New Poll Indicates Only 7% of Oklahomans Would Homeschool. Why Don't The Other 93%?

A recent poll commissioned and published by OCPA (Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs) indicating widespread support of school choice (76%) also included the following information:

“If you could select any type of school in order to obtain the best education for your child or children, and financial costs and transportation were of no concern, what type of school would you select?”

Traditional public school … 46%
Charter school … 9%
Private or parochial school … 34%
Home school … 7%
Don’t know/refused … 4%

The 7% figure surprised me. 

STOP SAYING YOU'RE "JUST A MOM"!

Yesterday at our second Interim Study on the Common Core at the state Capitol, I met the sweetest lady.  We had been wondering about this gorgeous woman sitting in the corner (we usually have a clue who most of the people are, or are at least attached to, at these things), when she came up to us at a break and introduced herself.

She told us she was "Just a mom" who had been following our emails and was becoming more and more concerned about Common Core and didn't want her small (and quite excellent) school from becoming eaten by the Common Core blob.  She was exceptionally literate and had the intestinal fortitude and presence to introduce herself to people she didn't know because of a concern she had about the future of her children.

Does that sound like "Just a mom" to you?

What is it that has made us women -

women by the way who cook, clean, garden, help with homework, drag kids to every game, practice and recital known to human kind, sometimes work a second job (notice I said SECONDARY to MOTHERHOOD job), drag screaming kids out of theaters and restaurants, clean vomit off of floors and beds, schedule doctor, dentist and specialist appointments, wipe snot, stop the car on the shoulder of the highway to referee fights, talk to a teacher on the phone about a child while simultaneously navigating dinner and overseeing homework, vacuum, grocery shop, shop for clothes (normally having to not only clothe children but spouse as well), make sure everyone's band instrument is in working order and is ready to go to band, go back home to pick up the forgotten instrument, make sure everyone has their lunch before they get out of the house, come back home to pick up the lunch someone has forgotten, book tickets for the whole family to the one kids performance at the Thunder game, try and remember to juggle all family birthdays so no one is left out...

think we were JUST anything!

For Pete sakes, most women do the job of 10 men in any single given day.  Some women also have children with disabilities, adding an order of magnitude of difficulty to one already in the order of base 10 (I'm thinking of 10 to the 100th power!).

In fact, my husband tells me regularly that it irritates him daily that I work hard enough to earn a 6 figure salary but never really get paid a dime.

What made me think I was more than "JUST a mom"?  I don't know, I was probably just born feisty - I usually say that when I was born and the doctor spanked me to get me to cry I hit him back!  But in all honesty, I have regular mom duties that I have to add in to my Supermom-Activist activities and still and all, I seem to get most things (not cleaning, but most of the other important things) done in a day.

I am a mom and I am PROUD of that term - I LOVE being a mom (most days!).  I love the job and love the kids enough to FIGHT for them and so that is just what I do.  I don't think about it or ruminate on whether I'm QUALIFIED to fight for them, I'm already QUALIFIED because I'm their mother.  God gave those kids to me and it's MY job to mother them and raise them up in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord" to be kind, intelligent, wise, servants of the Lord.  Who else holds that edict FOR me?  No one!  Consequently, I am EMINENTLY qualified to take on the job of mothering which also includes PROTECTION of my children from anything I SEE as a threat - and I SEE Common Core as a THREAT to their intellect and way of life.  Therefore, I will fight for my kids against Common Core because I am QUALIFIED to do so!

For some reason, women have let people - from all walks of life - but particularly Superintendents, Principals, teachers and legislators - think we are not smart enough to engage in the learning of our children.  We needn't be consulted on the ways and methods our children are being taught - we've got better things to do.

THIS MUST STOP!  WE ARE NOT 'JUST' MOTHERS!  It is time for ALL MOMS to stand up and realize that we do more work than 20 people in one day and we can CERTAINLY find time to also comprehend and engage in the education of our children!  It is time - HIGH time - that we started realizing that WE and WE ALONE have the power to effect change in our communities, states and nation - for and on behalf of our children - if for no other reason.

We are QUALIFIED to FIGHT for our children and we will do so - no matter WHAT anyone says!  And the crowd all said, "Amen"!

PS:  And if you'd like a LIST that gives you just a few MOMS that are involved in trying to stop Common Core, let me just give you a start right here:

Yvonne Gasperino from Stop Common Core New York
Alisa Ellis, Renee Brady and Christel Swasey from What is Common Core
Christy Hooley from Wyoming Against Common Core
Joy Pullman (working mom AND Common Core Fighter) from the Heartland Institute
Kristin George of Kansans Against Common Core
Heidi Huber of Ohioans Against Common Core
Heather Crossin and Erin Tuttle from Indiana - Hoosiers Against Common Core
Stephanie Zimmerman of Stop Common Core Idaho

In fact, there are COUNTLESS pages of Stop Common Core - fill in the state - on Facebook.  I'll bet you 10 to 1 there's a MOM at the center of EACH!

Common Core Comment To State School Board From Rope President Jenni White

Remarks to the Board Regarding the Common Core State Standards

Jenni White, President, Restore Oklahoma Public Education

Oklahoma’s legislature passed SB2033, codifying the Common Core State Standards into law in 2010.

Since that time, ROPE has studied this initiative and witnessed what can only generously be called a campaign of misinformation emanate from the State Department of Education regarding the Common Core in Oklahoma.  For instance;

• The idea that Common Core is ‘state led’.  This is a marketing term used to make people believe the standards come from within their states.  They do not.  They were written by several people, including a man named David Coleman – now head of the College Board and responsible for the effort to align the SAT with the Common Core – at a Washington, D.C. non-profit called Student Achievement Partners (http://www.achievethecore.org/about-student-achievement-partners/principles-work)  who gave them to an organization called Achieve, who then passed them on to the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to sell states in a nationally concerted effort via  their Governors and Superintendents (http://achieve.org/history-achieve ).

• Prior to the Common Core, Oklahoma had PASS standards.  After Dr. Barresi entered the Superintendent’s office, we were given C3 standards – the very term for the national (Common Core) Social Studies standards by the Council of Chief School Officers, who pushed them out for Achieve (http://truthinamericaneducation.com/c3-state-social-studies-standards/ccsso-releases-c3-framework-social-studies-state-standards/).  Since Vision 2020, these standards are now called Oklahoma Academic standards which Dr. Barresi has referred to in her regular newspaper column for 7/19/13 as including, “Oklahoma approved standards in the Common Core for English and math and Oklahoma developed standards in social studies, science and other subjects.”

Brad Henry, however, filed a Race To The Top addendum in 2010 adopting EVERY ‘common core’ standard including Social Studies and Science as found in Chapter 15 Subchapter 4 (http://ok.gov/sde/node/3651) of the Department’s own rules.

If the social studies standards were Oklahoma’s, wouldn’t the Department be breaking its own rules?  Is that why Oklahoma’s Social Studies standards are nearly identical to the C3 Common Core standards put out by the CCSSO (http://restoreoklahomapubliceducation.blogspot.com/2013/06/oklahoma-history-standards-could-very.html )?  Why do they match up exactly in content to those prescribed by the RTT addendum?  Why would David Barton tell us directly – and on a broadcast of Glenn Beck’s The Blaze program – that he had nothing to do with the standards  other than showing up at a meeting – though Dr. Barresi has touted him as having had input.  Why do Oklahoma’s standards and the C3 standards call America a Constitutional Democracy and not a Constitutional Republic as is actually the case? (http://restoreoklahomapubliceducation.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-republic-maam-if-you-can-keep-it.html)

• Why are other Common Core adoptive states such as Pennsylvania and Alabama spontaneously doing the same thing – re-naming their Common Core standards (http://restoreoklahomapubliceducation.blogspot.com/2013/07/does-state-department-of-education.html)

• The Guiding Principles for the Arts posted on the State’s website (http://www.ok.gov/sde/sites/ok.gov.sde/files/CCore%20guidingprinciples-arts.pdf) are Common Core standards written by David Coleman - the man who told a group of computer programmers at a seminar that he went around ‘selling’ the standards to state leaders and had to ‘dupe’ Republicans into buying them by leaving out that President Obama supported them.

• Just this month, Dr. Barresi penned a letter meant for distribution to state superintendents telling them she was removing Oklahoma from PARRC testing, yet a letter written by Georgia’s state superintendent was almost exactly the same (http://restoreoklahomapubliceducation.blogspot.com/2013/07/states-dumping-parrc-is-orchestrated.html)

The Fordham Institute – Common Core proponents - gave both Oklahoma’s PASS in English and Math a grade of B+ and said they were clearer and easier to understand than the Common Core.   

Oklahomans pay state taxes to support Oklahoma public schools NOT organizations and companies OUTSIDE our state who want to put us on a path to nationalized standards predicated on a lie.

Common Core Comment To State School Board From Rope Board Member Julia Seay

 

State School Board Meeting Remarks for July 2013

James Lankford, July 19:  “When the (NCLB) waiver authority is given, now the Department  of Education becomes a National School Board telling each district, each state what they have to do to meet the new requirements that they can literally make up as they go because there is no law or statute that they are behind.  That’s why we desperately need to pass a replacement to that NCLB so states and school districts know how to function within the law, and not just something that changes from year to year based on the whims of the Department of Education or the decisions they bring down this year according to their waiver.”

On Congressman Jim Bridenstine’s Facebook Page, he boldly posts our Common Core is not OK logo with this heading: "The goal of good education should be the pursuit of what is true and just and right and real… not the protection or propagation of what is common. ”Dr. Everett Piper, President of Wesleyan University.  Share if you agree.”  This post received 736 Likes and 361 shares… In social media lingo, it went viral.

Both Senators Coburn and Inhofe signed an official Senatorial letter against Common Core.

Groups such as Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, Concerned Women of America, David Barton and Wallbuilders, Cato Institute, Family Research Council, Act for America, The Oklahoma Republican Party and the Republican National Committee have come out AGAINST Common Core, even if it is renamed Oklahoma Academic Standards.

Why do we insist on “educating” our children if what is being taught is counter to a productive society?  

Charlotte Iserbyt, former Senior Policy Advisor in the U.S. Department of Education under President Ronald Reagan said that even if the Federal Government wanted to educate children on the 10 Commandments, it is still wrong, because education is NOT the Federal Government’s job. 

For the last 50 years, the Federal Government has interfered with education by offering a pittance of tax dollars, which they take from Oklahomans only to give back if we beg just right and comply with all the strings attached.

If the Standards themselves are not bad enough – and they are -- we have Data Collection on our children to be shared across state lines, then nationally, then globally with “Stakeholders” (a term that can be defined as needed). 

With headlines in the news such as

• Congress, lewd photos and NYC's mayoral race 
• IRS targets conservative groups
• House rejects effort to cut off NSA surveillance program
• Obama's Safe Schools Czar Tied to Lewd Readings for 7th Graders
• Grassley seeks to Defund Common Core

 We do not have to worry about hackers.  The very entity collecting the data is dangerous and corrupt.  Corruption in government is at an all-time high.   For Oklahoma to collect data on students in this climate is insane.  
 

WHY?  What is the rush?  Our children can be sold for a few federal dollars?  Teachers will not teach more effectively by knowing how parents vote or what time a student arrives at his bus stop, or their blood type.  Before you say, “We won’t do that” you should know that the P-20 Council set up by this department burst into laughter when John Kramen said, “Just because the data model is set up to collect that data doesn’t mean they will.”

With state after state trying to pass laws to slow or stop this train wreck, why can we not slow down long enough to examine what we are doing?  What kind of money, either federal OR from “stakeholders,” is worth endangering our children and making them the prey of Big Government and Big Business, and interested private organizations? 

STOP THE LONGITUDINAL DATA SYSTEM and STOP COMMON CORE at least until we have a chance to evaluate the cost, not only to our pocketbooks, but to our children and society.

I have attached a report by the Cato Institute that I believe should be of interest to you.  It speaks to the deception of the implementation of Common Core.   

The drive to impose uniform curriculum standards on the nation’s schools has been one of stealth, and at times, seemingly intentional deception. Most egregious has been the mantra of Common Core proponents that the effort has been “state-led and voluntary,” despite Washington coercing state adoption through the Race to the Top program and No Child Left Behind waivers; standards creators encouraging just such federal “incentives”; and Washington selecting and funding the two groups creating the tests to go with the standards. And now, more than a week after the U.S. Department of Education announced the creation of a “technical review” panel to assess the assessments, it seems increasingly certain that the panel’s work will be done behind closed doors.

(You can find more here:

http://www.cato.org/blog/americans-deserve-know-federal-role-national-tests)

Sincerely,
Julia Seay
Board Member
Restore Oklahoma Public Education

Common Core Comment To State School Board From A Mom

July 25, 2013

Superintendent Barresi and Board Members,

Throughout history, education in the United States has always emphasized local control of schools, standards, curriculum, and testing.  The principle of subsidiarity states that functions which local organizations perform effectively belong more properly to them than to a dominant central organization (Merriam-Webster).  In other words, a matter ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest, or least centralized authority capable of addressing that matter effectively (Wikipedia).

When local control is handed over to a larger, centralized, distant authority, the more likely it is that decisions made by that authority are not in the best interest of those affected by it.  Local control means local involvement. Local involvement ensures the best educational outcome.

Common Core, or the Oklahoma Academic Standards as they are now called, is the opposite of local control. These standards were produced by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.  These standards are owned and copyrighted by private organizations that are not accountable to the people of Oklahoma.  Not a single elected legislative body has had any input into these standards.  There were no local meetings, public input or debate about these standards prior to their adoption by the Oklahoma state legislature.  Where is the local control?  In addition, it is my understanding that we must adopt and implement Common Core word for word, and can add no more than 15% of the material taught.  Again I ask, where is the local control?

Our state adopted these standards before they were even completed.  That makes as much sense as when Nancy Pelosi said, when referring to the Affordable Care Act, “We have to pass it to see what’s in it.”  I know the legislature had not read the standards before adopting them, but I ask, have any of you?  We are implementing a program that no one has read and that has not been field-tested.  We are drastically changing the way we educate in Oklahoma, and no one knows what the impact will be on our children.

If our state no longer has control over education, neither will the parents in our state.  This clearly violates the right of parents to direct the education of their children.

A quote from Thomas Jefferson seems quite appropriate here: “Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should all want for bread.”

Please don’t give away our local control.

Respectfully submitted,

LeAnn 
Edmond, Oklahoma