IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED - Help Stop Wind Tax Credits And Put That Money Back Into The Budget For Education And Other Needs

While some are asking where money can be found to fund core government needs in Oklahoma, one simple answer is ending corporate welfare to the Corporate Wind Industry! If we don't do something truly meaningful this session, another $70 million dollars is going to LITERALLY be "Gone with the Wind" when it could have, instead, gone to meet other state needs.

OEA Makes Oklahoma Public Education Funding A Moving Target With No End In Sight

Photo from NewsOK story: also pictured, Randy Weingarten and Ed Allen

As the teacher's walkout in Oklahoma continues into its second week for many schools in the state, the questions which really need to be asked at this point are "Why?" and "What exactly do teachers want?"

2018 EDUCATION FUNDING LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

The Public Education Funding Mess Is The Fault Of EVERY Citizen - So How Do We Fix It?

Since the beginning of this legislative session here in Oklahoma, teachers have been demanding raises. In March, the Oklahoma legislature passed an unprecedented tax to fund teacher raises and other educational needs, raising oil and gas production taxes to 5%, adding a $1 increase per pack on cigarettes, 6 cents on diesel/3 cents gas increases and a $5 tax on hotel motel tax (later repealed). While public education advocates celebrated, taxpayers fretted - and they have good reason to do so.

Factors Creating Failing Public (Government) Schools

For decades education reformers have attempted to 'restore' luster to the eroding results of government run schools that began in the 1960's with the first federal involvement in state and local education programs (Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 1964, Lyndon Johnson). Just as we've seen of late with the Common Core State Standards Initiative, individual programs have been instituted at various times over the years toward this end, yet all have resulted in lackluster or poor outcomes for the money, training and resources provided.

Why? Because none of the issues effecting government run schools today can be solved by a single initiative, or by throwing money at one or two issues like spaghetti at a wall.

Below, I've attempted to identify a number of items - some of which I've witnessed personally, as a former teacher and parent - that must be addressed in order to return to the pre-60's educational excellence seen here in America for hundreds of years.

Changes to schools and instruments of schooling must come from the local level.

• Urban schools and rural schools aren't similar in socio-economic composition or community needs, yet laws created at the state or federal level force change on all schools.
• Traditionally, school boards allow parents the ability to assist in directing their children’s educations – shifting the responsibility from parents to the state conditions parents to become further removed from the process of educating their children.
• Parenting failures cannot be legislated as these tend to result from lack of values training best addressed by programs provided via churches and charities.

Laws created to address failing schools rarely address the fundamental issues behind the failures.

• Systemic failure results as one ineffective/unproductive law is replaced or augmented by another and then another – in attempt to bring about results largely unattainable via legislative means.

Teacher/Superintendent/School Board organizations are used to draft public school legislation which favors the needs of the educational ‘system’ and not the student and/or parent.

Education legislation and programming features a paucity of education history and research, instead focusing on the newest ‘trends’/programs in education.

• Integrating technology (computers/ipads, etc.) into elementary classrooms actually produce results antithetical to those desired, yet are utilized with consistency and touted as ‘cutting-edge’, which, also, ironically creates a nonexistent need for more funding.
• Replacing veteran teachers with Teach for America teachers replaces tried and true teaching methodologies with unproven methods utilized by skimpily-trained young people.

Today’s education focus is completely wrong-headed.

• Students should not be educated ‘for’ college or the ‘workforce’.
• Classically-based education programs featuring broad-based studies in United States and world history, science, classical literature, the arts and music, have, historically, created students ready and able to take on any challenge presented them.

Though taxpayers should work to create accountability in government, education is not a government function; education is a function of the individual first and community second.
American public education was created from an ideal articulated by both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

• Both men believed schools should be created to teach students unable to afford the private tutoring system primarily utilized in their day.
• They believed schools should teach the Bible (the model upon which our Republican form of government was created), America’s very particular system of 3-branch government and free-market economy, and the history of America’s founding.
• Schools were to be created by and through churches or individual community organizations – not as a function of government.

Government has assumed the role of educating its citizens, creating numerous problems.

• Funding:  Each school receives the same amount of money for each student in a seat. This invalidates the principles of America’s free-market economy and creates a system in which mediocrity flourishes because excellence is neither expected nor demanded by those paying for its services.
• Partisanship:  Once education becomes a function of government, it begins to utilize tenets ascribed to government by popular culture, such as “political correctness”.

• This gives rise to a culture lacking in personal responsibility where administration and teachers refuse to make students responsible for their work and grades rather than deal with difficult parents.

• This situation also produces a lack of willingness to hold students responsible for their behavior, creating school climates in which bullying of students and teachers is unchecked.

• Usurpation of parental rights and responsibilities:

• Moving the responsibility for education to the state (and often federal) level relieved parents of their duties to provide for the education of their children by replacing their authority with that of a government official.

• State-empowered school officials necessarily had to create the notion that parents were inadequate to direct the education of their children in order to justify a government wage.

• Parents quickly became trained to see public school as a babysitter rather than a partner in the education of their children as the authority of school officials grew with government funding.

• Usurpation of student rights and responsibilities:

• Once government became responsible for education, education became relegated to a series of hoops (tests) through which a student must jump in order to complete their next task: move to a next grade, graduate, get a job.

• Students are never shown the value of obtaining an education for themselves so education becomes something a student does to please others, not to make their lives better.

• Susceptibility to educational ‘trends’ including:

• Common Core State Standards vs those tailored to meet the educational priorities of parents/students at the local/state level.

• Whole word language assimilation vs reading taught by phonics and an understanding of English phonemes.

• Reformist, community-inspired, explanatory math vs learning traditional, fact-based algorithms and skills.

• World history vs American history

• American history from 1877 to the Present vs American history from the Pilgrims and Founding, to present

• Civics taught in high school vs developmental civics across each grade and stage

Federal government intervention has further usurped the influence of the state, local community and parents, and is now itself responsible for many of the ills plaguing public education today such as:

• Lack of student privacy:

• More and more personal student data must be collected by schools to satisfy the compacts of states with the federal government.

• Digital records are nearly impossible to redact, leaving student records exposed to future employers and educational prospects.

• A perceived need for increased funding:

• The more federal initiatives for which states apply (or are foisted onto them) the more personnel are required to fill out the ever-increasing paperwork necessary to keep the initiative, leading to loss of funds for teachers and needed materials that directly affect the classroom.

• Less flexibility to teach with proven methods and personnel:

• The federal Civil Rights in Education initiative for Teacher Equity forced onto all public school districts for example, is coercing teachers to move among schools dependent upon a set of federal race guidelines set for teachers in relation to student populations, violating the Civil Rights of teachers/students and causing many older teachers to quit the teaching profession.

NON-GOVERNMENT SOLUTIONS:

Private organizations in every city can help to create educational excellence by addressing the foundational pillars underlying education failure (as previously described) by devoting resources and funds toward any or all of the following ends:

• Support the ideal that state/federal legislation is not the way to move the needle on educational excellence – that partnering with local charities, churches and non-profits can produce results one-size-must-fit-all legislation cannot

• Community based adult and student English and financial literacy programs are an excellent example of successful business/community partnerships

• Support legislation (or repealer legislation) that:

• Stresses local control of education and prevents intrusion by the federal Department of Education at the state and district levels

• Supports parental rights and responsibilities

• Seeks to move accountability for education from the state/federal level back to the parent/local level 

• Resists the urge to narrow curricula and standards – allowing for classical studies and schools to bloom

• Creation of individual and/or community programs that:

• Develop bridge relationships among schools and businesses to create mentoring/intern opportunities

• Delivers business/vocational leaders who can speak to classes, or in assemblies and share their experiences with students on their level

• Provide scholarship opportunities in areas such as engineering

• Partner with job training programs to identify vocational skills gaps and educate students who desire the training, on how to attain these skills

• Identify private programs that produce educational excellence and partner them with businesses willing to mentor/intern students

• Empower parents to advocate for their children via tuition breaks or educational/job opportunities not available to the general population

Education for those who cannot afford private, individual education (or desire not to utilize a private system) should be provided in America. It should not be paid for in perpetuity via taxpayers, but by parents - whether they are allowed to keep their money for themselves (no earmarked taxes for education) or returned earmarked funds to spend in whatever manner is best for their child. Until parents are allowed (and returned) responsibility for the education of their children, status quo will remain and poor educational outcomes should be expected.

A Sincere Apology To All Our Oklahoma Teacher Friends

Yesterday, I (Jenni White) made a Facebook post after seeing this picture with THOUSANDS of teachers gathered at the Capitol:

I am sorry, but this picture frustrates me. Do I think teachers are abused and unappreciated in our current system? Yes. Do I think public education needs more money? No. Oklahoma funds public education to 52% of the entire state budget. This was billed as a rally for funding. I'm certain there were many there mad at a whole lot of things and I certainly don't want to denigrate anyone who attempts to affect their government, so forgive me for the blanket generalization, but how much money does public education need? 100% of the budget? Teachers can teach in a dark alley if they are good teachers. Do superintendents really need 6 figure salaries? What about the endless unfunded mandates caused by the federal intervention in our schools our state Superintendent and Governor say they don't want? The problems with public education today do not distill down to money. Why pretend they do? The money for classrooms needs to come out of programs and administration, not additions to the budget. In the meantime, instead of these size crowds at the Capitol protesting 3rd grade reading retention and common core - which would actually help students and the parents that pay for the system - the rally is dedicated to money. I find that very, very sad.

Obviously, I did a poor job on this post.  I tried to make teachers aware we appreciated them through the second sentence, but that did not come across the way l intended apparently, as some of the comments made on the post had to be erased because of the colorful swear words used to describe my thoughts.  (The comment about the 'dark alley' was meant to be a compliment - not a dis.  "Good teachers can teach anywhere with anything" was the point I was trying to make.)  Many teachers were at the state Capitol on Monday from across the state on behalf of their students and parents, not money.  I understand that, but did not communicate that clearly.  Teachers tell us frequently how upset they are with their jobs - never, ever have I heard a one of them relate their dissatisfaction to pay.

I guess that's why I was frustrated.  The teachers we know and appreciate greatly just want to be able to teach the way they want without someone sitting on their shoulder telling them how to do it, yet, the coordinators of this rally made it clear the rally was solely about funding.  I honestly felt like  teachers - and anyone who attended - were being used to promote this ideal - and that didn't seem right to me.  Here are my thoughts on that topic:

This page can be found on the CCOSA website at this URL : http://www.ccosa.org/vnews/display.v/ART/52e2de711cfc2

 Please note,

"The Education Rally is a unified effort to encourage Oklahoma Legislators to secure funding for public education."

This poster can be found on the CCOSA (Cooperative Council Oklahoma School Administration) webpage. It goes on to list all those organizations sponsoring the rally - none of whom have come out against Common Core to my knowledge (please correct me - without using swear words - if I'm wrong).  In fact, the PTA is being paid by Bill Gates to support the standards.

Many comments were made on Facebook about the fact that the media was portraying the rally as a rally for more money, but not everyone was there rallying for money. Why would the media cast the rally as a rally for education funding?  Because CCOSA put out all kinds of press releases and information out to the media telling them it was about funding, that's why.  You can find all the links to the media literature right there on the webpage.

CCOSA sponsored the rally while many superintendents in Oklahoma are paid well into the six figures.  This is an old article, but it lists the average superintendent salary at over $100,000 dollars.  What does a teacher make?  A fraction of that.  Coming into the Oklahoma public school system to teach with a Master's Degree gets you a bit over $32,000.  Truly, do the people who run the schools need to be paid that much better than those who actually teach the children?  Certainly, I've met a number of rural superintendents along my travels who make nothing near that and also teach and/or coach for their pay.  They are to be commended certainly and we all know that not every school superintendent falls into the six figure category, I understand that, I'm using an umbrella here.

CCOSA not only makes their money from membership dues paid by administrators (individually, or collectively out of the school budget?), but they also have corporate sponsorships available.

To be considered a Prestigious Partner, the vendor must meet the criteria listed below and have a signed agreement detailing support and the Council's Commitment

Who are these corporations?  Many of the same ones benefiting from Common Core and other national school 'reform' measures - CTB/McGraw Hill and Scholastic of course - but also a company called Barlow Education Management Services.  What do they do?  They provide schools with 'expertise' in the area of collective bargaining, teacher/leader effectiveness and federal program management.  So, schools are taking money out of the classroom to pay these consultants for issues that are sucking more money out of the classroom?

Therein lies my frustration.  Why would teachers support a rally put together by associations and organizations that are removing money from classrooms?  It think it apparent that many weren't really aware of who was behind the rally and why.  

I wrote about education funding several months ago.  I have stated over and over again that more money needs to go into the classroom by removing unfunded mandates and federal control over education - the compliance with which suck money out of the classroom.  I think one way to solve this would be to point to those people stopping the flow of money to the classroom (as mentioned above) and force some school/district accountability there.  

In closing, I again apologize for any hurt feelings, but I want to remind teachers, we aren't paid via membership dues (or anything else) to research, educate and lobby against measures that will ultimately hurt children and take money out of the classroom.  We try hard to support good teachers because we appreciate all you do for parents, kids and families.

Some Oklahoma Schools Will Close in March to Attend Capitol Rally for More Money

March 31, 2014, teachers, administrators and community members will be marching on the Capitol to demand more funding for public education.  

In all fairness, I have heard many excellent educators, such as Rob Miller in Jenks, talk about the fact that funding isn't the only issue upon which they should base this march, however, I've also read comments from many others in our state who believe the solution to our current education nightmare is money.  

Recently, two Oklahoma legislators got wind of the rally.  Representative Jason Murphy (R), and Mike Turner (R) were quoted in the Daily Disappointment (sorry, Daily Oklahoman) providing their viewpoints on this civic exercise.

Murphy said, 

“It's indefensible for government entities to use government resources to lobby government for more taxpayer money for more government,”

Turner said, 

“This sort of behavior should not be tolerated by our schools or any other state agency participating in this gross abuse of your hard-earned money,” 

These comments ignited a firestorm in the Oklahoma education blogosphere (What Does The Angry Mob Say, In Support Of The Teacher's Rally, An Appalling Lack Of Respect, Marching For Kids, Marching For My Family) as many bloggers sounded off on what they feel is a put down by these Oklahoma legislators.

I like both Jason and Mike, and I agree with them that taking a day off of school to protest at the Capitol is not the way to deal with the question of education funding.  However, I am of a very divided mind here.  I don't agree that schools should abandon their jobs to go lobby for more money, because I don't agree with that issue.  However, I desperately agree that citizens (educators) need to be in the Capitol lobbying their legislature - after all, there are PLENTY of lobbyists that don't represent citizen (education) interests wondering around the Capitol on a daily basis.  If these are the only people from whom lawmakers hear, then they're the only people whose squeaky wheel gets greased!  I also believe that, for years now, a majority of our lawmakers have been listening to the likes of Jeb Bush, the National Governor's Association, the Chamber of Commerce and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, over the protests of money-and-clout-poor parents and educators, especially when it comes to the contentious issue of education 'reforms' in Oklahoma.

ROPE has been lobbying the legislature since 2011 to repeal Common Core.  It has taken us until the end of last year to get any real traction on this issue.  Why?  Because the POWERS THAT BE (described above) want it and they have the money to affect public policy/opinion in whatever way they desire.  Heck, they have the marketing power of Exxon-Mobile and the Bill and Melinda Gates-backed Stand For Children behind them.  I have some really madder-than-heck-and-not-going-to-take-it-anymore parents, teachers, administrators and taxpayers in my corner.  Needless to say, none of us in this latter group are going to come up with the multimillions of dollars it will take to overmessage the formerly named group, so there has to be another way to effect change in our favor.

For almost a year now, when I speak to a group, I have been informing listeners that their rights are being usurped by a growing government bureaucracy full of individuals that believe they know what's better for children than their parents and/or teachers.  In fact, I believe this so heartily and disagree with this sentiment so thoroughly, that I removed my children from public school to educate them at home.  Consequently, when I'm speaking and parents ask,

What can we do?  My school board can't do anything, my principal can't do anything, my legislator won't help me, I don't know what to do...what can I do?

I have begun to answer,

Become civilly disobedient.  Simply say, "No thank you, I do not wish my child to participate in field testing achievement tests for privately-owned-for-profit testing companies." or "No thank you, I do not want my child taking a test that will not accurately tell her teachers what she knows", or "No thank you, I will not accept math standards for my child created outside the state by people who don't have a clue about how she learns in her classroom in Oklahoma and that can possibly damage her ability to learn math".

So, I do understand the need and desire to petition our government IN PERSON, for redress and I do think EVERYONE aught to do just that more often and sooner rather than later.

Truly, the only problem I have with this March rally is the idea that anyone should go pump the legislature to ply education with more money.

When Janet Barresi attempted to earn my vote four years ago, she told me she would conduct an audit of the Oklahoma State Department of Education in attempt to eliminate waste and funnel more money back into the classroom. 

Barresi said that one of her first orders of business will be to ensure that critical dollars are getting into the state’s classrooms. She said she will immediately direct a comprehensive division-by-division analysis of the Department of Education. And she’ll be working to contract with an independent auditor to conduct a financial and performance audit of the department.

So, Dr. Barresi, where is that audit?  The only audit I know of at the OSDE was one conducted by State Auditor Gary Jones which found Dr. Barresi 

“...utilized state personnel in a questionable and likely inappropriate manner,”

I also know that, unlike her promises to voters not to continually raise the education budget and be a sound steward of our education dollar, she requested a $158 MILLION dollar increase in budget for 2011-2012 (to bring Oklahoma's public education budget to $2.4 BILLION dollars) and a budget increase of a $175 MILLION dollar budget increase in 2013-2014 (to bring total public education funding in Oklahoma to 2.57 BILLION dollars). 

According to Data.ok.gov, Common Education,was again, in 2013 (I thought I had read health care had usurped the top spot but I guess not) sitting at the top as the LARGEST appropriation in all of the Oklahoma state budget at 37% (33.58% in 2014 - again the highest appropriation).

So, hopefully that begs the question, 

How much money is enough money for Oklahoma education?

Hopefully that also begs the question,

Where is the currently appropriated money going?  It's quite apparently NOT going into the classroom. 

At this point, I will say,

Glad you asked!

and give you the following answer:

Who knows!?  

Why would I say such a thing?  Well, simply go to the website created by Senate Bill1633 (The School District Transparency Act of 2010), called OpenBooksOk.com.  
SB1633 says this about the information that website should contain, in part:

The database shall provide information on school district expenditures of state, federal, and local funds, whether appropriated or nonappropriated, excluding payments of voluntary payroll deductions for employees to receiving parties.  

Now, see if you can find any information about Common Education on that website?  No?  Neither can I.  Interestingly, I remember that before Janet Barresi took office, I raided that website more than once for information on Common Education spending and found it there, very well described and in a manner even decipherable to me.  This is an article from 2009 in which I used many links available at that time through the OSDE and OpenBooksOK.com for my research.  Now, many of these links are invalid and/or now go to pages that have nothing to do with the references for which they were used!

This is the Financial Accounting page on the OSDE website.  Go there just for grins and giggles.  Start clicking on some links and tell me this is anything other than a system of links back to the same page upon which you clicked the original link.  How bizarre.  In fact, the one link I was able to identify as moving away from the finance page, takes you to OCAS (the Oklahoma Cost Accounting System) where I found the Common Education funding accounting.  This page is NOT the Open Books website as specified by law.

Once on the OCAS page, it's easy to see that 2012-2013 school year has yet to be entered.  From there, the tabs are easy enough to navigate - Homepage, Statewide Reports, District Reports - but here's the deal;

1. There are total expenditures on that page over 6 BILLION dollars.  Are you really saying that out of all 35 categories of expenditures there's not some way to drag at least a million or two, or three back into the classroom?  
2. There are no descriptors for the expenditures so who only knows for what that money is really being spent.  There is nothing there other than a near spreadsheet type report - no breakdowns, no graphs, no charts, no comparisons; nothing those paying for public education (taxpayers) can understand.
3. There is a Revenue link down the page, but that opens up into an Excel spread sheet that is entirely populated with information NO ONE in their right mind can understand or identify!  Though all funds are to be identified as per SB1633, it would take a PhD in finance to figure all that out.

I read SB1633.  There is no mechanism for redress, should its edicts be ignored.  In a discussion with Representative Jason Nelson, over this same issue on another bill, he told me that the law itself IS the mechanism for redress.  I remain confused.  So the OSDE has to follow the law because the law says they have to.  Okay, but they're not, so who's going to make them?  How are these laws enforced and by whom or what agency?  The legislature routinely writes laws without assigning enforcement measures.  What is the point of writing a law if no o is expected to follow it because no enforcement mechanism has been identified?

I also think it interesting here, that very early on in her tenure, Dr. Barresi fired Dr. Jack Herron, the Department's Assistant Superintendent for Financial Services, after the Board would not approve Jill Geiger as her director of finance with Jack already in a similar position.  Mere moments after Governor Fallin signed into law a bill to give the State Superintendent authority over the agency's personnel, Barresi dispatched Herron.  Geiger was later appointed as the state budget director at the Office of State Finance, leaving her without a Finance Director for some time.  Currently, this position is filled by Mathangi Shankar, listed in CPA Focus Magazine (2009) as an Associate Member of the Oklahoma Society of CPA's and the Finance Manager for the Oklahoma Insurance Department.  

Clearly, the water of accountability is murky at the OSDE in more ways than one, but to close this post, I'm going to list the ways in which I think Oklahomans can come together to provide actual relief to schools and taxpayers on the issue of public education funding:

1. DEMAND the legislature cease and desist shackling schools with unfunded public school mandates and DEMAND they rescind those currently in law.
2. Tell the legislature to DEMAND a full and complete audit of the OSDE, since Dr. Barresi will apparently not make good on her campaign promise to do so.
3. DEMAND the legislature stop writing laws which do not provide oversight or a mechanism for redress should the law not be followed!  

This short video drives home a point ROPE has made year after year - really good education doesn't come from a bank - it comes from educators willing to do what it takes to get students where they need to be regardless of the perceived price tag.