Educational Cronyism - in Oklahoma?

Who's Really Responsible for 
Oklahoma's Educational Policies 
- Dr. Barresi or the 
Foundation for Educational Excellence? 

Last month, an article was written in the Washington Post by Valerie Strauss entitled, E-mails link Bush foundation, corporations and education officials. 

An organization called In The Public Interest, submitted Freedom of Information requests for emails between State Superintendents who are members of the Chiefs for Change and Jeb Bush's Foundation for Educational Excellence (FEE) out of Florida - the organization which developed and FUNDS the Chiefs.  Yes, I'm certain this was an effort for a liberal paper to grind their ax on conservatives and free enterprise and yes, ROPE has very little in common with the liberal perspective.  It is important to note, however, that there is a difference between 'free enterprise' and 'cronyism'.  NO taxpaying citizen should sit still for government by cronyism. 

Why do we bring this information to you?  Our state superintendent, Janet Barresi, is a Chief for Change.  Consequently, her emails were part of the FOI request.  This article and the associated emails make a clear and resounding case that our State Department of Education is being run by method of 'educational cronyism'.

There are a number of very interesting emails - some of them described here by this blogger - but all of them show how the run-of-the-mill voter/taxpayer has been cut out of educational policy in Oklahoma.

Unfortunately, the Governor's office is implicit in the described situation.  Here is an email in which Dr. Barresi is communicating directly with Katie Altschuler (a policy analyst in the Governor's office whom I have seen attend state education board meetings) about the key priorities of the C4C (parallel to Dr. Barresi's C3 initiative) policy produced by the Chiefs.  This indicates with little doubt that the Governor's interest also lies in creating education policy outside her state. 

Not only that, but please note the category on the C4C chart labeled, "Human Capital".  What?  We're now a Communist country where we turn school children into a proletariat - workers that represent only the capital their work can provide the ruling class and bourgeoisie?  Does that language not trouble anyone?  Frankly, this does fit into the current educational meme - that of Common Standards and leveling the playing field for every child.

Here is another email where Dr. Barresi's Assistant Superintendent Kari White is asking the Foundation for assistance in writing their NCLB Waiver (which ROPE and MANY others asked Dr. Barresi and Governor Fallin not to take - knowing the federal strings it would attach to Oklahoma).  She also mentions the C4C initiative (C3).

I could go continue obviously, but I needn't.  It is clear.  Dr. Barresi and Governor Fallin are quite apparently ushering federal control into Oklahoma schools through an organization working arm and arm with the Obama administration in order to capitalize on the federal level education reform being pushed through to states with money from the Stimulus.  Go figure.  We're being told these reforms - completely untested and NEVER studied by Oklahoma legislators like Senator Clark Jolley (also associated with this organization as noted in the story) who placed them into state law in order to get Race To the Top (stimulus) money, are necessary for education accountability, yet can't accountability be met at the local level by boards of education?

If you ever believed our State Superintendent and Governor had the best interests of Oklahoma school children in mind, I do hope you will read the story in the Post, the associated emails and other links provided here.  No, we will never know the hearts and minds of these elected officials and as such, can not ascribe motive, however, there is a large body of evidence now available that provides great insight into the impetus of their behaviors.

I will remind our readers here that ROPE approached Dr. Barresi a number of times early on in her tenure - after endorsing her for her post - with research we had completed on the Common Core.  We were summarily dismissed.  Sad isn't it?  Legitimate researcher/parents/taxpayers given ZERO time by either the Governor's office or the State Superintendent's office, because these elected officials prefer to get their marching orders from Jeb Bush?

If this information upsets you, ROPE URGES you to contact your legislator, your STATE school board member and your LOCAL school board member.  Let them know you do not appreciate the educational cronyism inherent in our state's educational system.  Let them know that Republicans stand for local control of education - not educational takeover of schools by the federal government through regulations to which we sign on in order to use programs developed by organizations in which the parties involved have some form of personal interest.

It is VERY important to seek out your STATE BOARD MEMBER.  It is interesting to ROPE that early on in her tenure, Dr. Barresi had the State Board members sign a 'contract' stating that they would not go against 'her' education 'reform' measures.  Why is this?  Because we would lose the NCLB Waiver Chiefs for Change helped her write.  So what?  Because inside the Waiver is the A-F grading system - again, which the FEE helped her write - that calls on State Superintendents to take over 'underperforming' schools.  Take school management away from a district?  Yes.  This is an excellent way for organizations benefiting from Race to the Top school 'reform' (such as FEE, Pearson and Achieve) to sell the state programs developed outside of the state to use on local schools.  How is this LOCAL?  How can this be good for Oklahoma children? 

It isn't, but it's great for private industry and makes perfect sense actually.  The business model goes something like this:  Will promote the current Presidential administration's educational policy through a non-profit entity dedicated to assisting state school superintendents in writing parallel educational policy and training them how to convince lawmakers to write this policy into state law, all while investing money in private sector companies that develop programs to be sold to the states to meet the educational programming needs generated by implementing state education policy law.  Wow.  Way to work out a revenue stream!  Too bad the fallout for all this happens to be local school boards and children.

Ohhh, but wait!  An organization inside Oklahoma is suggesting Oklahoma do away with local school boards entirely in order to make this transition to national education policy more seamless!  The Oklahoma Academy - a conglomeration of local elites/dignitaries (including Brian Bush of OCPA, Amy Ford of the State School Board, State Representatives Leslie Osborn and Scott Martin and former Representative Chris Benge) and the hand-picked 'regular' Oklahoman, have determined to "Abolish or Consolidate Current County Structure by 2032" (page 6).  For anyone who understands Agenda 21 and the push to globalize education, this is not hard to believe, but certainly a frustrating situation for anyone who lives in the REDDEST STATE IN THE UNION.

Though we will always believe in local control of education, we might not have been so resistant to Dr. Barresi's plans for Oklahoma education if red flags hadn't gone up immediately due to the fact that the law instituting the Race to the Top reforms she is using (SB2033) - teacher/leader effectiveness, Common Core, data collection, turnaround schools - was put into place in Oklahoma (like in other states) long before any of the reforms had been written, tested or peer-reviewed.  How do you create educational policy for an entire state without results from other states that you can use to extrapolate onto yours?  It's hard to get behind initiatives that reduce children to guinea pigs.  

It seems commonsensical then to wonder what came first - the ideas of how to make money off education reform, or the education reforms themselves?  Unfortunately for Oklahoma, the reforms Dr. Barresi has been embracing through the Obama administration and the FEE are failing all across the nation.  You have but to search "what's wrong with the Common Core State Standards" to see how rife with problems this initiative has become, as more and more states find the expense doesn't warrant the mediocrity of the standards.  Then there's the turnaround of failing schools that didn't even work in Chicago - birth place of our nation's superintendent Arne Duncan. The state databases have found to be overreaching and interfering with family privacy in large ways and here in Oklahoma (as in other states) the A-F grading system has been found to be completely invalid.

Often, those of us who pay attention to politics and governance are frustrated by our inability to effect change in the system.  Now we know why.  He with the gold makes the rules.  The only thing that can stop this situation is to wake up other citizens to the fact that their liberties - THEIR CHOICES - are being threatened daily by those who have self-interest at heart.  Please, don't take us at our word - go to the links, study the documents for yourselves.  If you agree with our position, TELL EVERYONE YOU CAN about what is going on right here in Oklahoma.  Our children - OUR STATE AND INDIVIDUAL SOVEREIGNTY - is much too precious to waste!



QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION: 

• Why would Republicans sign on to a Democratic education program so readily?  Many states with Republican governors have been fighting the Obama Administrations health care and immigration policies.
• Why would Republicans commit to such a program without knowing the costs to their state for such a program?
• Why would Republicans sign on to a program that ratchets up the national debt by redistributing stimulus funds to states that sign on?
• Why would Oklahoma continue to implement these education reforms when the state was not granted a Race to the Top grant to do so?  That automatically placed the burden of cost on the backs of the Oklahoma taxpayer.
• Why lock Oklahomans into educational programming (the Common Core and associated PARCC tests) similar to Medicare that, once established, will be extremely hard to dismantle?  Once state and local taxpayers (through bond issues) have paid millions of dollars to set up these programs, they're not going to want to pay more just to undo it all.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Washington Post.  E-mails link Bush foundation, corporations and education officials - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/01/30/e-mails-link-bush-foundation-corporations-and-education-officials/

Chiefs for Change - http://chiefsforchange.org/

Foundation for Educational Excellence - http://excelined.org/

Oklahoma Education Truths.  Jeb, FEE, and the SDE:  Why Enanglements Matter (Part Two)  Oklahoma Education Truths - http://okeducationtruths.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/jeb-fee-and-the-sde-why-entanglements-matter-part-two/

DocumentCloud.org - http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/560792-fwd-working-document-for-esea-waiver-call.html

C3 Initiative - http://www.ok.gov/sde/about/janet-barresi

Common Core State Standards - http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

AFT.  Common Core Standards Will Level the Playing Field - http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/at/page4commoncoreqa.cfm 

DocumentCloud.org - http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/560838-re-esea-flexibility.html

Restore Oklahoma Public Education.  ESEA Reauthorization:  Does It Even Matter? http://restoreoklahomapubliceducation.blogspot.com/2012/01/esea-reauthorizationdoes-it-even-matter.html 

Oklahoma Education Truths. Jeb, FEE, and the SDE:  Why Enanglements Matter (Part One)  Oklahoma Education Truths - http://okeducationtruths.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/jeb-fee-and-the-sde-why-entanglements-matter-part-one

Restore Oklahoma Public Education.  Common Core State Standards and Race To The Top Flowchart.    http://www.scribd.com/doc/61537521/Common-Core-State-Standards-and-Race-To-The-Top-Flowchart

Restore Oklahoma Public Education. Common Core State Standards Presentation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsNVv_iQDMM&feature=share&list=UUffrnW6WlGtduw0C7NXNWKg

OSDE.  Oklahoma State Board Members - http://ok.gov/sde/about/stateboard 

OSDE.  State Board Signs Resolution to Keep Education Reforms - http://www.scribd.com/doc/80408209/State-Board-Meeting-Passing-Resolution-To-Keep-Education-Reforms 

In The Public Interest.  NCLB Waiver Communications - http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/node/2745

Achieve.  Race to the Top - Low Performing Schools - http://www.achieve.org/files/RTTT-Low-PerformingSchools.pdf 

Foundation For Educational Excellence.  Foundation Center - http://foundationcenter.org/educationexcellence/kftf_schools.jhtml

Pearson.  Common Core Products - http://commoncore.pearsoned.com/

Achieve.  College and Career Ready Agenda -  http://achieve.org/college-and-career-ready-agenda

Oklahoma Academy - http://okacademy.org/ 

Oklahoma Academy - Abolish or Consolidate Current County Structure by 2032 - http://okacademy.org/PDFs/2012-IssueBriefs.pdf

Agenda 21 - Grinding Down America - http://www.amazon.com/Agenda-Grinding-America-Curtis-Bowers/dp/B003Z3CZGG 

UNESCO.  Education and Globalization.  http://www.iiep.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/apre98.pdf 

Restore Oklahoma Public Education. Education Accountabilty Must Originate Locally.  http://restoreoklahomapubliceducation.blogspot.com/2012/05/education-accountability-must-originate.html 

SB2033.  http://www.scribd.com/doc/93232739/Sb2033-Engrossed-Version-of-School-Reform-Bill

The Columbian.  Common Core Standards Aren't Really Very Common - http://www.columbian.com/weblogs/bob-dean-says/2010/oct/19/common-core-standards-arent-really-very-common/ 

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.  Smart Brief.  http://www.smartbrief.com/news/ascd/storyDetails.jsp?issueid=5F7A6C67-6CC8-4036-97F1-A5EF6ED15D49&copyid=6B53DF3A-6E23-49B9-B580-2B77D61637E9&brief=ascd&sb_code=rss&&campaign=rss&i=5F7A6C67-6CC8-4036-97F1-A5EF6ED15D49

Restore Oklahoma Public Education.  Government Cheese. School Bonds to Pay for Common Core Expenses.   http://restoreoklahomapubliceducation.blogspot.com/2013/01/government-cheese-school-bonds-to-pay.html 

EdWeek.  Spinning The Numbers on Turnaround Schools. http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/03/spinning_the_numbers_on_turnar.html?qs=chicago+schools+turnaround 

Restore Oklahoma Public Education.  How Much Data Is Enough Data.  http://www.scribd.com/doc/110458572/How-Much-Data-is-Enough-Data-What-happens-to-privacy-when-bureaucracies-exceed-their-scope 

Restore Oklahoma Public Education.  Oklahoma's A-F Grading System Gets an F.  http://restoreoklahomapubliceducation.blogspot.com/2013/01/oklahomas-f-grading-system-gets-f.htm

Janet Barresi Channels Scarlett O'Hara

Capitol Beat OK just released a great article, "State Education department spokesman Barresi anticipates low costs for implementing "Common Core".

Since ROPE's interim study for the House in October, ROPE, and others, have asked over and over again about the costs of implementing Common Core in Oklahoma. Thank goodness we now know what they are! They are "anticipated" to be low! As a taxpayer, I feel a great sigh of relief, since big government programs tend to cause tax increases for poor little taxpayers like me.

According to Mirriam-Webster, the definition for "anticipate" (verbatim) is; to speak or write in knowledge or expectation of later matter such as "The cost turned out to be higher than anticipated."

Is Janet Barresi channeling Scarlett O'Hara through her Communications Director? I can't help but see a parallel between his comments on the topic here and Scarlett's famous line, "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow." Is the OSDE 'anticipating' in order to avoid 'thinking'?

Though I could counter Gardenhire in Capitol Beat OK's article point by point, I will simply ask the reader to acknowledge the fact that there are absolutely no solid figures even alluded to by the Department of Education in answer to the question posed by McGuigan. None. According to Mr. Gardenhire, everything's cool - they've got it covered and we shouldn't worry our pretty little heads about the cost of the Common Core to the state.

Awe inspiring. Did the OSDE let all their number crunchers go with their first round of firings? Even the Federal Government has the GAO. Why are no concrete numbers available? Other states have them.

After reading “TPS: New teacher-evaluation system cost estimates misrepresented”, in the Tulsa World this morning, Gardenhire’s pat answers to McGuigan are off-putting.

The article addresses concerns by the Tulsa Public Schools that Dr. Barresi and the OSDE misrepresented the amount of money it would take to implement Tulsa's teacher evaluation system. In fact, Jana Burk of TPS has this to say,

"We are willing to give them everything we have free of charge, and Marzano (the company the Superintendent favors) has all kinds of things that would need to be developed, which would cost something. That's the way they make money is that they give away their evaluation framework but then they sell the professional development services, video libraries, on-demand technical assistance, software and hand-held devices for principals to use."

Well, that doesn't sound good. Did Dr. Barresi inflate the cost of the TPS system in order to make the system she preferred to use seem less expensive? Who knows, but the article didn’t particularly inspire confidence in Dr. Barresi's ability to ride the Common Core horse through the gate of "anticipated low" costs (or effectively evaluate programming).

Adding to our concern is an incident that occurred after Dr. Barresi publicly called into question our research at the Common Core Interim study. Frustrated by several of Dr. Barresi's remarks following the study, Representative Kern asked the Superintendent to specifically inform her as to which of our facts were incorrect.

Several weeks later, the department provided a paper critiquing our slide presentation, not the 21 page research paper with 9 pages of citations, given to herself and members at the study.

Consequently, not only had the OSDE questioned issues answered in our paper, but they provided absolutely zero references as documentation of their 'critiques', outside those to the Common Core website or Common Core-associated organizations such as Achieve.

This lack of academic rigor in the OSDE (does this fall under the category of supreme irony?) could end up costing tax payers millions of dollars. As with Marzano, the Superintendent favors Common Core. It certainly makes one wonder if she might then underplay Common Core's costs...

Although I'd rather she didn't, Dr. Barresi and company can continue to parrot the contents of the Common Core website until the budgetary cows come home, but by then, Oklahoma's taxpayers will be gone with the wind.

Marveling At The Nuclear Fallout Of Partisan Politics

Last year (2010) was an exciting one in Oklahoma.

It was our first chance in TWENTY YEARS to elect a new State Superintendent of Public Instruction. For 20 years, incumbent Sandy Garrett (D) managed to keep her seat through the turmoil of House Bill 1017 and the rise and fall of no less than FIVE governors in a 3:2 ratio Democrat to Republican (counting the tail end of the Bellmon administration).

Unfortunately for Mrs. Garrett, during the fight over State Question 744 that year, a very large discrepancy was found between the scores of state administered tests and nationally administered tests, indicating that while Oklahoma's test scores had been reported as rising, the phenomenon was nearly solely due to a systematic dumbing down of the state tests by Garrett's office. Not surprisingly, and shortly afterward, Mrs. Garrett announced her retirement.

The 2010 general election gave Oklahoman's the chance to vote for either Susan Paddack (D), Janet Barresi (R) or Richard Cooper (I) as our new State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Janet Barresi won with 56% of the vote (pages 13, 14).

As Republicans everywhere breathed a sigh of relief, they also gave in to their audacity of hope that public education in Oklahoma would change. Truly change. After all, Dr. Barresi had billed herself as a 'reformer' during the campaign.

Immediately, voters were not disappointed. Changes came fast and furiously. Big changes.

During her first state school board meeting, a war of sorts broke out between school board members and incoming Superintendent Barresi regarding her choice of hires for her Chief of Staff and Communications Director positions. Conservative sympathies ran high for Dr. Barresi with even Stuart Jolly of Americans for Prosperity putting out a call for members to come to the second board meeting to show support for the embattled chief. After all, the Board of Education was made up of 5:1 Democrats with an incoming REPUBLICAN Superintendent.

Barresi commented to the Tulsa World,

"It was a well-planned and concerted effort to thwart" her work as superintendent.

Board member Tim Gilpin told a different story,

"The board found some improper things going on and shined a bright light on it. When politicians see that, they don't like it."

As Governor Fallin rebuked the board for their comments - even before the meeting was over - - Dr. Barresi continued to assert that, because she would be unable to get anything accomplished in such an atmosphere, she would need to have full control over hiring and firing. After all, that is how she had been able to accomplish the levels of success she had with her charter schools.

In fact, so incensed was she over the actions of the board, that she requested an opinion from Attorney General Scott Pruitt as to whether or not the meeting violated Open Meetings laws. (As an aside, AG Pruitt did make a pronouncement on the issue of her hires - concluding that the Chief of Staff and Communications Director were "usurpers" in their offices - an opinion which garnered little fanfare or news in the world of the WWF-like matches between Barresi and her board.)

Surfing the Republican tsunami of 2010 in the Oklahoma legislature, law makers ran in droves to Dr. Barresi's defense. Invariably, House Bill 2139, crafted by Speaker of the House Kris Steele and Senator Brian Bingman, was created to assist the new Superintendent in her duties by providing her with a whole new slate of powers, including the hiring and firing of employees in the Department of Education.

Unfortunately, this move also brought dissension. Some felt it improper to do away with board control over hiring and firing decisions and that the action represented nothing more than partisan backlash. What in fact, then, was to be the role of the board? Why create laws based solely on politics? Putting such power in the hands of one elected official, Democrats countered, could produce results unintended in the end.

Still and all, though an emergency clause could not be managed (though Republican Steele forced a nearly unprecedented call of the House to try and get one), House Bill 2139 passed along party lines in both the Oklahoma House and Senate.

Governor Fallin signed it into law in April saying,

"In Oklahoma, the superintendent of public instruction is elected based upon the ideas and agenda they present to voters. And the superintendent, not the unelected Board of Education, should have the power to run the education department. This legislation will help to make the department more accountable and responsive to the will of the people."

Dr. Barresi said,

"This is allowing me to run the department," Barresi said. "I think the public will see absolutely no difference."

In May, though lack of passage of it's emergency clause meant HB 2139 would have to wait until August to become law, the state school board voted it become immediately effective. Only ONE member of the state board, Sue Arn voted no, explaining her belief that it was not a good idea to concentrate so much power in one individual. Phil Lakin, the newest Fallin-appointed member of the board (replacing Tim Gilpin) seconded the motion, just minutes after taking the oath of office from Barresi.

Following her humble acceptance of the keys to the employment security of the entire education department, Dr. Barresi set about to 'clean house', firing a number of employees in order to restore lagging morale in the agency caused by employment issues. Several of those released shared their concerns regarding lack of continuity of information within the department following the dismissals. Now-former board member Gayle Miles-Scott, had this to say,

“We've lost the whole top structure of people who have backgrounds in education and are well qualified, and they are being replaced by people who did well on the campaign.”

Jack Herron, the former assistant state superintendent for financial services, was told Dr. Barresi would have a place for him in her administration, only to be called before the board for his credentials soon after she received power of employment.

Since being gifted the keys to the kingdom by the Oklahoma legislature, ROPE has become obviously disenchanted with the manner in which Dr. Barresi is governing the SDE's affairs. Much of the concerns have arisen due to the great number of inconsistencies in Dr. Barresi's statements and actions.

For example:

• "This is not going to be focused on people and power and keeping a kingdom up," Dr. Barresi told Megan Rolland of the Oklahoman during the campaign, yet evidence exists which make plausible the idea that Dr. Barresi dramatized the situation with the board in order to create sympathy from the legislature to change the level of power given to her elected office.
• Barresi said innumerable times during her campaign that she wanted education to remain a local issue, unencumbered by mandates that could otherwise thwart local control and yet she has applied for a Race To The Top Early Learning Challenge grant and has announced her decision to apply for an NCLB waiver and a grant to establish a far-reaching longitudinal database. She has also continued the Common Core State Standards initiative with great aplomb. All of these programs are NATIONAL in origin and ALL will impose mandates and other infringements upon local control.
• Dr. Barresi also made an issue of testing reform during her campaign, yet her insistence on using Common Core in the state of Oklahoma will necessarily increase the amount of testing students will have to endure.
  
• Pat McGuigan wrote in an article for CapitolBeatOk during her campaign, "Barresi is no fan of the dominant state labor union, the Oklahoma Education Association. She told CapitolBeatOK, "When it comes to teachers, I've found there are really two groups: teachers and union bosses. That's blunt but it's the truth....". Last Friday (12/2/11), Barresi hired non other than Joel Robison, the head lobbyist for the OEA as non other than her Chief of Staff (replacing the embattled Jennifer Carter).
• Though Dr. Barresi has also said a number of times that accountability for the department is one of her main goals, she has been unable to consistently adhere to the Open Meeting Act during state board meetings, and board members have grumbled about not only the large number of meeting notes provided for the meetings, but the late hour at which they are received prior to meetings (personal observation corroborated via voice recording made at meetings available through Open Records Request).

Although we would all like to agree that public education should not be partisan in nature, the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for Oklahoma is an elected position. Therefore, as with ANY elected position, the person who campaigns for the office necessarily MUST keep campaign promises and adhere to the spirit and ideals of the political party with which they identified during their campaign.

It doesn't appear Janet Barresi has done much of either since her inauguration. Yes, there are issues she said she would tackle during the campaign that she has attempted (trim the budget at the OSDE for example), yet the manner in which she has done that stymies me.

Worse yet, it appears that Dr. Barresi holds a certain amount of contempt for those she serves. This is not only obvious in her response to ROPE during the interim study on Common Core State Standards, but evident in numerous undocumented conversations and interactions with everyone from parents and taxpayers to legislators.

[I will never forget sitting in front of her desk (during an appointment scheduled by a legislator to discuss ROPE's bill to repeal the Common Core State Standards), having her gesture to her computer screen and say with great exasperation, "Why are you having these people email me? You are not even giving them correct information. They don't even know what they're talking about.]

It is never a happy situation to learn that your confidence in a public figure is misplaced - especially when you personally endorsed that candidate, but that is where many Oklahomans now find themselves.

I certainly hope and pray that Dr. Barresi will reflect on her missteps and realize a vision to correct them. Until then, the needle on my confidence meter points to NO. What about you?

Superintendent Barresi Hires OEA Lobbyist For Chief of Staff

Oh yes. It would seem there isn't a Santa Claus Virginia - at least not for Oklahoma Republicans this year!

With apparently such little fanfare that the office couldn't be bothered to comment on the hire, State Superintendent Janet Barresi has hired Joel Robison, the head lobbyist for the largest Oklahoma teacher's union, the OEA, to replace her embattled Chief of Staff, Jennifer Carter.

Now, Mr. Robison may be an outstanding person, however, as my mom reminded me (sometimes relentlessly) as I was growing up, it's those with whom you associate by which your actions are known.

So, for those that might not know, the OEA is the National Education Assocation's little Oklahoma brother. Yes, that NEA.

• The one that hosted the Drag Queen Caucus at last year's national convention.
• The same NEA that also "spent much of the last 12 months fighting for comprehensive health reform".
  
• The same NEA that prefers revisionist history in textbooks, particularly if Christianity is involved.
  
• The same NEA that suggests Rules For Radicals by America/Christ-hating Saul Alinksy on it's The Activists Library Page.
  
• The same NEA that is front and center on our growing agenda of Class Warfare.
  
• The same NEA that is supporting Barrack Obama's re-election bid.
  
• The same NEA that has aligned itself with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Oh, and let's not forget who sweetened the pot on the effort to pass State Question 744 by 1.5 MILLION DOLLAR's worth (the effort which Janet Barresi said she would NOT support as she campaigned) - yup, the OEA!

Okay, I could go on, but I am becoming exhausted and depressed.

I have discussed my concerns in this blog about the fact that our Republican State Superintendent - who, coincidentally surfed into office on the tidal wave of Republican'ism' backlash created by our current President and his unquestionable desire to recreate America as a bastion of Marxism over Federalism - isn't really a Republican at all, but simply a Democrat in a Republican suit. (I refuse to call these people RHINO's (Republican in Name Only), as I have no intention of slurring the good name of rhinoceri everywhere.)

Sadly, and at this point in her career as Superintendent, I think the State Board of Education should consider gravely a vote of No Confidence. Dr. Barresi, may, be a wonderful lady and an outstanding oral surgeon, but her associations leave little to be desired.