ROPE Report Short - What Is The PPRA? Can It Stop School Surveys?

What is the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA)? The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) applies to the programs and activities of a state education agency (SEA), local education agency (LEA), or other recipient of funds under any program funded by the U.S. Department of Education. It governs the administration to students of a survey, analysis, or evaluation that concerns one or more of the following eight protected areas: 

political affiliations or beliefs of the student or the student’s parent; 

mental or psychological problems of the student or the student’s family; 

sex behavior or attitudes; 

illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating, or demeaning behavior; 

critical appraisals of other individuals with whom respondents have close family relationships; 

legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians, and ministers; 

religious practices, affiliations, or beliefs of the student or student’s parent; 

or income (other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under such program). 

PPRA also concerns marketing surveys and other areas of student privacy, parental access to information, and the administration of certain physical examinations to minors. The rights under PPRA transfer from the parents to a student who is 18 years old or an emancipated minor under state law. https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/faq/wha... 

How are parents being kept from notifications for surveys that ask about all these things and more? Watch and find out!

Actress/Author/Homeschooling Mom, Sam Sorbo, Talks About Priorities

The one and only actress, writer, producer AND HOMESCHOOLING MOM, Sam Sorbo, joined us today to talk about her journey from a working mom into a working homeschooling mom. This is my favorite clip of all times and really changed the way I make decisions. You gotta watch.  Find the full video on our Rumble and YouTube channels. 

School Counselors Now Pushing CDC-Linked Gender Group To Public School Kids in Elk City

I was sent this screenshot from a fellow conservative activist who received it from a friend whose child is enrolled in Elk City Public Schools.

Beyond being COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE on its face, moreover, its' hopefully a wake-up call FOR PARENTS about how many ways schools are contacting your children without YOU as the parent knowing about it.

First, let's tackle the Genders and Sexualities Alliance (GSA). 

The following can be found on their "Mission" page:

Our overall strategy for fighting for educational justice is to work with grassroots, youth-led groups and GSAs, empowering them to educate their schools and communities, advocate for just policies that protect LGBTQ youth from harassment and violence, and organize in coalition with other youth groups across identity lines to address broader issues of oppression.

All of our work with students focuses on leadership development and activism that prioritizes building alliances not only across sexual orientation and gender identity lines, but also across race, ethnicity, and class lines, and our resources and trainings are designed to facilitate coalition building.

Dr. Angela Grunewald's November 2nd Response To Parents, Is Either Deliberately False, Or Uninformed By Reality

 

In a post made to the Edmond Public Schools website, Superintendent Dr. Grunewald addressed what she characterized as "negative and sometimes false comments" made by parents at the 11.1.21 Board Meeting.  On the playground we used to say, "It takes one to know one."  Dr. Grunewald's response to parents in this missive is either deliberately false, or - worse - uninformed by reality.  Here's how we know.

Oklahoma Medical Association Sues Parents By Suing The State Over Mask Mandate

Yesterday (8/12/21), the Oklahoma State Medical Association (OSMA) filed a lawsuit in Oklahoma County District Court naming the State of Oklahoma and Governor Stitt as their plaintiffs in an attempt to overturn SB658 - the bill prohibiting mask mandates - passed last session.

Is Public Funding of Education Now Unconstitutional Based On Federal Discrimination Law? Bill Barr Thinks Possibly.

For years I've written about how public schools are very often indoctrinating children in ideals outside those prescribed in their homes.  I've warned parents for years to pay attention to what their children are learning in school and to attend school board meetings, yet until restrictions due to COVID-19 caused many students to stay home and learn on line, few were able.  When homework or books don't come home for view and the best you can get out of your kid about school is the following:

Mom, "How was school today?"

Kid, "Fine."

Mom, "What did you learn today?"

Kid, "Nothing much..."

How in the world do you find out exactly what is going on in your child's school?

Parent Guest Post: What I Learned From The 2018 Teacher's Strike

Attribution: ABC news

This post was sent to me by "Elizabeth":

I have never thought of myself as any kind of activist. I have never marched in protest or in support of anything that I can remember. It isn’t that I don’t have opinions – I definitely have them. There are often facets to issues or politics that I don’t understand or, more likely, haven’t taken the time to research.

But my blood pressure rose when I received a text from my teen after returning to school following the Oklahoma teacher strike.

“Our teacher just had us write a paper on our feelings about the walk-out!”

Public School Technology Costs Are Measured In More Than Millions Of Dollars

This morning I read an Op-Ed in the Norman Transcript written by several parents of Norman High School students - anonymously.

 

I want you to read the letter, but I want to make several points about this letter:

One Student's Reaction Says It All - Sex Ed And Public Schools Don't Mix

I loved Kindergarten Cop. Nearly every classroom scene is hysterical, but the one where Joseph, a 6-year-old whose father is a Gynecologist, feels the need to perform a knowledge dump of sorts on substitute teacher Schwarzenegger's boss (Principal Phoebe) after the sub's particularly rough morning, always cracks me up.

As a child of the 1960's, I remember watching the movie and actually being a bit embarrassed by that dialogue! 

ROPE - Restore Oklahoma Public Education Becomes ROPE 2.0 - Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment Effective 11/2/15

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

11/2/15

Effective immediately, ROPE - Restore Oklahoma Public Education - will become ROPE2.0 - Reclaiming Oklahoma Parent Empowerment.

Though Restore Oklahoma Public Education has worked diligently to tutor Oklahoma parents and taxpayers about how issues such as the Common Core State Standards and threats to Student Privacy effect students using public education since its inception in 2010, its mission field has shifted markedly in the last several years.

On A Personal Note....

From 2008 until 2014, I spent huge chunks of time reading, studying, writing, lobbying and posting to social media about issues surrounding government - particularly public education and Common Core. 

Last year, as readers of this blog well remember, Oklahoma legislators were persuaded to STOP Common Core. Following this seeming victory, a large group of educationally-associated organizations (whom you might have thought would have the students/parents best interest in mind) spent tens of thousands of dollars to convince the Governor to veto the bill. Fortunately, the Governor signed the bill, only to have several members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education sue to reinstate Common Core based upon an incorrect interpretation of the Oklahoma Constitution. After the bill was found to be Constitutional by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, the next challenge became how to stop individual schools from using Common Core anyway. 

As it turned out, there was no real enforcement mechanism in the original law to stop Common Core in Oklahoma (HB3399), as I have subsequently found is the case with many, many laws written by Oklahoma legislators. This meant that the only way to make schools comply became a convoluted process of involving one's district attorney and the local school board - a labored task the vast majority of disgruntled individuals chose not to pursue. As far as ROPE is aware to date, no district attorney filed charges against any school district in Oklahoma for utilizing Common Core though state law prevented them from doing so. So much for state law being the final word on Common Core. 

Though all of us involved in the stop Common Core fight in Oklahoma knew there was much more to the process of stopping Common Core (and the persistent federal overreach into public education) than passing a single law, it became almost immediately clear how far we still had to go. By October, I had written a blog detailing Seven Reasons Why Common Core Repeal In Oklahoma Isn't. Every day there seemed something new on the horizon to thwart our efforts. It became very discouraging to have worked so hard to seemingly accomplish so much only to find a very small dent had been made in the task of restoring local control of education and putting parents back in charge of their children's educations.

During the years we fought Common Core, I often became discouraged. I would complain bitterly when our efforts seemed futile and all of us threatened to quit more than once, but something always drove my personal efforts forward. As a Christian, I believe that impetus was God. I literally felt compelled to continue the fight no matter how discouraged I/we became and I firmly believe I was right because shortly after our 'win', I began feeling pulled away from ROPE and my work there.

Unlike most of my middle-aged counterparts, my husband David and I not only have a 32-year-old married daughter, but 3 kids (13, almost 13 and 10) still at home who are home-educated. Over the last three years I've not only homeschooled the kids while working ROPE issues, I've added poultry farming and working our homestead's very large garden to the schedule. Unfortunately, it got to the point where something had to give. Also unfortunately, this was most often my time with the kids; dropping them off at Mimi's or various friends homes while I traveled to the Capitol or across the state making presentations. Obviously, this was neither an optimal nor a tenable situation.

Last fall, Lynn (Habluetzel, ROPE's Vice-President) and I made the decision that I would sit back this year while she and our friend Ralph Crawford (now running for State Representative!) took over the lobbying efforts at the Capitol. I would still continue to write and research as I could, but for the most part, I would concentrate on home matters. 

Since that time, I've been astonished at how busy I've been. I've tried valiantly to set aside time for reading, research and writing, but it's been harder and harder as the months go by. In fact, it makes me feel a bit guilty in retrospect. If I've been THIS busy with home matters since November, how much was my family getting shortchanged by my constant physical and mental absences (yes, I was home, but saying, "Just a minute, Sam" 12 times because I 'needed' to finish a blog didn't count as actual mom availability)? 

Now able to look back over several months of 'absence', I can make a number of observations with surety:

• It took HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS to research and piece together information before writing anything of substance about policies, laws or initiatives; I'd wake up scouring my email, Facebook posts and education journals for information and go to bed late into the night writing about what I'd read. It didn't take long to realize that the public education establishment and Federal government are BOMBARDING the public with more and more and more programming, laws, initiatives and policies so hard and so fast that NO ONE CAN KEEP UP. I'm certain it's meant to be this way because it's easy for government to do anything they want when no one can keep watch. This was part of the reason we'd be disheartened so often - we simply COULDN'T KEEP UP with every law and every initiative and every program being churned out by the government and the state education establishment.
• Public Education (in any state) has so much concurrent jurisdiction that there is no way for any school to rise above the reporting required for so many different policies, procedures; regulations and laws. The education of children has long since past being the real reason public schools operate. Now, public schools exist to be arms of the state, recording data on children in order to justify yet another expensive program to cure every ill only destined to fail because the real issue stifling public education and sucking away parental rights and local control - concurrent jurisdiction - was never even considered in the equation. 
• The federal government has ZERO Constitutional authority in state education, yet elected officials and State Department of Education employees either have no clue what the Constitution says, have no backbone to stand against their edicts and/or don't care about the Constitution because they just want whatever money comes with "fill-in-the-blank" program in order to make it sound as though they have the right to force kids to take tests and tell parents they're in charge of their child's education.
• IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO YOU VOTE FOR, THE STATUS QUO WILL ALWAYS BE THE STATUS QUO. This was a tough one for me and I didn't figure this out until just last year. It doesn't matter for whom you vote, the bureaucracy/staff set up by the predecessor of the office will, many times, still be in place, virtually ensuring the change for which you voted will never come. Here it's important to remember that, many, MANY employees of the state are brought in by department heads or appointed by elected officials. Regular voting taxpayers have absolutely no say in their hiring, yet these people persist in their jobs carrying forward the ideals and programs of elected officials past. Oklahoma's State Longitudinal Database is run by such an individual though our new superintendent is well aware of our concerns.
• It matters not how much you study, how many other researchers or individuals agree, or how much other work has proven you right, statists will always believe they know better than 'the people' how best to run their lives and govern in that direction. If you have the unmitigated gall to object to that philosophy, you'll be called a "tin foil hat", marginalized, ridiculed and/or ignored. The only way to affect real change is to bring hundreds of people to the Capitol with you dressed in big ugly green shirts and even then the results are iffy.
• Parents, for the most part, seem to care less what is happening to their kids. Parents have jobs, they have lives, they are single mothers and dads just scraping by - whatever the reason - by and large, parents let their schools get away with murder without uttering even the slightest whimper. When you try and bring their attention to all the bad stuff happening in public education today, it's NOT IN MY SCHOOL, it's always somewhere else. Even if they do get it and try to do something about it, the layers and layers of bureaucracy tie them up to the point that many finally either just throw up their hands and pull their kids out or give up and take it. 
• Without a large majority of parents willing to educate themselves on the state and central government Constitutions, their parental rights and options outside of public school, NOTHING WILL CHANGE. One or two people can't 'fix it' for everyone else. It takes a long sustained effort by many to create real change in the system and if people aren't interested in affecting their government, NOTHING WILL BE EFFECTED. 

Those were just a few of the things I've learned about public education. These are some things I've learned about life:

• You can't turn back time - the time I have with my kids can't be 'refunded' at an ATM - and who wants to leave middle schoolers without CONSTANT supervision anyway?
• My kids will only be receptive to my leadership for a short amount of time and then I've lost the ability to affect their lives in truly meaningful ways. 
• I didn't realize how much time I actually devoted to ROPE until I started devoting more time to the kids, house and farm. Looking back, I have no idea (other than the hand of God) how I was actually able to keep my home, or farm, or ANYTHING together while working simultaneously.
• You can't 'fix it' for everyone else. There need to be MANY others willing to put in just as much time on a coordinated effort in order to create real change in the system.

And so, there you have it. Sadly, I am fully and completely convinced that our system of public education - in fact our whole system of bloated anti-Constitutional government - will finally, eventually, collapse under its own weight and I'm simply unwilling to sacrifice anymore huge chunks of my family's life to propping up these failed systems. Does that mean I'll quit writing, researching and activism? No, but I'll do what I can fit around my family's schedule now - as should you - but until more people wake up to what's going on, I've got turkeys that need feeding and kids that need learning, first.

Parents: Stop Conforming!

Last year I wrote a blog about why I choose to homeschool. It was picked up by a national homeschool group and has now been seen by thousands of people across the country. Why? Because of my outstanding ability to create readable prose? No, not particularly. The theme struck a cord. 

Parents who are plugged into the lives of their kids are getting fed up. They're fed up of dropping their kids off at school in the morning and picking them up in the evening only to find they're not being taught what they should, they way they should, or as much as they should. 

Like most parents, once our oldest son came home from the hospital, I bought into the whole routine; public preK through 12th grade, then off to college. We bought a house in the best neighborhood we could so as to get the best public school we could (of course, we also bought into the notion that better neighborhoods had better performing schools), I'd drop the kids off at school at 8:30 am, pick them up at 3:00 pm and go about arranging my day during the hours they were there. 

Honestly, I spent hours and hours on the computer writing about the problems with public education for ROPE during the time my kids were in public school. In fact, I'm not sure how long it would have been - if ever - before I brought my kids home for school if my oldest son hadn't asked me in no uncertain terms to homeschool him!

In the end, it wasn't just my son's query that ended our time in state run education. My frustrations over a number of situations mounted and included

• a very unsuccessful attempt to get our principal to adopt Saxon math over Common Core math, 
• interacting with other parents through PTA and finding their concerns were not necessarily for the education of their children, but endless fundraising efforts for a gymnasium and more computers that made it appear they were getting a better education, and 
• a horrible, unproductive and frustrating first grade Common Core Math year with my youngest son, 

I realized public education and I didn't have the same notion about what was educationally best for my kids and I pulled the last two out to school at home with their brother. 

My grandfather was born on the family farm at the turn of the last century in a clapboard house without electricity or running water. He died at 98, having witnessed a technology arc that spanned from the oil lamp to the internet. Once, Americans were people of great autonomy whose hard work generated accomplishments the kind of which my grandfather could never have dreamed. Such vast accomplishments were they in fact, that they themselves created a double-edged societal sword. From the turn of the last century forward, little by little, technology made life easier, healthier and safer. Little by little, Americans embraced that ease. The easier life became, the harder - and more unpopular - autonomy became, because it was hard work. Little by little, Americans gave more and more of their autonomy - their authority - to their government to accomplish certain functions on their behalf so they didn't have to spend the personal energy to do it for themselves. Little by little, the government took on more and more authority until it began, like Skynet, to create its own functions. 

Enter the federal government and the Department of Education. 

Please understand, I woke up to the abuses of my government before I ever began to scrutinize public schools, and once I did, I realized I'd been completely blind to what the Constitution said and how our Republican form of government should work. Consequently, I'm going to stop and explain these facts as simply as I can with bullet points in order to have a base upon which to finish the discussion:

• the Founders of this country prized the concept of INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY among any other
• they created our government to be a Constitutional Republic (NOT a Democracy) - Constitutional relating to the supreme law of the country, the Constitution, and Republic (as in Rome) because the full power of the country was vested in the PEOPLE who chose (voted for) fellow citizens to represent them in government in order to PROTECT INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. 
• the American Republic is a 3 branch system where citizen legislators craft law to PROTECT THE INDIVIDUAL LIBERTIES of the citizens they represent (legislative branch), the executive branch (president) ENFORCES these laws and the judicial branch (Supreme and lower courts) determine the Constitutionality of the laws made by the legislative branch.
• the central government was to be very small and only be responsible for the enumerated powers - states were responsible for the rest - consequently, in the Constitutional Republic, the STATES had EVERY OTHER POWER unto themselves.

So, who has the power? THE INDIVIDUAL. Outside of that where does the power reside? THE STATE. Beyond that, where is the power for only those functions given it by the Constitution? THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 

The federal Department of Education is a non-Constitutional entity created by Jimmy Carter in 1979. Until that date, states - as they should have been - solely controlled the education of their citizens (though federal education mandates existed prior, there were very few). Today, the IRS takes money from the pockets of state citizens and sends it to Washington, D.C. where a chunk is used to fund the DOE. Once the DOE has the money of citizens in its income column, it then sends money (funding) back out to the states IF the states agree to do certain things to get it. 

Where did the money go? THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Who gets the money back (with strings)? THE STATE. To whom is the supposed benefit of this circuit? THE INDIVIDUAL. Is this not completely backward to the way the process should work in actuality?

For years now, ROPE has received emails such as the one below:

Dear Jenni,I'm writing to ask you a question about opting out my son from EOI this year. He is a freshman & should be taking Algebra I & Biology EOI. I know by opting him out he won't get a diploma from the school but wanted to ask you if after his 4yrs we can get his transcript for college. I'm waiting for a call from his High School about this but wanted to see if you had more insight on the matter.Thank you very much,

Why? Because more parents than ever are waking up to find that, while a portion of their income goes to pay for their children to be educated in public schools, these same schools have usurped their parental authority in favor of bureaucratic regulations that benefit the schools more than the individual student and they want it stopped. 

Yes, the state has the power to enact laws applying to public school through the legislature, however much of today's state laws are written to further federal law written to provide an unconstitutional DOE more power, further diminishing the autonomy of the parent. This is what Common Core was all about. I've written about this for years.

Today I posted on the ROPE Facebook page about the awful CDC questionnaire handed out to students in middle and high school without consent of parents that no child should be taking without specific parental consent. In addition, I wrote a blog last year about other issues surrounding the privacy of children in public schools that included this survey as well as information on a number of websites and programs being used in public schools about which parents should be aware. Yes, it can be hard to find out exactly what is happening in the classrom, but that is your charge as a parent in order to best guide your child. YOU - and by extension YOUR CHILD - are THE individual/s for whom the government works - including government education - works.

Fortunately, there are parents awaking to this situation who are also taking steps to reclaim the education of their children. As an example, there are vast testing 'opt out' movements all across the nation as parents become aware of how their children will be forevermore educationally pigeonholed by test results and how the tests themselves can accumulate personal data about students that is not secure. Home schooling is also on the rise in Oklahoma and across the country because of federally mandated testing and data collection to which schools, districts and the state continue to bow over their responsibilities to the individual.

Please, take the time necessary to be as informed and aware as possible about everything happening at your child's school. Don't be afraid to question and do so when you feel you need. Government was intended to be "of the people, by the people, for the people", not "of the state, by the state, for the state". Every Oklahoman who owns property pays for the education of Oklahoma children in state schools and every parent with a child in a state run school has the obligation and right to not only use the system, but question it as well.

----------------------------------
Caveats #1: I realize that not every parent can or desires to stay home. I also know there are parents who feel there is no choice but for both parents to work. Yes, sometimes this is necessity, but sometimes just lifestyle downsizing can create enough 'income' for one parent to stay home if that goal is desired. I urge parents to review their work situation and be creative about finding ways to be home with your kids if at all possible.

Caveat #2: There are MANY GREAT teachers out there. Teachers are getting the screws put to them as badly as parents. Please do not hear me say that teachers are creating the problems found in public schools today. Yes, there are some bad teachers, but there are many, many great ones too! We just need teachers like Nikki Jones of Tulsa Public Schools, willing to stand for the needs of her students OVER the desires of the education establishment.

School Officials Want To Start Eliminating Their ESA Competition?

I know everyone has an ideology. I know everyone is able to express their opinions about their ideology thanks to the 1st Amendment. This is fine, but I want to set the record straight about some information published in a recent blog about Tuesday's legislative session.

HB2003 was Jason Nelson's ESA legislation. It did not pass the House Education Committee on a 9 to 9 vote - all Democrats and 5 Republicans (Coody, Casey, Nollan, Henke, Thomsen) voted against the bill. Senator Jolley's bill establishing ESA's (SB609) passed out of the Senate with 6 yea and 3 nay (1 a Republican, Sharp). Incidentally, Republicans do have a plank in their platform supporting school choice.

Within this last week, I have seen two separate instances of emails supporting Education Savings Accounts copied and pasted into Facebook pages or blogs by opponents of the plan in order to incite opposing action. One was ours - which is fair game since we provide a forward button - but another was a private email circulated among a number of members of a coalition for school choice. Assuming no confidentiality laws were broken, I guess that's certainly an option, however, the hypocrisy here is stunning. 

The email was published in a blog to make people aware of the "Powerful Forces in play inside and OUTSIDE of our state who are lobbying our legislators".

Odd, but the "powerful forces" listed in the email are mostly small organizations without tons of money (Public School Options.org? Really?). The only one that could even be considered "corporatist" (a label further down in the blog) would be the Walton Foundation. 

But then, what are CCOSA, OSSBA, Stand For Children, etc. if not POWERFUL 'forces in play inside' our state? In fact, so POWERFUL are these entities, they were able to FORM A COALITION and take out 2 FULL PAGE ads in the Daily Oklahoman and Tulsa World last year against the repeal of Common Core. Kind of hard for a handful of parents and taxpayers to have THAT kind of power, but I guess power is okay if it's in the 'right' hands.

We're also told that many of these groups aren't even in our state! How can anyone outside the state weigh in on an instate issue?

Really? The National Chamber of Commerce readily applied pressure INSIDE the state during the Common Core fight, as did Mike Huckabee, and the Fordham Foundation. I didn't hear Common Core supporters running them out of town on a rail then. Recently, CCOSA brought in a representative from ACT to sell legislators (LOBBY) on ACT. ACT is a 'non-profit', but it's an ENORMOUS out of state non-profit dedicated to selling a product, but that's okay, right?

These kinds of emails go on throughout the legislative session within 'coalitions' and among private individuals all across Oklahoma. In fact, I've been forwarded school administrator association emails castigating supporters of ESA's that are NO LESS ideologically-based than those penned by ESA supporters. Odd that emails about then-candidate Hofmeister and some educators in Jenks over the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship (LNHS) last year weren't mentioned. Weren't these emails among school officials talking about their attempt to lawsuit the Scholarship - already a law - to death? Yes. 

In fact, why publish this particular email then? School administrators already have legislators wound so tightly around their fingers they have them present in committee meetings as though they were on legislative staff. I've never seen parents/taxpayers be able to do that.

Several blogs have given reason after reason as to why legislators should stop Education Savings Accounts. My favorite one stated that children don't just belong to parents, they belong to the collective. EVERYONE that touches a 'human being' (they're not even called children) has a buy-in in their education. Wow. Apparently school officials believe parents are simply acting SELFISHLY if they desire to have control over their own children and how best to educate them. 

It is fascinating to note that this same blogger sang an entirely different tune about parental rights last year during election season. In fact, so fired up was he (like ROPE and others) to get Dr. Barresi to change the 4th grade retention process, he penned the words

Do parents only have rights to make educational decisions about their child if it's okay with you [Barresi]? REALLY!?!

Ah, but this doesn't apply to ESA's - or these school officials. It only applies to parents wanting to be on a 'committee' of school officials to determine if their child can pass to 4th grade. After all, an ESA would result in educational CHOICES for the PARENT outside the walls of the public school and parents can only have choice WITHIN the PUBLIC SCHOOL box. 

I reiterate - we all have the right to our worldview and our opinions - but when talk includes the need to 'eliminate' the opposition, while calling them wolves, methinks thou doth protest too much (can you imagine what would happen if I said something like that? Holy COW!). HB2003 proponents reported that school officials frequently called students 'funding units'. While I'm sure there are many school officials who care about the children in their charge, it is easy from this rhetoric to see how some don't - how education is more an ideology based on a physical model. Yet, the act of educating a child is not about the institution of PUBLIC SCHOOLS -  it's about parents and what's best for children and families. Period. Maybe if we were to keep this mission in focus, we'd sustain a long-term education vision. Though it seems impossible now, I certainly hope we can get there.

Who Says Parents Can't Opt Out?

Today I received a copy of a letter sent to school districts by OSSBA (Oklahoma State School Board Association) entitled "Standardized Testing A Reference Guide For Oklahoma School Districts".

OSSBA is a private organization of education administration officers/officials and to us, it was an evident perspective. There's nothing wrong with this - OSSBA has a job to do. So do we. 

After reading the document, it seemed to us very geared toward having school officials believe that opting out of state tests was not a good idea. To their credit, this document did not at all attempt to pit school officials against parents - the state and federal government are doing that. Let's be VERY CLEAR on that topic. Though we have disagreed with OSSBA on occasion - especially where Common Core was concerned - there is a layer of oversight by the federal government through NCLB and via state law that automatically puts school officials on the opposite side of the fence from parents.

The 'Guide' speaks directly to the new Parents Bill of Rights law passed last year as "complicating" the issue of testing opt out. WE AGREE, but not in the way you might think. Here's the issue.

The state legislature mandates schools follow specific laws. The state school board - according to the Oklahoma State Constitution - has the right to promulgate rules based on the laws the legislature writes (and other items within their control) for schools to follow. Each individual district has a school board that also provides direction for schools. On top of this disastrous education dump cake, the state ALLOWS the federal government to become involved in the manner in which it educates its students by signing up for grants/programs that not only provide money to the state education coffers, but also tells us how to spend that money. 

Are you getting the point? TOO MANY LAYERS - TOO MANY LAWS.

Let me give you a very good example. We are told in the OSSBA document (page 3 Compulsory Attendance)

It is unlawful for a parent, guardian, or other person having custody of a child who is over the age of five (5) years, and under the age of eighteen (18) years, to neglect or refuse to cause or compel such child to attend and comply with the rules of SOME public, private or other school, unless other means of education are provided for the full term the schools of the district are in session.

Now, here's what the Oklahoma Constitution says about Compulsory Attendance: 

The Legislature shall provide for the compulsory attendance at some public or other school, unless other means of education are provided, of all the children in the State who are sound in mind and body, between the ages of eight and sixteen years, for at least three months in each year. 

Did anyone notice anything odd? The Constitution says that we don't educate children under 8 or over 16, yet the piece of code cited by OSSBA says 5 to 18. Which is correct? The Constitution trumps code and the Constitution can't be changed without a Constitutional amendment process. Why hasn't anyone brought this to court? Why hasn't anyone appeared to even notice this disparity?

Here's the bottom line. Section 1B of HB1384 (The Parents' Bill of Rights) says,

This state, any political subdivision of this state or any other governmental entity shall NOT infringe on the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, EDUCATION, health care and mental health of their children without demonstrating that the compelling governmental interest as applied to the child involved is of the highest order, is narrowly tailored and is not otherwise served by a less restrictive means.

Section 2A of HB1384 says,

ALL parental rights are reserved to a parent of a minor child WITHOUT obstruction or interference from this state, any political subdivision of this state, or any other institution, including but not limited to, the following rights: 1. The right to direct the EDUCATION of the minor child.

And so it's true. This is not an easy issue - bureaucracy has seen to that - but it's one that must be dealt with and it's one that has been decided by the Oklahoma legislature. No matter how many contracts the state of Oklahoma has entered into with testing companies, the federal government or other entities, the RIGHT OF THE PARENT trumps. Certainly, the state - or private citizens - are welcomed to take any of these issues to court for decision, but I would simply adjure the state to recognize the right of parents and modify existing laws to meet that standard. 

How To Stop Common Core in Your Oklahoma School

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR SCHOOL IS USING COMMON CORE

ROPE has received many email and Facebook queries concerning the use of Common Core in schools this year.  Many parents, after sending countless emails, making phone calls and lobbying their legislators to stop Common Core in Oklahoma, are upset and angry over the fact that their school will use Common Core this year despite the passage of HB3399.

Though we've heard the objections, this is really a slap in the face of all the parents and grandparents who took the time out of their schedules to endlessly call their state senators and representatives.

Of course we here at ROPE are upset about this situation as well.  As soon as we began hearing these concerns, I inquired with HB3399 author, Representative Jason Nelson.  He told me that if schools were using PASS and Common Core, there wasn't really much anyone could do.  He also said that if schools were using CC only, they were, of course, breaking the law, but again, it would be hard to do much about it other than to go directly to that schools' board and complain.

After another several messages today, I asked the attorneys that prepared ROPE's Amicus brief for the state school board lawsuit against HB3399, Don and G.K. Powers. Here is what they said:

Parents should call and write to the President of their local school board, and copy the Attorney General, and local District Attorney.  They should state clearly that the Local School Board and the Superintendent, principles and teachers should all follow the law, and in Oklahoma, that is not Common Core, {PASS is}.  Those who choose not to follow the law should resign immediately, or be fired. 

A school board that does not follow the law should be recalled. Law suits in this matter aren't of much use.  But reporting the breaking of the law, firing law breakers  and recalling board members is the right call on this issue.  If board members are not going to support the law, they should not be on the Board.  

In the letter to the Attorney General, parents should identify who is leading the movement to maintain common core, and say that Mr.or Ms. soandso is conspiring with the teachers to break the laws of Oklahoma by keeping common core. Conspiracy to break the law is a crime itself.  If you can get anything in writing that says, so and so school district is going to follow common core, than that is proof of a conspiracy to break the law and should be given to the Attorney General, and the local District Attorney.

I think this is excellent advice.  Here is the complaint form for the AG's office.  You may download it, fill it out and send it in.  District Attorneys listed by county and district can be found on this webpage.  You can click through to get the contact information for your respective DA.

ROPE would also suggest organizing a group of as many parents as possible to attend the school's next Board meeting and speak to the members in person, explaining their anger at having their children subjected to the Common Core AGAINST State law.  Have parents wear the same color shirts and fill the room with as many people as can attend. Make it clear the Board's actions will have consequences come elections in February.  If your school board member is not helpful, find out when their term will expire and recruit someone to run against them.  

FILE AS A LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE

This would help!  So many parents don't understand that school boards are really for the PARENTS to help direct the education of their children.  Knowing that, we need PARENTS TO RUN FOR SCHOOL BOARDS and return them to a parent center, not a Superintendent-centered conglomeration of 'yes' men/women that sign off on anything the Superintendent says - including their salary!  GET INVOLVED at the district level in your school system and work to make it work for you!  Make this the start!  Here you will find all the information you will need to know about filing for school board.  Please download and read it and be prepared come filing DECEMBER 2nd through the 4th.

EDUCATION: You VS The State - Are You Taking Responsibility For Your Child's Education?

After reading a recent opinion piece by a ‘conservative’, Oklahoma law professor (Right Thinking: Grumpy suburbanites and the populist conservative base, by Andrew Spiropoulos) I had to laugh.  While I agreed with 9/10ths of his very excellent treatise on populism vs conservatism, I had to part company altogether when this man began discussing education – particularly relating to Superintendent Barresi’s election loss and Governor Fallin’s recent drop in the polls.

To him, Barresi lost and Fallin has dropped in the polls – not because their education reform initiatives were too heavy handed, but because they were not heavy handed enough.

This makes me laugh because elitists tend to recognize elitism in everyone but themselves.  Hilariously, this law professor outs himself as elitist by saying, "… our (Oklahoma) business elite does not have a strong intellectual grasp of the tenets or policy successes of conservatism", after which he calls dissenters of big government education reform, such as I, 'grumpy suburbanites' (wasn’t it Arne Duncan (a Democrat) who blamed the failure of education ‘reform’ on “white suburban moms”?).

This professor appears to understand conservatism in every area but public education.  To him, conservatism in this venue should be state-control under the virtuous flag of 'accountability for taxpayer funds'. 

Conservatism is a political philosophy most in line with the majority of American Founders.  To them, conservatism, “conserves” power to the individual OVER the state – in point of fact, conservatism imbues the notion of individual rights.  Conservatism doesn’t parse itself across each segment of our lives.  It doesn’t break down into fiscal ‘conservatism’ versus individual rights, or political ‘conservatism’ versus individual rights.   To the elitist, however, "fiscal conservatism" relates to ‘conserving’ assets, therefore if local school boards overspend, the state must force ‘conservatism’ by subjecting individuals on school boards all across the state to laws addressing overspending in public education.  This notion is fallacious as it necessarily embargoes individual rights.  It also usurps the ability of individuals to learn by removing negative consequences – but that’s another topic for another day.

Either individuals or government have the power - it can't be both.  In some circumstances, the people delegate their power to government (ie; traffic laws), but government cannot usurp the right of individuals because it doesn't like the way the right is utilized.  Certainly, government cannot usurp a parent’s right to direct the education of their own children (child endangerment issues notwithstanding), yet that is exactly what happened with Oklahoma’s 3rd grade reading retention law, (as one of many examples - Common Core being another).

It is a parent's duty to hold their children accountable for whether or not they are reading by the end of third grade.  When Governor Fallin vetoed the MINOR change to the third grade reading retention law (simply adding a PARENT to the group of school personnel deciding whether their child should graduate), parents felt cut out of the process of educating their children.  Since parents maintain the right and responsibility to care for their children as they see fit, parents recognized this as a usurpation of their individual rights.  I believe one of the reasons for the downturn in our Governor's poll numbers resulted from a parental awakening to this kind of elitism rampant in our currently Republican-controlled government.   

The elitist thought process eschews personal responsibility and individual rights when they are exercised in a way seen as inappropriate by the elitist – particularly in education.  “Many parents are _______ (‘poor’, ‘ill-educated’, ‘drug addicts’, ‘grumpy suburbanites’) and cannot be trusted to educate their children appropriately.”  This leads elitists to gravitate toward state controlled education – not education of the public provided by churches and communities with local/parent control as the Founders advocated.

I personally believe a majority of today’s parents remiss in their duties regarding their children’s education.  Far too many times as a teacher I sent items home in backpacks that were never opened, or I sat in a quiet classroom of an evening because parents couldn’t be bothered to attend parent/teacher meetings.  I am, however, a staunch believer in individual rights – even if it means the right to have a child living in your basement until age 30 because you couldn’t be bothered to assume the responsibility necessary to appropriately direct their education, or I as a taxpayer have to cough up money to the criminal justice system to ‘rehabilitate’ the child you refused to rear or educate when you were tasked with that responsibility. 

For hundreds of years, the state was an actor prevented from even reading for the part of parent.  Actually, it wasn't until the early 1960’s, when tax exemptions provided the excuse for many to abandon their missions, churches stopped assuming the role of responsible party for the uneducated/undereducated, teaching them their rights and responsibilities and setting them on the path to fruitful citizenship. 

Though to invoke the words of American Founders today seems to be to invite derision in many circles, John Adams well illustrated the current breakdown in understanding between elitists and conservatives, parents and parental responsibility, 

“…we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.  Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.  Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

I believe In today’s vernacular we would say; “Know your rights and responsibilities – govern yourself – or men will do it for you in your name.”  Look around.  Isn't that just what we're seeing today?

Is Common Core Really Over In Oklahoma?

Some time ago I created the meme above based on the notion we've been fed by the Chambers of Commerce that Common Core is necessary in order to train kids for jobs.  Since the standards were forced onto the national scene through Obama's Race to the Top application, the rallying cry has been that business in America is suffering because we are not properly educating our children to be workers.  We must have an educated workforce in order to stimulate our economy.

Once Common Core was repealed in Oklahoma, and the process created by which new standards will be established, Oklahoma is now officially free of Common Core.  Or are we?

The short answer is NO.  Common Core is the name for a set of educational standards predicated on the notion that children must be "College and Career Ready".  Sadly, this prevailing thought has been steeped through nearly every pore of the business machine through both the Chamber of Commerce and the National Governor's Association.  The standards may now be in Davy Jone's locker, but the idea behind them is not.

Take Governor Fallin's recent Oklahoma Now column, "Education Beyond High School is the “New Minimum” for Success in Today’s Economy”.  Here, she makes the case that the state should drive education in order to secure a better future for individuals when she says,

Solving this problem, however, (of “preparing our citizens to succeed in a more competitive economy”) requires state-level action. It requires a commitment to reform. Above all, it demands recognition that the status quo is no longer adequately serving Oklahoma students in today’s competitive, global job market.

It seems apparent from our Governor’s perspective that the state determines the best course for Oklahoma’s students.

In fact, she closes by saying,

My job as governor is to push forward, to demand more, and to work with teachers, parents, and administrators to ensure our students graduate high school ready to continue their education and become college and career ready. Nothing is more important to the individual prosperity of our students or the continued prosperity of our state.  

I very much disagree with her assessment of her job.  Her job is NOT to demand, it’s a parent’s job to demand.  It’s not her job to ‘ensure’ Oklahoma’s students do anything – it’s the parent’s job to direct the education of their children.  In fact, if you've been a parent, you know you can’t ENSURE anything about your children’s future – all you can do is the best you can do and pray.

Recently, I was in Enid speaking with the Sons and Daughters of Liberty – one of my favorite groups in the state.  A man attended the meeting and began to ask very pointed questions about the course of education in Oklahoma.  Sadly, he quite apparently believed it the state’s job to provide accountability for education.  In his opinion, unless we test public education students rigorously, Oklahoma will continue to suffer poor educational outcomes.

I think the only way to describe the disjointedness of this thought process is to share a comment I made to our Facebook page the other day on just this subject.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Those of us that pay taxes to support public schools are being manipulated by a growing chambercrat/statist cadre who care nothing for students excepting their ability to become employable and drive the economic engine that keeps them at the top of the food chain. If we’re not wise, we’ll soon be asked to genuflect and kiss their rings. I’m not talking entitlement – no 99%’er philosophy here – I’m talking about individual liberty and the fact that the more government grows and the more fingers it has in our lives, the less liberty we have as individuals . School reform should be local, individual and parent-driven – not predicated on automaton-generating sameness tidied up with a red bow to sucker parents into believing their children should be educated by the state solely to get a job when they graduate. True education elevates the individual and provides the foundation for a free society. Today’s education ‘reform’ is the exact opposite.

So what is my definition of education?  This is the definition I provided on my application to serve on one of Oklahoma’s new standards writingcommittees when asked to define College-, Career- and Citizen-Readiness.

Students ready to tackle the challenges of the world are the product of a well-rounded education in a school that provides an environment in which every child is responsible for his or her actions. Students should study a variety of broad, rich subjects such as world history, music, art and classic literature to expand their minds and ignite the desire for learning; however learning isn’t predicated simply upon coursework.

The creation of productive, capable individuals ready to enter the world in whatever capacity they desire requires a mixture of education and expectation. Schools must impart knowledge to students, but also the mechanics of personal responsibility.

Students not taught to take responsibility for their learning, perceive education as a job – a rote mechanical effort done becomes someone else wants it done. When students are allowed to move forward in their education without meeting the requirements of courses as prescribed by the teacher and administration, the student learns that knowledge isn’t important – that ‘school’ is a game to manipulate to their own end.

When students are allowed to behave against expectations without prescription and delivery of a reasonable, identifiable punishment for those behaviors, students are provided no framework for authority. Without a framework for authority, there is no trust. Without trust, students are unable to see the value of education in their lives and learning cannot occur.

Oklahoma can create the best set of standards in the world, but until it is understood that education is a mixture of education and expectation – and follow through on that understanding – Oklahoma will continue to see poor educational outcomes. 

Here’s how the NGA defines College and Career readiness:

A college- and career-ready student is an individual that is ready to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing, academic college courses and in workforce training programs.  College refers to two- and four-year postsecondary schools.  Workforce training programs pertain to careers that offer competitive, livable salaries above the poverty line; offer opportunities for career advancement; and are in a growing or sustainable industry.

*National Governors Association, “Common Core State Standards Initiative: Standards Setting Criteria” (Washington, D.C.: 2009).

With which definition do you most agree?