A Sincere Apology To All Our Oklahoma Teacher Friends

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

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

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

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

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

 Please note,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Murphy said, 

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

Turner said, 

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

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

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

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

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

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

I have begun to answer,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, hopefully that begs the question, 

How much money is enough money for Oklahoma education?

Hopefully that also begs the question,

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

At this point, I will say,

Glad you asked!

and give you the following answer:

Who knows!?  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Common Core Is NOT OK Rally Summary

And so it was that Wednesday, March 27, somewhere between 150 and 200 people came to the Oklahoma State Capitol to rally against the Common Core State Standards!  We were so grateful to look out and see such a fabulous crowd!  We know the time and energy it takes to leave your home and put aside your day to do something like this and we truly appreciate your willingness to work with us to stop the de-humanization and de-localization of public education.

I'm not going to take the time today to rehash all the reasons why we object to the Common Core in this post, but I will make sure that those of you who wish to have ammunition to give your friends, family members and neighbors, can get that here - in a one stop shop of sorts!

A brief list of Common Core educational materials

Here is a link to our one page information sheet called, "What Oklahomans Need To Know About Common Core State Standards".  If you're not in Oklahoma and wish to have something more generic, please use this handout from our friends at the Truth in American Education website.

Here is the paper that really helped to spread the word about CCSS, "Common Core State Standards, An Introduction To Marxism 101"  This should help you put the background together on where the Common Core came from - it's political background and who's behind the push.

For those of you interested also in the data collection aspect, our paper, "How Much Data Is Enough Data? What happens to privacy when bureaucracies exceed their scope?" might be of interest.  We also have another one page information sheet called, "What Oklahomans Need To Know About The P20 Council" that you can hand out to those seeking information.

A number of media outlets were represented at the Rally.  Below, are posted the links to the stories the rally generated.


Educators Protest New Guidelines At State House (added 4/1) - I totally forgot to post this video/story from NewsChannel 4.  I thought their reporting was absolutely great!  Both sides, no spin.  Two thumbs up!

Lawmakers Urged To Reject Proposed Nationwide Academic Standards - this was a video from our Daily Oklahoman.  We thought this video - and the news story - very fair.

Protestors Rally Against New School Curriculum - this was from our FOX affiliate.  Not bad, but didn't really get to the meat of the matter, just more about 'federal takeover'.  Also, in this story, I lost 3 of my children!  My husband, who watched the story with me said, "Do we get to pick which ones we lose?" (David and I have 5 children, not the 2 depicted in the story!)

Opponents of 'Common Core Standards' Education Rally At State Capitol.  This was from the AP and instead of doing their own reporting, LOCALLY OWNED KWTV-Channel 9 picked up the AP report.  So did Glenn Beck!  The reporting in this 'article' (if you can call it that) was SO atrocious that Glenn Beck picked it up off the wire and skewered it on the radio!  This was HORRIBLE.  I imagine News9 will lose a number of viewers over this - they lost me!  It was so bad in fact, that I penned this reply:

Hunter (a very liberal hate-speak blogger), you might get some sleep...that might help your disposition a bit. This 'loon' would like to ask you a question, "Would you buy a car sight unseen?" These standards were put into Oklahoma law before they were even available to read. So, you're all for making school kids Guinea Pigs in an education experiment that could affect them for the rest of their lives? You must not like kids very much! Here's another question for you, "Would you show up to buy a car without knowing how much it cost?" I wouldn't. I research that kind of stuff pretty thoroughly. We had no idea how much the Common Core would cost before they were enacted into law and two years later, our superintendent simply said she anticipated low costs. Since that time schools have had to apply for eRate grants and raise school bonds to pay for the technology costs to give the tests tied to the Standards. You must not care about your property taxes much, or the fact that the superintendent just asked for about 140 MILLION dollars more for education spending. Will that go to teachers? No. Will that go to kids? NO. It will go to buying computer and testing software and wiring. You must not be for more money in the classroom are you? I do hope you don't call yourself an advocate for Public Schools or education or children. We at ROPE care about teachers and students - that's why we say COMMON CORE IS NOT OK!

Here are the videos from the rally in order of speaker appearance, if you would like to watch and/or pass around:

Jenni White and Representative Gus Blackwell 

Representative David Brumbaugh

Reverend Paul Blair 

Tracey Montgomery (Oklahoma Coordinator - ParentalRights.org) 

Linda Murphy (longtime educator and owner of Education and Training Services)

Rally effects:

All Rally attendees were asked to write their name, address and phone number on three red postcards with our anti-Common Core logo on the other side.  They were then, at the rally, asked to take those postcards and deliver them to the offices of their Senator and Representative and the office of Governor Mary Fallin.  At the end of the rally, Lynn, Danna and Julia and I went to the Governor's office to drop off our cards.  We were met by the very unhappy office assistant who gruffly took the cards, timestamped them and plopped them onto a stack about 1 1/2 to 2 inches high.

In the event people don't remember, our bill (HB1907), run by Representative Gus Blackwell, to create a task force simply to study the cost of the Common Core, passed its committee hearing unanimously.  It was blocked from a hearing on the floor by Speaker T.W. Shannon at the behest of our Governor who is the Vice-Chair of the NGA.  After all, it wouldn't look good for the Vice Chair of the National Governor's Association to start trying to kill the Common Core when the NGA was one of two private, non-governmental trade organizations developing and pushing out the standards?  Oh, Representative Shannon offered Representative Blackwell an interim study to study all aspects of the Common Core in return, so we should have been happy with that and moved on to 'more important' topics, apparently, but of course, we don't quit that easily.  We immediately began setting up the rally and taking to Twitter and Facebook, calling the politics of our Governor and Speaker out into the open.

Representative Blackwell began authoring a House Joint Resolution against the Common Core - HJR1011 - which is a truly excellent piece of legislation.  As soon as it is written onto the Oklahoma State Legislature webpage, we'll provide the link.  Currently, we are attempting to get as many House authors on the bill as possible.  We are even attempting to get an SJR.  We have an author, my State Senator Ron Sharp and even a few Senators to sign on with him, but our Oklahoma Senate seems to be the toughest place to get good, conservative, liberty-minded legislation passed - ever.

Yesterday, Representative Blackwell called me to tell me he had heard from "a number" of legislators who stopped by to the rally to listen.  They expressed their concerns over Common Core and asked him for more information on the topic.  Not only that, but Rep. Blackwell visited with T.W. Shannon (who, we found out, will be a GUEST on the GLENN BECK program in the near future!) who told him he would make sure our HJR got to the floor.  This is great because our SJR says that implementation of Common Core will STOP until we have satisfied at least 6 different categories of inquiry on the topic!  

In closing, we are extraordinarily happy about the rally and expect that God will multiply our efforts toward restoring local public education!  We are grateful for all speakers and participants and suggest that, as many of us know, legislators will only see the light when they feel the heat.  We MUST continue to push this issue out there as often as possible - into the media and with our elected representatives bypassed by the initial legislation!  Let's not rest until Common Core is gone because COMMON CORE IS NOT OK!