SB2033 – 2010)

2.     “These standards, known as Common Core State Standards, have been near and dear to my heart since I served as Governor of your neighboring state of Arkansas.”  

Governor Huckabee was Arkansas’s governor from 1996-2007.  The Common Core weren’t even finished for review during the time he was in office.  Was he with Achieve?  How did he know about the Standards?  I thought they were ‘state led’.

3.    “And it’s disturbing to me there have been criticisms of these standards directed by other conservatives including the RNC.”

In other words, “Republicans should stick together and present a united front!  To heck with whether we’re wrong or right or following Conservative principals!”  That concept doesn’t work for me.  Many of us self-identifying, Oklahoma Conservatives still operate on the “right is right and wrong is wrong” principal not the “go along to get along” principal.  PS: he’s referring to the NATIONAL Republican Committee voting unanimously for a resolution against the Common Core.  Unanimously.

4.     “Speaking from one conservative to another”

Okay, that one’s easy.

5.    “I’ve heard the argument these standards “threaten local control” of what’s being taught in Oklahoma classrooms…and this just isn’t true.”

Wow, Governor, how do you come to that conclusion?  The standards impose what children are expected to “know and do” in each grade.  Yes, teachers may have latitude to determine how that is to be taught, however, all books and ancillary materials will be aligned to the Common Core.  In fact, in order to make a buck, many ‘education’ companies are creating curriculum packages so teachers can easily just pick one up and follow the dots.  Why would they do this?  REAC3H coaches have been providing spotty instruction in teaching to the Core all across Oklahoma.  You gotta teach to get a check and you gotta have the check to live.  One more thing…even states that adopted the standards completely, as did Oklahoma, have to abide by the 15% rule – we can’t add more than 15% to the standards – like cursive.  I guess I don’t follow where Common Core ‘local control’ is akin to the amount of local control present in the  previous PASS standards.

6.    “From an economic and workforce development perspective, these standards are critical. Innovation driving the successful companies in Oklahoma…These standards ensure Oklahoma remains competitive in the race to attract companies with the highest paying jobs for Oklahomans…”

Two questions in answer:  1. When did America begin educating their children for the workforce?  When did we educate children in America in order to fulfill an economic imperative?  The Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce wants little automatons that can be expected to churn out iPhone contracts like China?   2. When did INNOVATION spontaneously erupt from homogeneity?  How can one be ‘innovative’ and uniform at the same time?  Uniformity does NOT drive successful companies and innovation springs from choice and depth in education, not an “inch wide and a mile deep” standards (as opposed to the hated and disparaged “inch deep and a mile wide” standards of traditional elementary and mid high education).

7.    “Children of military families will not fall behind when their parents, who've chosen to defend our freedom, are asked to move from Fort Benning, Georgia to Fort Sill in Lawton or Vance Air force base in Enid.”

The Department of Defense has their own educational arm.  If they chose the Common Core path after consultation with military families, so be it.  That does not translate into a need for a set of national-level standards as military families make up a small overall percentage of most public schools.  Many military families also home school.  Why don’t we use homeschooling as our yardstick for a national education model?

In closing, the idea of a nationally uniform set of standards may seem righteous on first inspection.  Closer inspection finds it lacking on a number of fronts.  Please take the time to inspect the arguments for yourself.  Ask questions.  Seek answers.  Common Core isn’t “Conservative” nor is it appropriate for American students and the American way of life.

Attack of the 50-Foot History Teacher

 

I read the most fantastic, truly enlightening (in a, “I can’t believe they really just came fully out of the liberal closet” way) article recently, entitled, “Response: Ways To Deal With ‘History Myths’ In the Classroom" by an author named Larry Ferlazzo. 

After the first election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, I came to the sudden conclusion that America must be educating our youth improperly or incompletely in US History to have so many voters not know what a “Marxist” was and/or how to spot one.  Consequently, I began doing research in US History education in Oklahoma.  What I found startled me enough to co-found an organization (Restore Oklahoma Public Education) dedicated to exposing public education in our state.

“Response” has the dubious honor of containing nearly every category of leftist education drivel I have studied and/or cataloged over the last four years.  After reading this article, I thought it might be helpful to point out to readers a few of the ways it is disingenuous.  Over the years, I've seen many a parent/voter/taxpayer become simply mesmerized by all the rhetoric education 'experts' bloviate by the bucketfuls in order to finance and perpetuate their tree-hugging, Dewey-loving, social-justice-spreading dismantling of America.   People want the truth about education issues, but like deer in the headlights of a Mac truck, they can't figure out how to get past the loud, scary noise to find it.

Toward this end, I have highlighted some of the more astonishing passages from this article.  As you will note, the depths of self-delusion these people have plumbed to truly believe they are NOT perpetuating history myths themselves is quite fascinating.  In fact, that is the most laughable part of this whole, sad treatise.  “NO, do NOT perpetuate history myths”, the author says.  The only problem with their logic is that apparently the only myths present in the system are those stemming from a conservative (accurate/non-PC) viewpoint.  How do I know?  

Let’s deconstruct Mr. Bizarro’s, oops, I mean Ferlazzo’s article.  To do so, I will provide actual quotes from his writing followed by what I will call a MYTH BUSTER ALERT (MBA).  Hopefully, this will draw attention to the inconsistencies in Mr. Ferlazzo’s philosophies - or at least create a very stark outline of liberal (progressive) education ideals.

Mr. Ferlazzo begins innocently enough by asking the question, 

“What history myths are being perpetuated by textbooks that you attempt to break down/challenge in your classroom? How do you do that”

To answer, the writer steers his reader to some resources he insists can combat this phenomenon:

The Best Teacher Resource Sites For Social Justice Issues, The Best Resources For Teaching "What If?" History Lessons and History materials he uses in his IB (International Baccalaureate) “theory of knowledge” class.  

MBA:  The term Social Justice is a very liberal philosophy of teaching in which "educators may employ social justice instruction to promote unity on campus, as well as mitigate boundaries to the general curriculum. These boundaries often include race, class, ability, language, appearance, sexuality, and gender." Gosh and golly – no room for political views here!

MBA:  The IB curricula are written by UNESCO, the education arm of the UN.  ROPE has studied the IB curricula and it’s penchant for ‘educating for sustainable development’.  Yes, if you know what Agenda 21 is, then UNESCO’s your partner to get ‘er done!  Let the IB curriculum educate children on how to implement Agenda 21 in a city/county/state/country near you!  UNESCO will also help everyone everywhere implement the Common Core (which is both ‘core’ and ‘common’ and decidedly UnAmerican).

Mr. Ferlazzo goes on from there, to introduce three people that will tell you (the US History teacher) how to avoid bringing history myths into the classroom.   

The first one is Stephen Lazar.  Here is a brief CV afforded by the author,

Stephen Lazar, a National Board Certified Social Studies teacher, is co-founder of Harvest Collegiate High School in New York City where he teaches students Social Studies and English, is Assessment Coordinator, and Union Chapter Leader. Over the past two years, Lazar worked with Social Studies teachers across NYC and the nation to support to support inquiry-based instruction, project-based learning, and Common Core implementation. He is a member of the Teacher Leaders Network.

MBA:  Stephen Lazar is a Union Leader (who could forget the many colorful antics of the NEA whose reading list containing Saul Alinsky drew enough fire for them to remove from their site his “Rules For Radicals” as suggested reading) that promotes the Common Core and teaches at a high school employing the following philosophy, "Underlying all of our Habits is recognition of fundamental human dignity, expressed in the unwavering core values of Commitment to Peace, Commitment to Diversity and Commitment to Growth." Can you find anything but liberal buzz words in that definition?  In addition, this is an 'experiential' high school - in other words, very indicative of the John Dewey (Marxist/Socialist) teaching style responsible for much of the education ‘reform’ programs of today and the associated decline of public education.

Mr. Lazar gives himself away immediately:

When I became a teacher a decade ago, I entered the classroom equipped with James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me and Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States in the other. I was convinced that the largest problem with history education was the absence of certain stories or perspectives from our textbooks. I saw myself as a myth-buster, ready to challenge students' preconceived notions of Columbus as hero or John Brown as insane terrorist.

MBA:  Stephen Lazar actually has the unmitigated gal to turn us ALL toward Howard Zinn – a known Marxist - as a method for DISPENSING historical myth in the classroom.  Truly, this is laughable.  Get a load of this Cap Times (progressive) blog where the writer laments President Obama not invoking the name of Howard Zinn during his inauguration.  After all, the great One should recognize ‘real’ American history and be unafraid and unapologetic about delivering that to the American people.  Really.

Ferlazzo then goes on to a narrative about Rosa Parks, which as a Biology major, I’ll leave for debunking by some historical truth-teller to be named later.

Our next author to respond is ReLeah Cossett Lent.  We’re told she is an international literacy consultant and ASCD author of a book called, Overcoming Textbook Fatigue: 21st Century Tools to Revitalize Teaching and Learning:  Just the title of this book sounds exactly like every John Dewey notion in black and white – kids get bored listening to a teacher, kids need to be active doing projects in order to learn and we can’t really have them in a musty old textbook when they can learn so much from each other!  

MBA:  When I went to look up her book, I found it on the ASCD website.  ASCD stands for Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.  There is a chapter in every state and while Oklahoma’s chapter didn’t put up any obvious red flags, the ASCD full site sure did.  Again, we find here a very progressive (Dewey) education philosophy – ‘whole child’, 21^st Century Skills (very Dewey), ‘health and learning’(page 5).

Ms. Cossett Lent says, 

“Who can know all of the inaccuracies that history textbooks may contain? Experts in one historical area or another often are dismayed at the simplistic, sometimes misleading information presented in textbooks. Simple narratives that distill complex events into a nice story, lists of facts devoid of any emotional underpinning, or unintended bias resulting from the selection of, say, one photograph over another can skew readers' understanding of historical events, perhaps for a lifetime.“

Well goodness!  Who in the world would want kids studying lists of facts?  Facts are certainly politicized mythology, right?

Now, here comes my FAVORITE contributor to the article – Bill Bigelow!  Bill, as we find out from our author, is the curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools magazine.  He also co-directs the online Zinn Education Project, which provides free curriculum materials to help teachers "teach outside the textbook."

MBA:  Ok, I know, Zinn again.  But, here’s a tasty morsel…one of the articles our editor has put on the front page of the Rethinking Schools website is entitled, “Lessons in Social Justice Unionism – An Interview with Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis”.  Yes, absolutely, NO politics there and certainly, there can be ZERO mythology in a story with that title I feel certain.

Of course, his treatise is eye-poppingly progressive!  You really must go to the original article and read the entire thing – unless you’re a conservative with a heart condition and then, I just sincerely don’t recommend the read as it could be hazardous to your health.

Here are a couple of lines to illustrate my point:

And, as Bill McKibben pointed out recently in a remarkable article in Rolling Stone magazine, "Global Warming's Terrifying New Math," from a mathematical standpoint, it is demonstrably impossible to prevent the climate from spinning out of control with unimaginably horrible consequences, if we burn the fossil fuels, including coal, that energy corporations are in the process of exploiting and selling.

When it comes to teaching about what matters in the world, teachers should not rely on textbooks published by enormous corporations that profit from--and in many cases, create--our most dire environmental and social crises. We need to work together through our unions, professional associations, school communities, and activist organizations to build a curriculum of conscience, one that addresses the most significant challenges facing humanity. As June Jordan wrote in her "Poem for South African Women," "We are the ones we have been waiting for."

 Certainly, no mythology present in any of that.

 At the end of the article, Mr. Ferlazzo mentions that quite a few people left responses to his question on The Zinn Education Project's Facebook page.

He then includes a few:

Max Castillo:

That indigenous, Mesoamerican, aboriginal civilizations became civilized through the conquering and interactions with European civilizations. We need to teach our students to value our indigenous cultures and heritage as early as possible.

Dennis Shaffner:

Ask students to question the bias in any textbook: easy in art history if woman artists are omitted.

MBA:  Seriously?  That's too easy to waste the keystrokes.  If you can't see those for yourself, there is most probably no saving you from yourself.

Truly, this situation MUST be seen as THE integral problem with America today - history teachers teaching mythological history aligned fully and completely with their narcissistic, thoughtless worldviews completely ignorant of the history they suggest they know.  How else can you explain the slide of a once-great Republic into the entitlement abyss of socialism? And so I will end with two applicable quotes from Winston Churchill as food for thought - though I’m almost certain there are zero public school graduates under 30 who know who this is.  

Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.    

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.