The Most Important 7 Minute Video You'll EVER See About Property Taxes

 

From our conversation with former McClain County Assessor, now newly-elected state Senator, Kendal Sacchieri on January 15th.

See the blog on our website for more information, but this video has to be the most important video you could ever see on property taxes and if it doesn't make you really mad, you might be a communist...LOL - no, but really!

See the full video on our YouTube and Rumble channels.

Parents: Blurry Boundaries Hurt Kids

Our guest on Wednesday, January 8th, was Kendra Wesson, Oklahoma State School Board member. Today, we talked about a whole LOT of things, but the one thing we talked about that is the most important to parents was this conversation about how allowing kids to have boundaries that blur the line between kid and adult can really cause the kid to get blindsided by things such as sexual molestation by a teacher or coach. Watch this short video and then find the full live video on our Rumble and YouTube channels.

To Protect Oklahoma Kids Statute Of Limitation Laws Must Be Changed - V1SUT Vantage; ROPE Report Live

During our regular third Wednesday podcast with our friend and V1SUT Vantage blogger, 'Mary', we talked about how Oklahoma can't protect its students until we change the Statute of Limitations on sex crimes. Watch the short video to see how and why these need to be changed to protect Oklahoma kids.

Your Sexuality Makes You Immune From The Vetting Process - V1SUT; ROPE Report Live

Our July 17th visit with V1SUT, brought to the forefront - yet again - how adults who sexually abuse children seem to somehow get lost in the system. It's bad enough when heterosexuals assault children (see V1SUT Vantage's series on Bad Coaching, describing coaches who preyed upon their young female players), but when members of the "LGBT" community are involved, it seems as though they are untouchable.

Here, Mary tells us about a situation in Bartlesville where a same sex female couple was allowed to foster a child. The child's arm was later broken, but no investigation occurred before the couple was given another child to foster, who died while in their care at 2 months of age.

Parents should be aware of not only what is going on in their schools, but what is going on in their communities as well. Better yet, their children should remain home with them to ensure their safety.

True School Choice Is Eliminating Property Taxes - Sherrie Conley

In this ROPE Report Short, our guest for Wednesday, June 26th, Oklahoma Representative Sherrie Conley and Jenni White talk about what really makes "school choice". Is it the government giving people taxpayer dollars to privately school their kids (vouchers), or is it the government allowing taxpayers to have our property without property taxes (Ad Valorem) so that taxpayers could help pay to educate their own children? This led to a bit more discussion on taxation...

The video in its entirety (recorded live on the 26th) can be found on our Rumble and YouTube channels.

If You Can't Answer These Questions, You Can't Support Vouchers; Sarah DeNeui - ROPE Report Short

Wednesday, June 5th, Sarah DeNeui - a homeschooling mom and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, resident - came on the podcast to talk about the bill that ushered in Oklahoma's "Universal School Choice", HB1934, 2023.

She began to research the bill because it included a provision for homeschoolers to collect $1000.00 in tax credits if they provided all the information required and were eligible. She wanted to know if homeschooling could somehow be damaged by the program so she did a deep dive.

What she found concerned her, so she started asking herself questions about the entire program - especially the part where the state gives public money to private schools. Those who believe vouchers are a good thing should take the time to answer each question Sarah has thoughtfully asked.

If you can still support vouchers after this video, there simply isn't a way to be a self-identified "conservative", or "small government" or even "Republican". There really isn’t…

The Failure Of Schools To Protect Their Students Costs Taxpayers Money - ROPE Report Short; Rep. Sherrie Conley

Oklahoma Representative Sherrie Conley was on with Michael and Jenni this morning (5.10.245). She talked about the ramifications of her bill to stop school officials from texting privately with a child without permission from a parent and where she wants to go with this legislation once she's out of the legislature and a private citizen next year.

In this clip, Rep. Conley makes it clear that, because Oklahoma has mandatory reporting laws for child endangerment, the Superintendents and Principals who know/knew that children are/were being sexually abused by school employees, should be brought up on criminal charges once investigations have been completed and school employees formally charged with child predation.

See the full video on our Rumble and YouTube accounts.

 

People Who Allow Child Predation Should Be Held Criminally Liable - ROPE Report Short With OK Rep. Sherrie Conley

Oklahoma Representative Sherrie Conley was on with Michael and Jenni this morning (5.10.245). She talked about the ramifications of her bill to stop school officials from texting privately with a child without permission from a parent and where she wants to go with this legislation once she's out of the legislature and a private citizen next year. 

In this clip, Rep. Conley makes it clear that, because Oklahoma has mandatory reporting laws for child endangerment, the Superintendents and Principals who know/knew that children are/were being sexually abused by school employees, should be brought up on criminal charges once investigations have been completed and school employees formally charged with child predation.

Privacy Policies can Protect Perpetrators; V1SUT - ROPE Report Short

V1SUT tells us that as she has researched MANY of her articles, she's finding more and more often that privacy policies adopted by all sorts of state agencies - from schools to police departments - are shrouding the transparency of a number of instances in which adults are hurting/abusing children/students in some way. 

During the research on her article about a 9 yo boy served a VPO at school without his parents present, V1SUT documents how it might be time to have cameras in classrooms to keep students safe. 

See the full video for V1SUT's FULL explanation into what she found during her research and how students are falling through the privacy cracks on both our YouTube and Rumble channels.

How Does A 9 YO Get A VPO Against Him? V1SUT; ROPE Report Short

A 9 YO boy in Shawnee was recently served a Victim's Protective Order AT SCHOOL (without a parent present) by a police officer, not the School Resource Officer. How does a little boy get served a VPO? When the mother of the 'victim' goes through a taxpayer-funded non-profit organization founded to help women who are victims of sexual harassment or sexual abuse and the judge in the case disregards ALL the guidance provided for serving a VPO, that's how. Interestingly, the judge in this case is connected to Shawnee Public Schools (who have recently been in the headlines for housing the now-sentenced sexual predator coach, Ron Arthur) through her husband - currently on administrative leave - an intern in her office from SPS and a sister who is a teacher in the district. V1SUT's story illustrates well what happens when the ADULTS in the government school system who are supposed to be protecting the children in their care are not taking their job seriously enough. Please see the whole video on either our YouTube or Rumble channels.

How Many Predators In OK Public Schools? Sherrie Conley - ROPE Report Short

Oklahoma House Rep Sherrie Conley talks about her bill (HB3958), which makes it a punishable offense for school employees to communicate with students one-on-one through any phone or computer apps without express parental permission. 

While doing research for the bill, Sherrie found an indication of the number of people in Oklahoma who have lost their teaching licenses due to confirmed allegations of child predation. 

Truly, when one thinks about the number of children each predator averages before they are caught by a system, this is simply a tragic circumstance for our children in public schools. This has to stop. 

Please support HB3958 and help prevent as many cases of child predation as possible.

ROPE Report Short - OK Rep Sherrie Conley, Explains Bill To Keep Kids Safe

HB3958 has passed the House and will move to the Senate.

Sherrie explains that this bill can help stop public school employees who are also sexual predators, from preying on students by engaging in one-on-one conversation with them via electronic or digital communication. 

This is a great bill to keep students safe, so please contact your Oklahoma Senator and ask them to make sure this bill gets a hearing in the Senate Education Committee and passed on the floor of the Senate.

Democrat Education Policies DAMAGE Kids – VOTE NO FOR DEMOCRAT JENA NELSON for State Superintenden

With elections weeks away, Democrats are now scrambling to change history yet again. Though it was DEMOCRATS who were the main proponent of closing schools during the COVID 19 “pandemic”, the Biden administration is now attempting to shift the blame from Democrats for what we now KNOW damaged American school children possibly irreparably – the closing of public schools in favor of ‘distance learning’ for over a year.

Today - Especially If You're A Christian - You Should Be Educating Your Children At Home

Many years ago I had a conversation with a friend considering homeschooling her kids. She told me she wanted to keep them home, because, as a Christian, she was concerned about the anti-Christian messages her kids have brought home to her.

Can A School Force Your Child To Take State Tests?

Today I received a communication from a ROPE reader. She told me she had received a letter from her Assistant Principal in response to her request to opt her child/children out of state testing. The letter said, in part:

As guided by the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE), indicating laws and rules set by our legislature, we are required to assess all enrolled students who are present on scheduled test days. In fact, "Because of these statutory and rule requirements, there is no "opt-out" option offered through the OSDE. In addition, 70 OS Section 5-117 states that local school boards of education do not have the authority to take actions inconsistent with state law or rules that have been adopted by the State Board of Education."

That sounds very official. Even a bit scary. 

Dirty Little Education Secrets Part 2: Teachers Are NOT All Leaving The Profession Over Pay



This morning I read an awesome article by a long time teacher from Pennsylvania was explaining why teachers are leaving the profession. Never once in his treatise did he mention money. Here was one of his closing paragraphs:

Progressive/Constructivist Math STINKS ON ICE

Just recently I posted this picture on my Jenni White's Education Page on Facebook. In one day, it had a reach of almost 169 THOUSAND views and it almost 2500 shares. Why? 

Well, I imagine that, no matter how many times the educrats running education today tell us Common Core (Constructivist/Progressive) math is going to make our kids rocket scientists, real moms and dads - once they get settled in for the night helping their kids with the homework they pick up in government (public) schools that use Common Core and/or Constructivist/Progressive math - realize that this idea is crap. Progressive math is not going to help our kids - and their parents - do much of anything except want to bang their heads repeatedly on their desks - or kitchen counters - all across America.

I was granted a Master's Degree in Biology in 1995. Oh, I understood descriptive science wonderfully well (human anatomy, ecology, etc.) - quantitative science (chemistry, physiology) not so much. In fact, I took the Graduate Record Examination 3 separate times in order to get into graduate school. Each time, I blew the top off the English score, but could barely come out with a math score better than a 3rd grader!

It wasn't until I began to school my kids at home (after removing them from public school for many reasons, but mainly because of the 1st grade math my son was doing) that I finally realized WHY. In the 1970's, when I was in middle school, there was a fabulous new fad in public education called, "Open Classroom". Here's an excellent explanation of this concept from the linked article:

In both Britain and the United States, open classrooms contained no whole-class lessons, no standardized tests, and no detailed curriculum. The best of the open classrooms had planned settings where children came in contact with things, books, and one another at “interest centers” and learned at their own pace with the help of the teacher. Teachers structured the classroom and activities for individual students and small work groups. They helped students negotiate each of the reading, math, science, art, and other interest centers on the principle that children learn best when they are interested and see the importance of what they are doing.

Here's how this fabulous concept translated for me; I LEARNED ABSOLUTELY NO MATH IN MIDDLE SCHOOL AT ALL. It floored me how, once I began having to teach middle level math to my kids, I had to teach it to myself first. Fractions and decimals were never part of my mathematical lexicon - EVER - because an educational fad derailed my learning process in my middle grade years. 

Take any standardized test - anywhere. The whole thing is full of fractions and decimals. If you don't learn them, you don't do well on any standardized test. I understand algebra well because I had some great algebra teachers in high school, yet if the algebra had fractional values anywhere at all, I was a big FAIL.

The Open Classroom concept came from Britian - bastion of Constructivist education - and was, of course, embraced by the educational Constructivists/Progressives in America. Without any real consideration of whether or not the process would work, it was foisted upon us unsuspecting students (and their tax paying parents) much to the educational detriment of our generation.

Now, the educational Progressives (unfortunately, most education is now Progressive in nature) have taken over yet again, and this generation's Open Classroom concept is Common Core. Though many states have fought CC and won - like here in Oklahoma - Constructivist math is becoming cemented in place in states all over the nation via large textbook publishers like McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt etc., who have embraced Constructivist math and are publishing math books (like Everyday Math). 

I warned about this kind of thing - even during an interview with Dana Loesch for Glenn Beck. Here in Oklahoma, though we (ostensibly) have made Common Core illegal, I got a private message from a teacher friend the other day about English books that said,

Hey, Jenni. I am so irritated that I could spit nails. I just got back from a shindig thrown by the publisher HMH because Oklahoma is adopting language arts books next year. They were swearing up and down that their curriculum and books were not common core aligned. However, after a quick thumb through of the reading material, it was obvious to me that the only difference between the Oklahoma books and the Common Core books were that the words "Common Core" were not on the covers of the Oklahoma books. If this is the material we are going to give our students to read, what did we really accomplish by repealing Common Core? Do you have any thoughts or recommendations of other publishing companies that I can have my school look at? Thanks for your input.

Page after page of math worksheets from Constructivist/Progressive math books, being provided to classrooms of students by teachers trained in Construcitivst/Progressive math teaching, have been plastered across the internet showing the ridiculousness of Constructivist/Progressive math. Here is one below. The problem was 5x3. The boy wrote on his paper that 5x3 was essentially 5+5+5, yet he was docked a point because he didn't mention that it was also three, five times. So? That's worth a point? 

The next problem asks the child to construct an array describing 4x6. He does that in a 4 by 6 fashion. Again he's docked a point because he didn't also do the 6 by 4 array.

To be honest, this isn't really the worst of the ones I've seen. The one in this blog report is another that I've seen a number of times. The child is asked to estimate a number but then doesn't get the answer correct when she provides the EXACT answer and not a number rounded to the 10s place.

This stuff is ridiculous and will absolutely make kids frustrated enough to hate the whole mathematical process. 

The idea of Constructivist/Progressive math is that kids must know why they are getting the answer they record on their worksheet in order to be able to learn. The emphasis is on the WHY, not the HOW. Great. I think it's very important for kids to understand why math works. I teach my own kids that in their lessons. I do not, however, expect them to know the why as MORE IMPORTANT than the how, because that's dumb. You're not going to return change to someone at a cash register where you get your first job by explaining that you're subtracting what the customer gave you from the total owed and providing them change back by counting up that discrepancy in reverse. WHO CARES? The person you're giving the change to doesn't give a flip, they just want their money counted back to them so they know you didn't cheat them!

Last year, I put together a video explaining the differences between Constructivist/Progressive education and Traditional education. It's about 45 minutes, but I think it will help confused parents understand the differences among the two types of education and why 'Traditional' education is better, hands down - especially for math.

The bottom line is this: math requires SPECIFIC knowledge of SPECIFIC concepts. Math is a language and in order to speak the language you have to memorize its terminology. Can you imagine speaking Spanish by - instead of memorizing the vocabulary - explaining what every Spanish word means? No one would ever converse! Every student must know 6x5 is 30. Yes, it's good to know why, but why isn't going to solve a problem on an exam, rote memory of the equation 6x5=30 will accomplish that. Math is black and white - 6x5=30 upside down, on the moon or in Zanzabar - that will NEVER change. 

Educational fads like Open Classroom and Common Core are the definition of fadish; "a practice or interest followed for a time with exaggerated zeal :  craze. Educational fads are destroying the ability of our kids to become educated. Traditional methods work. We need to stop spending educational time and resources re-inventing the wheel. If your child's school is using Common Core/Constructivist/Progressive math books, either get them a traditional math tutor after school, or TAKE THEM OUT AND SCHOOL THEM AT HOME. Math is not an experiment. Traditional math is a time-honored, time-tested way to provide students the tools they need to gain knowledge and lead successful lives. Period.

Surveys Containing Personal Behavioral/Emotional Questions Are Given To Oklahoma Students Through 21st Century Skills Programming

The latest email from the Oklahoma State Department of Education heralds the fact that we took yet MORE MONEY from the federal government in the way of 21st Century Community Center Learning grants (CCLC). This is exciting, we are told, because now, there are 59 total grantees in the state, each getting hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece. Thrilling! Or is it? Do we know what the CCLC's do? What are their performance records? What is going on in the course of administration of this program?

As I read the email, I remembered an incident way back in 2011 when I received a call from a friend, regarding a psychological survey his son had been given - without his permission -at his school in Hugo, Oklahoma. After some digging around, we were both able to find out about 21st Century Community Centers and what they did.

Because of the new fabulous grants being handed out this year funding further CCLC's in Oklahoma, I thought I would re-publish our findings. In order to update our research, I attempted to go out to the federal Department of Education and look up the grant information as I had done previously (see figs 2 and 3 below). Unfortunately, I found this message

The 21st CCLC Profile and Performance Information Collection System (PPICS) has been retired and a new data collection method is currently under development. Please visit this site after April 2015 for updates.

Unfortunately, this is October of 2015 and there was NOTHING on the CCLC page indicating a link to the 'new' data collection. No new performance reports - no nothing.

Apparently, all the CCLC data were moved to the Oklahoma State Department of Education where I found a page that contained a program evaluation report for 2012/2013. Page 30 begins to report the collection of SOCIOEMOTIONAL data for students enrolled in the program. In Oklahoma, it is against the law (HB3399) to collect SOCIOEMOTIONAL data via state testing, yet here it is in four full pages from 30-34. Don't you suppose that if Oklahoma legislators were upset enough about social emotional questions to make them illegal on state tests, they'd be just as concerned about this kind of data collection anywhere in the educational process? I think many would, yes. That is why it's extremely important to let your legislator know what is happening inside the boundaries of this program.

Here are 2 screenshots of some of the questions kids in this program are asked.

The reasons ROPE - and apparently the legislature - are so opposed to this kind of questioning is that it can be very effectively stored and used against kids at a later date, or used to pigeonhole them in programming that is unnecessary and/or costly.

At this point, I will interject our previous study from 2011 regarding CCLC's:

OVERVIEW:

1.  21st CCLC programming includes psychological testing that has been done in Oklahoma – illegally – without parental permission.
2. Due to changes in FERPA laws (governing student privacy rights in public schools), demographic and personal student data may now be collected and shared widely without parental knowledge or consent.
3. Collecting sensitive data such as that provided by psychological evaluations of any kind, creates enormous breaches in the right to privacy of minor children enrolled in public education.
4. 21st CCLC’s cost over 1 billion dollars per year and – according to their own annual reports – have failed every year - not yet once reaching the goals of their assessment descriptors.

BACKGROUND:

21st Century programming was the brainchild of a man named Marc Tucker - an acolyte of Hillary Clinton - the man also behind the Common Core Standards. He believes strongly in the John Dewey progressive education model - most commonly employed among communist countries - where school is to provide students EVERYTHING they need for successful lives. Teachers and parents are simply facilitators in the role of fitting the student in the role of 'worker'. Tucker is the progenitor of the standards-based education reform movement - another name for Outcome Based Education. Marc Tucker's organization is called, National Center for Education and the Economy.

ISSUES:

1. The entire 21st Century program is built upon a series of white papers that explain the above philosophy in great detail.

• Instead of focusing exclusively on math, science, reading/writing, social studies, 21st Century focuses on Global Awareness - Financial, Economic, Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy - Civic Literacy - Health Literacy - Environmental Literacy
• Please note: the P21 Toolkit tells how Common Core and P21 Align, and shows ZERO actual concrete standards or practice of basic skills – relying instead on endless group projects and 'explorations' - very progressive education.
• The Measuring Skills for 21st Century Education on page 1 "Unmet Challenges" of the document begins tying together John Dewey and Marc Tucker and explains that employers need workers to do more than simple procedures - or how the government (public schools) need to prepare students to be workers.

2. The 21st Century program (also called P21 - Partnership for 21st Century Skills) is actually four parts that includes the 21st Century after school programming.

3. 21st Century after school programs are ALL supported by federal grants –

• 86 Oklahoma school districts have been given 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grants since 2006
• FY11, Oklahoma was given $12,482,019 to serve 12,482 children = funding of 1 THOUSAND dollars per child?

4. Page 4 of the Measuring Skills document ties the 21st Century Skills and 21st CCLC's together - how 21st Century uses the CCLC's to promote their agenda

5. Despite an increase in spending every single year, please note the following from the government's own 21st Century Community Learning Centers performance review:

• "The program as a whole continues to fall below the established targeted performance thresholds associated with the GPRA performance indicators for the program. A rigorous study of the program may result in the development of more relevant GPRA measures"
• In other words, taxpayers spend over a BILLION dollars on this program every year so that P21’s own assessments can show they’re having NO impact at all. In response, P21 will lower their assessment cut scores and change indicators to match their program results.

6. Grants are given to schools to institute a wide range of after school activities including the following:

• Drug and violence prevention programs and counseling programs
• Please note the “Glossary of Terms” on pages 40-41 of the Response to Intervention document 4 out of 24 apply specifically to BEHAVIOR issues
• Note all the manners by which children in the program are assessed and how specific data programs utilized by the program, can collect “HUGE” amounts of demographic data on students in the program (under the guise of accountability).
• This website sells psychological tests which are administered to assess behavior in the 21st Century programs.
• Psychological testing of students is PROHIBITED by the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) excepting under specific conditions allowed by the parent.
•  Because of changes in the FERPA regulations that allow a large amount of student data to be collected from public school students AND then SHARED with other organizations WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT (pg 52), it is entirely possible for psychological profiles to be collected and digitized into a database without parental consent by those ignorant of the law.

7. Figure 1 represents a psychological assessment given to the child of parent Howard Houchen, in Hugo Elementary Schools.

8. Hugo Elementary Schools received a 21st CCLC grant in July 2007.

• Since that time, Hugo Public Schools has received $880,000 for the CCLC program (Figure 2) that Hugo Public Schools was providing various forms of counseling services.

9. Figure 3 shows that Hugo Elementary Schools CCLC program was funded in part by Hartsell Psychological Services and that the Hugo CCLC was tasked to provide behavioral counseling to students less than 18 years of age.

10. Appendix 1 contains the letter sent by Hugo parent Howard Houchen to Representative Lee Denney in response to HB2641, explaining his concerns about the 21st Century CCLC program in Hugo.

CONCLUSION: 

Under the 21st Century Skills program – a federal grant program paid for by tax payers – students are being administered psychological tests through public schools without parental consent. Because of the recent changes in FERPA laws, which allow student demographic and other personal ‘data’ to be collected and shared by public schools without parental consent, public education institutions should not offer these kinds of highly sensitive services. In order to protect student/family privacy, minor child counseling programs should be confined to those sought specifically/exclusively by the parent/family of the minor child in need of counseling, administered through private, non-profit organizations or through the Department of Human Services. Public schools should focus solely on educational matters and leave matters of physical and emotional health to parents, families and personal physicians.

Figure 1: Psychological assessment provided by Hugo Elementary Schools to the students in 5^th grade class without parental permission.

Figure 1: Psychological assessment provided by Hugo Elementary Schools
to the students in 5^th grade class without parental permission.

Figure 2: Screen shot of the Grantee Details for Hugo Public Schools’ CCLC grant.

Figure 2: Screen shot of the Grantee Details for
 Hugo Public Schools’ CCLC grant.

Figure 3: Screen shot from the 21^st Century Community Learning Centers website showing that Hartsell Psychological Services was a funding source for Hugo Public Schools 21^st CCLC where behavioral counseling was a part of the program.

Figure 3: Screen shot from the 21^st Century Community Learning Centers website 

showing that Hartsell Psychological Services was a funding source for 

Hugo Public Schools 21^st CCLC where behavioral counseling was a part of the program.

Appendix 1: Letter from Hugo parent Howard Houchen to Representative Lee Denney of the Oklahoma House Common Education Committee – author of HB2641 that all districts have access to individual and group counseling.

Rep. Denney, et al;

I would also ask that HB2641 be tabled and would like to offer some points for clarity purposes.  Both of my children attend Hugo Public schools. The youngest is in 5th Grade at Hugo Elementary, the oldest graduates (with Honors) from Hugo High School in three months.  The 'Durant" reference, I believe, comes from a finding that Hartsell Psychological Services also has an "after school program contract" with Calera Public Schools which is just a few miles away from Durant, OK.

Hartsell Psychological Services (HPS) first appeared on my radar in August 2011 as I was notified that Hugo Elementary had CONTRACTED with HPS (in conjunction with a 21st Century Grant) to provide an after-school program.  I will try and be as succinct as possible here: HPS pays the schools they have contracted with a sum of money that goes to pay for the salaries of the teachers used in the after-school program. 

In return, HPS gets their money from "counseling" children that they basically refer to themselves (in many instances).  This payment appears to range from $400.00 -- $600.00 per week, per student.  Who pays?  You and I do because the charges go to Medicaid and SoonerCare, however, I am unable to find a single SoonerCare payment to HPS.   

I was told, by an administrator, that HPS also has material that some teachers use during regular school sessions.  I was unable to determine what that material is and what it is used for.  Our youngest was given what I consider to be a psych assessment, by HPS, outside of the after-school program (in regular school session) AND he is NOT enrolled in the after-school program.  HPS claims to have these program contracts with many ISD's throughout Oklahoma.  I do know they are contracted with Hugo and Calera. 

The "assessments" which were attempted to be given to  my child were VERY personal in nature and the parents were never asked for consent to having our children take part in either of the assessments.  Approximately 7 weeks ago our youngest son came home and told us the following: "Ms. Harmon handed out another psychological test today."  I asked: "Did you take it?"  He replied: "No, I recognized it from the last one and walked up to her desk and asked, 'Is this from Hartsell?' and she said 'Yes' and I told her I didn't want to do it so she didn't make me." 

I can go on-and-on about this topic but realize you are under restraints of time.  I can tell you that when all of the information is properly analyzed relative to data collection on OUR children...it is my judgment that this MUST end.  I am fed-up with kids being utilized as mines for data and "Guinea-Pigs".

I can tell you that the administrators I talk with about this situation feel as if they are in a  "damned if  you do and damned if you don't" situation.  They see dollars leaving programs, such as the after-school program, and are willing to dance with the devil to recoup those dollars.  I have offered my opinion on this tactic and am unwilling to sell my child’s and my family’s' privacy through data collection.  HB2641 simply adds to this already exploitive and corruptible environment. 

Please feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions or comments;

Regards,

Howard Houchen

"Day of Silence"? What About "Day Of Christian Martyrs"? What About "Day of Geeks or Nerds"?

Today I received an email:

Good Morning Jenni:
I got an email today with regard to the Day of Silence.  My kids attend Moore Public Schools (Brink Jr. High and Eastlake Elem).  I called the elem. school and they had not heard anything about the DOS walk out or anything about the DOS.  I found your website however, the data was from 2010.  Do you have any idea how wide spread the GLSEN was taking this Day of Silence in Oklahoma schools?
I would rather my kids protest than participate at school.

I'm glad this person contacted me. I'd forgotten about the Day of Silence which is being observed in SCHOOLS all over the country THIS Friday, April 17th. Here is their mission statement and history:

GLSENs Day of Silence is a national day of action in which students across the country vow to take a form of silence to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools.

History

Founded in 1996, the Day of Silence has become the largest single student-led action towards creating safer schools for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. From the first-ever Day of Silence at the University of Virginia in 1996, to the organizing efforts in over 8,000 middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities across the country in 2008, its textured history reflects its diversity in both numbers and reach. For the record, no one should bully anyone about anything, but I want to make a few points here. Since I became aware of the "Day of Silence" five years ago, the website has stopped publicizing participating schools. Why? If this is such a worthwhile endeavor, why not continue to laud those schools taking part? This is somewhat frustrating actually, when you combine this with the fact that Oklahoma schools do not always publicize DOS activities themselves (for whatever reason). This leaves parents in the dark regarding an activity occurring at school with which many parents - as the one whose email I received - would not agree. Parents cannot appropriately direct the lives/educations of their children without adequate information about their environment. My oldest son was bullied at school. He's not gay, he's just a quiet kid that didn't enjoy hanging out with the 'popular' crowd of kids. Where's the "Non-Cool Kids Day"? As a Christian, I do not 'support' the GLSEN lifestyle. I try and love all people as Christ has called me to do, but I don't support this activity any more than I would support you drinking yourself to death, cheating on your spouse, defrauding others in business, or engaging in any other form of 'sinful' behavior according to my Bible. So, you may call me a bigot, or the cooler new word, "hater" if you'd like, but realize when you do, you'll be a "hater" yourself for your bigotry of my Christian views. In this vein, I object to the Day of Silence on the grounds that it runs counter to my religious views. Ok. What does the first amendment to the Constitution say? It says,  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Gosh, we're kind of at an impasse here, aren't we then? I am guaranteed the free exercise of my religion, yet you are guaranteed the right to speak freely and/or assemble. It seems we're on the same road going opposite directions, so how do we stop a train wreck? Here's my plan. Schools that decide it completely appropriate to host a "Day of Silence" must make plans to also host a "Day of Christian Martyrs" where students get to dress up as their favorite Christian martyr while giving speeches about them during passing period and lunch (the same times DOS-affirming students may use their right to 'remain silent'). During that time these students will also feel free to distribute Christian reading material (as the DOS-affirming students are called to do). But wait, what about the Geeks and Nerds day? Shouldn't we also have a day to call out those who abuse animals on a 'Be Kind To Animals Day'? What about Wicca Day? I hope you're getting my point. This kind of thing could go on and on and on and on.... Schools - particularly those provided by PUBLIC TAX DOLLARS - are for educating young minds in the traditional subjects of reading, writing, arithmetic, etc. Unfortunately, this isn't truly the case anymore. Students are pulled out regularly for special kinds of 'counseling', for this or that event or assembly, for occupational or other therapy - then there are the sports activities and field trips.  If one looks at the majority of A-F grades for public schools in Oklahoma, we're not making "A's". Could it be because we don't spend enough time studying the "College and Career Ready" subjects already? Could it be there are too many other activities and events taking up time better spent on task in the classroom? As a former teacher, I remember the number of hours we racked up for assemblies, field trips and testing. I remember wondering how I was ever going to impart to my kids all the knowledge they needed to have to graduate 7th grade with all the other 'extracurriculars' - and that was 12 years ago - before class time began getting sucked into the black hole of state and federal mandates. No, I don't want a "Day of Silence" in our PUBLIC schools - I don't want anything but class time in our public schools. However, if that isn't going to happen, and our PUBLIC schools are going to allow DOS (or any other activity that offends my sensibilities as a Christian) schools must make the opportunity to have activities sharing opposing views. Anything else, is true indoctrination. FYI: Here's a list of Student Religious Rights from a Christian attorney in the event you might be interested.

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.