TW Shannon And The Common Core (Updated 6/18/14)

Come election time, everyone has a story.  Some are better than others, but the most important thing to voters should be whose story is true.

Because there has been much said about T.W. Shannon and the Common Core fight in Oklahoma, I thought I would spend a few minutes detailing what I know.  Now please know, I realize there are two sides to every story.  I'm telling mine.

In December of 2012, just after T.W. Shannon had been announced as the historic new Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, Lynn Habluetzel and I met with him in his tiny office.  We had tried to schedule the meeting several times, but it just so happened, that today, a mere week before Christmas, he was in town and had time to visit.

At that meeting, Lynn and I provided the new Speaker with a run-down on Common Core, complete with a folder of written materials to read.  T.W. was attentive, took notes and at the end of the meeting, assured us he would look into the issue further.  We smiled, shook hands, wished him a Merry Christmas and said good-bye.

Representative Gus Blackwell introduced HB1907 the next session; a bill to provide a task force to study the costs of Common Core in Oklahoma.

The bill was heard in the Rules Committee which Blackwell chaired and passed unanimously.  In determining when we could plan for the bill to come to the Floor of the House, Calendar Committee Chair, Pam Peterson told us all Task Force bills were being held until all other bills could be heard.

The whole story can be found in my original blog, but suffice it to say, we were then told by Representative Blackwell that Speaker Shannon had killed the bill because the Governor had said she would veto it.   The Speaker then offered Representative Blackwell an interim study to be conducted over a number of days and over which Representative Blackwell would have free reign. (The study was conducted in October.  Few legislators - including T.W. Shannon - were present.)

From there, a series of events occurred in 2013:

• ROPE had a rally in the hall of the Supreme Court against Common Core that was well-covered by the media.
• Speaker Shannon had a change of heart, does a 180, says he believes Common Core is "federal intrusion into our education system", and will write a bill to help stop it.
• Speaker Shannon is a guest on the Glenn Beck Show (Dana Loesh was subbing that day)
• While he is gone, Representative Dennis Casey apparently authored a piece of anti-Common Core language that was attached to HB1719 (which we never saw but in draft form - it was never officially filed apparently as there is no record) which then died because it was 'accidentally' (?) sent to Senator Clark Jolley's Appropriations Committee (Senator Jolley helped author the legislation placing Common Core into Oklahoma State Law - SB2033 in 2010)
• Representative Blackwell authors HJR1011 to stop implementation of Common Core unless several categories of inquiry are met - the bill is not filed
• Legislative Session 2013 ends without a bill of any kind passing either Oklahoma legislative body

During 2014:

• Speaker Shannon authors HB3331, to stop the federal overreach of Common Core into Oklahoma
• Speaker Shannon leaves his Speaker's post to run for Senator Coburn's seat
• HB3399 is authored by Representative Jason Nelson after meeting with a number of grassroots activists prior to the beginning of session
• Holly Gerard, from the Oklahoma State GOP Executive Committee, Carolyn McLarty, National Committeewoman and I begin to work with Representative Nelson and others (also Senate author Josh Brecheen) to develop, discuss and study HB3399
• Holly, Carolyn, Lynn, Ronda Vuillemont-Smith (Tulsa912Project) meet with Representative Shannon about his bill - he says he will keep it to make sure we have a vehicle if something happens to HB3399
• HB3399 goes to the floor after Speaker Jeff Hickman takes over authorship - Representative Shannon is absent for the vote
• HB3399 goes to senate, conference committee and back to the floor for a vote, T.W. Shannon votes YEA

Now, once the bill passed the Senate - during the time it is waiting to be signed by the Governor - a veritable slew of Representatives signed on as co-sponsors of the bill: Kern, Bennett, Ortega, McCullough, Cockroft,
Brumbaugh, Sears, Echols, Walker, Derby and Shannon.  It is a very political move to sign on as a co-sponsor once the heat is off and you know the bill is going to pass.  However, it must be said that Sears, Kern and Shannon actually did do more than virtually anyone on the list historically and this year alone.

Did T.W. Shannon stop Common Core in Oklahoma by himself?  Absolutely not.  Did he move the conversation?  You'd have to say he did.  Was he a key player in stopping Common Core in Oklahoma?  He was one of the first legislators to speak publicly against it, but with the two twists of stopping Blackwell's bill and putting repeal language on a Jolley-bound track - I've always wondered how much of this was rhetoric simply because nothing came out of all the talk.

I like T.W. Shannon.  Face it, the man is likable, articulate and has a great 'cool' factor.  The only problem is that it takes more than a 'cool' factor to create a strong legislator that can stand FOR conservatism in the face of everything AGAINST conservatism at the federal level.  In fact, you need to look at his voting record.  I've never seen so many YEA's in my life.  My goodness he's agreeable, but not every bill can be a yes - only those that limit government, and many times that means a 'nay'.  T.W. Shannon is a very nice man, but I need more action and less talk.  I need more results and less attempts.  While I absolutely appreciate the efforts on T.W.'s part to change the discussion on Common Core, I'm not ready to send T.W. to Washington, D.C.

Via call from TW Shannon (6/18/14):  T.W. explained that he told Gus he was concerned his bill wasn't going to pass the House, let alone the Senate and that the Governor wouldn't sign it.  By offering Gus the interim study on Common Core instead of allowing the bill to come to the House floor for a vote, Shannon believed he would give the fight against Common Core a chance to develop.  Shannon was concerned that  if the bill made it to the floor and was voted down, it would do more to hurt the cause against Common Core than simply denying the bill a hearing and allowing Gus an extended period of time to bring Common Core issues to the public through an interim.
I asked him about the attempt to add Common Core language to Representative Osborn's bill after that, but he didn't remember the specifics and indicated he would contact someone in his office at that time who might know.  If I didn't have trouble remembering my kids birthdates, I could call that statement into question.
It was also interesting to me that he admitted being 'agnostic' on the topic of Common Core until after Lynn and I visited with him and he began to study the topic further.

The Politics of Common Core Part 2

Recently I gave you a rundown on the way I see the basic politics at play for the upcoming legislative session here in Oklahoma.  Since that time one very important thing has happened - Speaker of the House T.W. Shannon has declared himself to be considering a run for Senator Tom Coburn's Senate seat.

This changes things a bit.  If Shannon declares himself as a candidate for the seat, he would most probably leave his post as Speaker to campaign.  If he leaves his post as Speaker, we're not certain who would carry his bill, nor can we be certain who the next speaker would be.  There are several we have heard of that have indicated their interest in the post (among others) and the new Speaker's relationship with the governor may put he or she at odds with the grassroots desire to stop Common Core.

Currently, there are SEVEN bills relating directly to the Common Core - 5 in the House and 2 in the Senate.  

Two are simple repeal bills that delete the ONE PARAGRAPH in the 32 page SB2033 that made Common Core law in Oklahoma.  These are:

HB 2786 - authored by Representative Jadine Nollan 

http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2013-14%20int/HB/HB2786%20int.pdf

HB2849 - authored by Representative Dan Fisher

http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2013-14%20int/HB/HB2849%20int.pdf

There is no reason to think we cannot pass these bills with sufficient enough citizen pressure. Though our main opposition appears to come from two term limited senators - one, Clark Jolley has higher political aspirations and the second, John Ford, has to return to his small community of Bartlesville where a Common Core forum will occur tomorrow night (1/28/13) that has gotten media attention from the Tulsa World and the Pat Campbell show.  For the rest of the non-term-limited senators, we must remind them that this is an election year for some.  If we can't prompt them nicely to do as we ask, then they needn't be re-elected.  In fact, it is our plan to push FULL FORCE FOR REPEAL.  

We have heard these bills may have trouble in Committee because they provide no 'back-up' plan for standards outside the Common Core - they repeal the standards, but put nothing in their place.  In fact, we have long provided TWO OPTIONS:

1.  Return to PASS until new standards - developed by actual Oklahomans - can be created.  Don't forget, the stink that helped cause all this education 'reform' nonsense in the first place was created when it was learned that state superintendents across the nation, including Sandy Garrett, had lowered the cut scores on the yearly state tests (an 'A' would have been 85 and up, rather than 90 and up, for example) in order to make it easier for kids to do well on their exams in order to satisfy the requirements of No Child Left Behind.  So was NCLB repealed?  Oh no instead the feds simply began to apply a whole new set of mandates for states through Race to the Top and NCLB waivers to make up for the bad law!  What is it that's said about insanity?

2.  Dr. Sandra Stotsky, known for her participation in writing the 2001 Massachusetts' educational standards that made MA's standards some of the very best in the entire country (as determined via standardized testing), has released her standards FOR FREE on line.  She has made it possible for EVERY STATE who would like to use them to use them without copyright or strings of any kind.  Why not start with the best?  Oklahoma educators can certainly add or subtract as desired, but these are FREE AND EXCELLENT as opposed to poor and untested!

Senator Eddie Fields has authored TWO bills.  One is a repeal bill that also includes direction to the State Board of Education to remove all alignment in the standards to the Common Core, stop Common Core assessments and require the state board to revise their agreement with the feds that will allow Oklahoma to get out from under the standards.

SB 1146 -  authored by Senator Eddie Fields

http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2013-14%20int/SB/SB1146%20int.pdf

Fields' other bill would establish a task force the purpose of which would be to "review curricular standards approved by the State Board of Education and make recommendations to the Legislature regarding new curricular standards."

SB 1310 - Establishing Curricular Standards Task Force

http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2013-14%20int/SB/SB1310%20int.pdf

Speaker of the House Shannon's bill prevents the Department of Education from entering into any agreements with the Federal government that would align Oklahoma standards to the Common Core - directs the OSDE to amend any agreements with the feds so that Oklahoma may be released from using the Common Core standards.  Shannon's bill reads similarly to Fields'.

HB3331 - authored by T.W. Shannon

http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2013-14%20int/HB/HB3331%20int.pdf

Representative Gus Blackwell also has a bill that repeals the standards and then puts in place the "Local Curriculum Standards Pilot Program" in which ANY school district could adopt their own standards (even if they do not align with state standards) for five years.  After that time, there will be a comparison made among schools using the state standards and those using their own local standards using standardized, criterion-referenced tests.  This is a truly LOCAL CONTROL of education bill.

HB 3167 - authored by Representative Gus Blackwell

http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2013-14%20int/HB/HB3167%20int.pdf

Representative Jason Nelson also has a bill.  This bill starts by preventing federal control over state standards.  It requires any agency using federal money or programming - including those collecting data on students - to amend existing agreements to extricate themselves from any agreements that would cede control over K-12 education from outside the state. This bill would not repeal the Common Core, but instead, puts the standards on 'pause' for a full year during which the state assessments will reflect PASS and not CC.  It directs the state board to examine the English/LA and math standards, and then compare them with PASS in 9 different areas.  A written review of the comparison must be submitted to the House, Senate and Governor for their own review.

HB 3399 - authored by Representative Jason Nelson

http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2013-14%20INT/hB/HB3399%20INT.PDF

Though, again, we will push for repeal, this is an excellent bill if a repeal is made completely unfeasible by Senator John Ford not hearing repeal bills in his committee and these bills not finding another avenue for hearing.

Now that you have bill numbers, IMMEDIATELY begin calling, emailing and visiting your Representatives and Senators.  Tell them you expect them to vote FOR any and all of these bills (overlapping bills are sorted out by the legislative legal staff after session ends and they know which ones the Governor will sign) and that you will be watching for their vote.

If you are still unaware of who those people are, please go here.  This is the link to the opening page of the Legislature.  On the bottom of that page is something that says, "Find My Legislator".  USE THAT!  Type in your address information and you will be rewarded for your time with a list including the names of your local Representative and Senator.  Once you have that - USE IT!  If you can't figure out how to navigate the website for our state legislature, watch this tutorial I made before Christmas.

As we begin session in February, begin to watch for emails from us (if you haven't signed up for email alerts from us, you can do so on the front page of our website in the top right hand corner) giving you an update on where the bills are in the process and asking you to make targeted legislative contacts.

As Lynn points out, there are NUMEROUS bills and shell bills regarding TESTING and school code - as well as a couple of bills regarding student privacy and data collection - one on which we are assisting Representative David Brumbaugh.  

It is going to be extraordinarily hard to keep on top of ALL that is going on at the Capitol this year, but we MUST.  In our opinion, the federal government is completely out of control.  We have the most control over our government from our own back yard.  We MUST do what we can right outside our backdoor!  We must make our state government work for us!

Oklahoma Politics and The Common Core - Part 1

As we approach this upcoming legislative season, we must have a basic understanding of the Oklahoma political waters if we are to understand the possibility of repealing Common Core.


First, let's review the political landscape:
Saturday, January 18, 2014, the Oklahoma GOP State Committee adopted a resolution against Common Core, which included a direction to Floor Leaders of both the House and Senate to schedule any Common Core bills that pass committee for legislative hearing.  Though the National Republican Committee passed a similar resolution and the Oklahoma GOP includes their disdain of the Common Core in their platform, grassroots Republicans, tired of having their protestations appear to fall on deaf ears, packed the Committee meeting until there was standing room only, simply for a chance to make their voices heard on the issue by the majority party.

GOVERNOR FALLIN

• Governor Fallin is head of the National Governor's Association (NGA).  The NGA is partnered with every other private organization funded by the Bill Gates Foundation (CCSSO, Achieve, The National Chamber of Commerce).

• Governor Fallin has her OWN initiative as the NGA Chairman - America Works: Education and Training for Tomorrow's Jobs - which resurrects the School-to-Work model of educating children for jobs.

• Though Fallin produced an Executive Order (2013-40) which addressed Common Core, the document merely served to notify Oklahomans of her resolve to continue use of the Common Core, while offering little more than platitudes to constituents concerned about protection from Federal strings and student data collection.

• According to Pat McGuigan, longtime Oklahoma journalist, Mary Fallin has a 70% approval rating.

• According to Follow The Money, Fallin raised over 4 million dollars for her campaign against Jeri Askins in 2010 and has a bit over 2 million now.  With her new powerful out of state friends (not including her top in state donors, Chesapeake and Devon), her war chest will be amazing.

• Fallin has no Democratic challenger currently, but she does have a PRIMARY Challenger in Randy Brogdon who fought her in 2010, leaving Fallin with 55% of the vote.

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE T.W. SHANNON

• T.W. Shannon has been the go-to cover boy of nearly every Oklahoma organizational magazine since his election by the House last year, lauded by FOX news and Red State as Oklahoma's "Rising Political Star".

• Landing a speaker birth at CPAC in 2013, fairly well cast in stone T.W.'s meteoric rise as a public figure.

• Though Representative Gus Blackwell had every reason to believe T.W. Shannon would allow a hearing of his early-in-session-2013 bill requesting a task force to study the costs of the Common Core after it sailed through Committee without a single 'no' vote, the bill was not allowed to move to the Floor Calendar Committee.  Later, Shannon allowed Representative Blackwell a House Interim Study that took on all aspects of the Common Core.

• Though early in his tenure Speaker Shannon appeared to ride the rapids of Common Core, he suddenly overturned his kayak and began to swim upstream, Tweeting out and Facebooking messages that pointed to 'federal intrusion' with Common Core and the idea that he was not very comfortable with the initiative after all.

• Late in the session (2013), Shannon worked with Representative Dennis Casey to add anti-Common Core language to a House bill headed for the Senate Budget Committee, over which State Senator Clark Jolley presides. Unfortunately, the actual language of this addition was never made public, and there was some confusion regarding the actual bill to which it was attached.  

SENATE PRESIDENT PRO TEMP BRIAN BINGMAN

• Senator Bingman makes his living in oil and gas.

• Senator Bingman was elected in 2006.  This means he was a senator under the leadership of a Democratic governor while part of a Republican legislative majority.  One could possibly assume a posture of loyalty to current Republican leadership

• Last year, Bingman told Pat McGuigan at Capitol Beat - when asked about the intensity of the fight in the House against the initiative, "The discussion on Common Core has been more ‘elevated’ than in the Senate.” Bingman noted that Senate Education Chairman John Ford supports the Common Core. However, he added, “There are some concerns about implementation and costs.” 

• Recently, at a Chamber of Commerce sponsored legislative breakfast (1/13/2013) Senator Bingman told the crowd that, although he was for Common Core, he didn't want the federal government intervening in the standards.

THE OKLAHOMA HOUSE

• We have worked with House members since 2010 and have some good relationships there.

• Many House members - after initially knowing little to nothing about Common Core like an overwhelming majority of legislators all over the country that passed them into law or school code - have become very well-educated on the topic over the years.

• Currently, there appears to be significant support for overturning the measure within this body.

• Representative Ann Coody is still the head of the Common Education Committee.  A bill to repeal the Common Core was filed in the House by Representative Sally Kern in 2011.  Chairman Coody refused to hear it in Common Ed.  Since it wasn't heard, Rep. Kern re-filed the bill in 2012.  AGAIN Rep. Coody refused to allow the bill a hearing, this time saying that since Senator John Ford wouldn't hear it in the Senate Education Committee, there was no reason for her to hear the bill either.

• We can only hope Coody has been enlightened by the number of phone calls this past summer/fall telling her exactly what we've told her the past 3 years.  Will she have been 'enlightened' enough to be willing to at least grant Common Core bills a hearing in her committee?

THE OKLAHOMA SENATE

• We have not worked with members of the Senate as we have with members of the House.  We know most all senators at some level, but we have really good relationships with a much smaller percentage.

• Several Senators can be key here this year.  Senator David Holt (he used to be my senator but is still Lynn's) has always been good to hear us on this issue and take time to discuss our thoughts.  He is on the Education Committee.  Senator Ron Sharp (now my Senator) is also on the Education Committee and, as a former educator, is very much against the Common Core.

• Several influential senators can also be key for proponents.  Though both are term limited, Senator Clark Jolley (head of the Senate Appropriations Committee) and Senator John Ford (head of the Senate Education Committee) are both extremely loyal to both Governor Fallin and State Superintendent Janet Barresi and have both echoed their support for the Common Core on a regular basis - no matter constituent calls to the contrary.  

• Senator Jolley has been heard saying that anyone opposed to Common Core is "smoking crack" and Common Core opponents believe "Obama wrote the Common Core on the grassy knoll".  

• Senator Ford has been credited with saying - even before start of the 2014 session - that he will refuse a hearing for any Common Core bills in the Education Committee.  This is nothing new.  He was extremely vocal about Kern's bill in both 2011 and 2012, saying that, even if the bill should pass a floor vote, he would NEVER hear them in his Committee.

• Dr. Everett Piper, President of Oklahoma Wesleyan University (ranked as #8 by US News and World Report for western regional colleges) has been extremely vocal about his desire to see Common Core go the way of the Dodo.  Oklahoma Wesleyan sits directly in Senator Ford's back yard. 

STATE SUPERINTENDENT JANET BARRESI

• After a first term marked by obfuscation of facts, name-calling, finger-pointing, and an administrative style to rival that of Ho Chi Minh, Dr. Barresi has frustrated, angered and disappointed administrators, teachers and parents alike.  

• Currently, Dr. Barresi has at least 2 primary challenges and 5 or so Democratic opponents.

• Many of the legislators that saw her (the first REPUBLICAN to sit in the Superintendent's seat for 20 years) as the Perseus of the education community, have been so disappointed in her 'reign' that 20 of them have thrown their support behind Republican challenger Joy Hoffmeister.

• Though frequently flaunting her position as a Chief For Change in Jeb Bush's Foundation for Educational Excellence (FEE), an investigation by the Washington Post revealed that Dr. Barresi stamped her name to numerous Oklahoma education 'reform' measures actually written within the FEE in Florida.

So, what does all this mean?  How can we make sense of all this information? I'll get down to brass tacks in Part 2! 

NGA, FEE, CCSSO = A Bunch of BS For OK

Today was a banner day in Oklahoma.  Today was the day the Speaker of the House of Representatives - the new, up-and-coming conservative Speaker who will be speaking at CPAC next week because he's so conservative - killed the Common Core State Standards Cost Task Force bill authored by Gus Blackwell (HB1907). 

HB1907 passed out of the General Government committee unanimously, February 28th.  It was to go to the Calendar Committee (newly organized by Speaker Shannon...why would we want to have accountability to the taxpayers for what gets on the House calendar held by ONE person?  Why shouldn't we spread that accountability over a total of 18 people?) for a vote on whether or not it would be heard on the floor of the House.  That week, we were told by Calendar Committee Chair, Representative Pam Peterson, that Speaker Shannon was holding all Task Force bills until other bills could be heard.

Fortuitously, directly after that meeting, we saw Representative Shannon walking in the hall.  I practically galloped up next to him, and asked him to give HB1907 to the Calendar Committee because the Common Core had been put into law before the standards were even written, so of course there had never been a study done on the costs of the initiative.  He looked at us and said, "I don't think you'll have any problems with that bill" before he walked off saying, "Now don't have a bunch of your people calling, asking me to put it on the Calendar.  We'll get there."

We thought this was great news and prepared to move on to lobbying House members on our bill HB1989 to protect student privacy by preventing certain types of public school data collection and sharing (this passed out of the House unanimously March 11).

I was at "school" with my children today (Classical Conversations home school families meet once a week altogether in one place to review our lessons) when I got a frenetic phone call from Lynn.  She told me she and Danna and Julia (all at the Capitol) had gone to check on the status of HB1907 and found that it would NOT leave Speaker Shannon's office.  Speaker Shannon had killed the bill - the bill ROPE has been working on for THREE LONG YEARS - the bill developed out of our four year study on the Common Core!

Details were hard to get via phone and email, but apparently Speaker Shannon was told EARLY ON in the session BY THE GOVERNOR NOT to HEAR any Common Core bills and he was going to do exactly that.

Let these thoughts sink in:

• The Governor of the reddest state in the union, tells the Speaker NOT to hear a bill put forward by four housewives and mothers - simple TAXPAYERS, not lobbyists or organizations who are paid to see that bills pass or fail.

• The newly-minted Speaker tells self-same housewives, mothers and taxpayers he doesn't see a problem with getting their bill to the floor!  Why?  Apparently he knew all along he wasn't going to put the bill on the floor of the House for a vote. 

• The Governor is AFRAID for Common Core bills to be heard.  Why?

Let's think about this a bit more:

Governor Fallin is the Vice-Chair of the National Governor's Association.  So what?  Well, the NGA is a PRIVATE membership organization not subject to the Open Meetings Act that has PUSHED THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS FROM THE BEGINNING!  In fact, the NGA and the Council of Chief State School Officers are the two organizations that have pushed the Common Core State Standards down to the states!  Look in the upper right hand corner of the CCSS home page to see BOTH their logos!  Their list of Corporate Sponsors is ENORMOUS and contains most of the organizations supplying funding for the Common Core initiative.

Janet Barresi is a member of the CCSSO, a private membership organization - like the NGA - that has no oversight nor accountability to taxpayers for the programs they work with State Superintendents to implement in states.  CCSSO partners with Bill Gates Foundation, Pearson, ACT, K12 (currently embroiled in a lawsuit for overselling investors on student achievement to inflate their stock prices) and many others - again many private donors to the Common Core initiative.

In addition, as we have reported previously a number of times, Superintendent Barresi is a member of Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), Chiefs for Change program.  The FEE is soundly in the corner of having the federal government administrating LOCAL education - very small government stuff (snark).  In addition, FEE and the Chiefs have long touted the Common Core State Standards.  Jeb Bush and the FEE have written numerous education policy initiatives here in Oklahoma as evidenced by a paper trail of emails turned over via an FOI request made by the Washington Post, which begs the question as to why Oklahoma taxpayers are paying for Florida education reforms - that don't work even in Florida???  Why are we paying a Superintendent to merely fire off emails to the FEE to get them to write Oklahoma education policy?

Let's sum up:

• Most likely, Governor Fallin will NOT hear Common Core bills because she is afraid that after three years of lobbying, educating and studying we have enough votes to get a repeal of the Standards all the way to her desk.  Having a Common Core 'nullification' bill pass the House and Senate in Oklahoma would no doubt cause some real pain for the Governor in her role as Vice Chair of the NGA - one of the two main supporters of the Common Core.  The only plausible explanation here is that she MUST be more concerned about the future of her political career and her standing in the NGA than she is about Oklahoma children and taxpayers.  
• Janet Barresi will not allow the Common Core to even be discussed at state board meetings let alone come to the floor of the House or Senate for a vote most probably because she couldn't DARE go against the FEE!  Why would she want to?  She has the fabulous, "I'm open to running for president so I can spread more of my BIG GOVERNMENT Republican Statism over the whole of America" Jeb Bush, also a speaker at CPAC this year in her hip pocket (or is it the other way around?)!  In addition, Dr. Barresi has lucrative contracts with Pearson and other Common Core addicts/vendors.  If they've been taking her to dinner, what else have they been doing?

Needless to say, both the Governor and the State Superintendent are FULLY PERSONALLY INVESTED IN THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS.  What do you suppose the chances are of either of them hearing the clamoring of the grassroots activists, taxpayers, parents and others against the Common Core when all they can hear is the din of their burgeoning political careers surging in their ears?

This must stop.  Either Janet and Mary quit playing Hear No Common Core, See No Common Core, Speak no Common Core, or we piddly little taxpayers who are paying to advance their political careers find them primary candidates from another more altruistic branch of the monkey family.

ADDENDUM:  Representative Blackwell was told that if HB1907 was kept alive and passed the Senate and the House, the Governor would veto it.  He was then offered an interim study to pull the bill.  He would be in control of the interim study which would NOT occur in the the Common Education Committee and be allowed to continue over a number of days - in order to collect as much information as possible.  Representative Blackwell is a good man and his intentions are pure.  We are lucky to have him here in Oklahoma.  He took the interim study option, although we here at ROPE can't help but wonder what it would have done to the Governor's grassroots political capital to veto a bill to examine SPENDING in Oklahoma in the face of our national debt and economy.  It would have been nice to get all the legislators on record for their vote on the issue as well, but since Senate Education Committee Chair, Senator John Ford has consistently said he would NEVER hear a bill against the Common Core, it would have been quite the fight to even get it onto the Senate floor.  Makes you wonder doesn't it?  What exactly is the meaning of REPRESENTATIVE government?