Carter: Career teachers are scant in the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame

There was an uproar - a tempest in a teapot, really - the other week over new State Superintendent Ryan Walters removing portraits in a hallway at the State Department of Education building placed in recognition of a non-governmental organization's "hall of fame". Instead of using government space to laud this one group's favorite people, he wanted to use the space to honor and recognize the parents and children that the Oklahoma State Department of Education is supposed to be working for. 

Read below for some excellent context to the kerfluffle:

CAREER TEACHERS ARE SCANT IN THE OKLAHOMA EDUCATORS HALL OF FAME

by Ray Carter | February 24, 2023

When reviewing the more than 100 individuals inducted into the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame since 1985, Ruth Genevieve Hudson stands out—because Hudson, inducted in 1994, is one of the very few career classroom teachers to make the cut.

While Hudson spent 45 years primarily teaching music at Sand Springs, Tulsa, and Blackwell Public Schools, as well as in the state of Kansas, her lengthy classroom service is in stark contrast to many of the other people honored in the educators’ hall.

Instead, the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame is filled with the names of politicians, union leaders, lobbyists, consultants, and individuals who worked in college settings rather than in the K-12 school system.

The hall is also filled largely with men, even though the overwhelming majority of classroom teachers are women.

“To me, it wasn’t showing respect for the classroom teachers,” said Teresa Turner, who taught school for 26 years in rural Oklahoma before retiring. “It was just showing more respect for administrators and others instead of the ones that are in the daily grind doing the work with the children.”

Small: Remember the lessons of state shortfall years

Remember the lessons of state shortfall years

By Jonathan Small

Most business owners and families understand the importance of spending less than you bring in, and of socking away the remainder in savings, to prepare for unexpected financial challenges.

Unfortunately, such thinking is rare in government, which explains why Oklahoma government was in such bad shape only a handful of years ago. Sadly, some groups appear dedicated to ignoring the lessons of the recent past.

The head of the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA), the largest government union in Oklahoma, along with other tax-consumer advocates, is now calling on the state to spend down the record savings achieved during Gov. Kevin Stitt’s first term.

OCPA column: Teacher unions invest in Oklahoma Republicans?

Teacher unions invest in Oklahoma Republicans?

By Jonathan Small

As the Oklahoma legislative session progresses, it is worth noting not only what bills advance, but which bills do not—and why the latter were rejected.

As always, education is a big issue with voters, but close observers of the Oklahoma Legislature may have already noticed an unexpected pattern. While the Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate has voted on significant education legislation, the GOP-dominated Oklahoma House of Representatives has not.

It’s worth asking why.

OCPA column: Prioritizing free speech for teachers

Prioritizing free speech for teachers

By Jonathan Small

How important is the right of free speech to you? To some, but fortunately not all, lawmakers, it’s not even worth a piece of paper and an email.

The nation’s two major teachers’ unions—the National Education Association and the American Federation for Teachers—both support many far-left political causes and candidates, including abortion on demand. As a result, the dues paid by members of those unions ultimately support those political causes.

Yet many teachers—including thousands in Oklahoma—do not support left-wing political causes. And the U.S. Supreme Court, in its 2018 decision in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, ruled that employees cannot be forced to participate.

Partly in response to that ruling, Sen. Julie Daniels has filed Senate Bill 634, which would require schools to get annual reauthorization for union-dues withholding from employees. The bill requires that schools provide teachers with a form to sign each year that notes employees “have a First Amendment right, as recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court, to refrain from joining and paying dues or making political contributions to a professional employee organization” and that they cannot be discriminated against it they choose not to join a union.

Small: Kamala-proofing Oklahoma's children

Kamala Proofing Oklahoma’s Children

By Jonathan Small

If Oklahoma wants to stop the socialist and anti-American offensive being waged by politicians like Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi, Oklahomans must act to “Kamala Proof” what is being taught to Oklahoma kids.

Consider the dangerous rules adopted by the Democrat leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives. Under those rules, House legislation will no longer refer to a father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, nephew, niece, husband, wife, etc. Instead, legislation will use phrases such as parent, child, sibling, parent-in-law, and child-in-law.

The new House rules even ban the use of the words “himself or herself” and instead mandate that “themself” will be used instead.

Democrats don’t want to “risk” referring to someone as male who wants to be referred to as female, regardless of biological reality. In fact, U.S. House Democrats and some Oklahoma Democrats are trying to force boys and men in girls’ bathrooms and males in girls’ sports.

To her credit, Oklahoma Congressman Stephanie Bice, a mother of two girls who represents Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional District, saw right through the scheme and voted against this insane rule.

Oklahoma Democrats fail in effort to remove gender language from House Rules

Oklahoma Democrats seek removal of gender language

by Ray Carter - Director, Center for Independent Journalism

(January 5, 2021) Democratic members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives called for elimination of gender-specific language in the House’s operating rules during that chamber’s organizational meeting on Tuesday.

Rep. Mauree Turner, D-Oklahoma City, authored the gender-language amendment to House Resolution 1001, saying it is part of an effort to make Oklahoma “an equitable” and “truly representative” state.

Turner’s amendment called for “removing all gender-based pronouns or gender-based references wherever those references appear in the House Rules and replacing or substituting those references with gender-neutral language.”

Turner is the first Muslim elected to the Oklahoma Legislature and self-describes as “gender non-conforming.”

Stitt responds after Board of Education nominee withdraws after targeting by labor unions

STATEMENT FROM GOVERNOR STITT REGARDING OKLAHOMA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 

OKLAHOMA CITY (Dec. 7, 2020) – Governor Kevin Stitt today released the following statement regarding the Oklahoma State Board of Education: 

“I spoke with Melissa Crabtree today and she requested that I rescind her appointment to the Oklahoma State Board of Education.  

I was extremely disappointed to see how many were so quick to judge her without taking the time to personally speak to her.  

Ms. Crabtree is a loving mother and wife, and her public school teaching experience and work with special needs children would have been valuable assets to our state. 

However, it’s become clear that Democrats and unions only value the voices of teachers when they are willing to fall in line with their political agendas. 

That being said, I respect her decision and will rescind her nomination. We will reopen the search process and identify a new appointee as soon as possible.” – Governor Kevin Stitt 

Crabtree also issued the following statement: 

“I am grateful to Governor Stitt for nominating me to serve on the Oklahoma State Board of Education and it is a tremendous honor to be considered. However, after careful consideration, I have determined that this is not the right opportunity for me to serve my state.” – Melissa Crabtree 

Blogger's note -- here is an example of the vitriol directed at Crabtree by some in the left-led education field:

OCPA: Inaction on parental school choice is impossible

Inaction on parental school choice is impossible

By Jonathan Small

Oklahoma parents are demanding parental school choice and lawmakers are paying attention.

A new poll by Cole Hargrave Snodgrass & Associates (CHS) found 61% of Oklahoma voters support school choice, which was defined as “the right to use tax dollars raised for their child’s education to send their child to the school of their choice whether it is public, private, online, or charter.”

Among Republicans primary voters, support reached 74%. Support was consistent in both urban and rural areas.

That strong support is no surprise, especially considering ongoing public-school closures. Those closures are wreaking havoc and destroying opportunity. This is evident in increased failure rates in academic courses and significant learning loss.

In August, an official from Tulsa Public Schools even told the State Board of Education that district officials expected “that our least-reached students will have lost approximately a year more learning than would have otherwise been the case because of the COVID-related interruptions. So if I’m a student who might otherwise have been predicted to be two years below grade level, we’re anticipating that that student will now be approximately three years below grade level.”

OCPA column: Governor addresses real need with education plan

Governor addresses real need with education plan

By Jonathan Small

Governor Kevin Stitt’s background as a businessman is often apparent in his understanding of financial realities that traditional politicians ignore. Hence, the governor’s willingness to save, rather than spend, much of last year’s budget surplus.

But Stitt’s “Stay in School” initiative highlights another benefit of his private-sector expertise: the governor’s understanding that Oklahoma cannot afford to squander human capital.

OCPA attacks OEA’s bogus math: $10M is not half of $360M

OCPA comment on OEA’s bogus math

OKLAHOMA CITY (July 21, 2020)—Jonathan Small, president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, issued the following statement today in response to the Oklahoma Education Association’s recent criticism of Gov. Kevin Stitt’s “Stay in School” initiative.

“The Oklahoma Education Association’s national parent, the National Education Association, is known for bizarre actions like working to give boys access to girls’ bathrooms and endorsing Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. Recently the OEA added to the bizarre by trying to give the impression that public schools are receiving only half of Oklahoma’s education-related federal COVID funding. Any suggestion to that effect is patently false.

“Oklahoma received $360 million in federal funding to cover the costs of the education response to COVID-19. Of that $360 million, $160.9 million went to the state’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, which pays for COVID-related expenses at public schools, and $39.8 million went to the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, which pays for a host of initiatives. The remainder primarily went to colleges.

State Rep. Mark McBride Named OEA Legislator of the Year

McBride Named OEA Legislator of the Year

OKLAHOMA CITY – State Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore, on Thursday was recognized by the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA) with the Outstanding Legislator Award for 2020.

The organization, which represents teachers in working with state and local government agencies as well as with lawmakers and the governor, said it selected McBride because of his outstanding support of public education and public educators.

“I’m appreciative to be recognized for my legislative work to ensure Oklahoma public school students have the very best education possible,” McBride said. “During this time of uncertainty and change, it is more important than ever that all education stakeholders come together to work for what is best for Oklahoma students. Making sure students have access to highly qualified teachers and up-to-date classroom materials and resources improves their academic success and prepares them to be productive members of society.”

“We may have disagreements at times over our approaches,” McBride said, “but at the end of the day if students receive the best education possible, it is worth it.”

Mark McBride serves District 53 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, which includes parts of Moore in Cleveland County.

Op-ed: Don't blame OEA for transgender school readings -- ask the GOP Legislature

Lawmakers prop up OEA/NEA despite radicalism

by Brandon Dutcher, OCPA Senior Vice President

[Original link] For several years in a row, Oklahoma Republican lawmakers have done the bidding of the National Education Association (NEA) and its state affiliate (OEA) by refusing to enact a common-sense, pro-teacher, union reform bill.

This week, the NEA urged teachers to have transgender storytime in public schools.

There’s a direct link between those two things.

Under Oklahoma law, you don’t have to join a teachers’ union, but if you do join one your choice is limited to whatever entity has been certified at your local school. The certification vote was often taken decades ago. Should teachers want to decertify a union and seek new representation, the process is onerous and—most significantly—requires a teacher to publicly identify as a union critic and open herself up to retaliation.

Legislation this year (as in years past) would have given teachers greater leverage by requiring a “secret ballot election” on union recertification every four years. This would force unions to pay greater attention to member needs and also allow teachers to change representation if they believe a union is not serving them or is too involved in unrelated political lobbying—including things like transgender reading days in class.

Not only is this good policy but it is supported by a whopping 67 percent of Oklahoma voters (while only 13 percent oppose).

The OEA/NEA strongly opposed this year’s legislation, SB 1716. Six Republican senators sided with the OEA and voted to kill the bill in committee: Sens. Chris Kidd, R-Waurika; Tom Dugger, R-Stillwater; Dewayne Pemberton, R-Muskogee; Paul Scott, R-Duncan; Brenda Stanley, R-Midwest City; and Joe Newhouse, R-Broken Arrow.

There is similar legislation in the Oklahoma House of Representatives this year, but it too has gone nowhere—even though Republicans control all the levers of power.

And this week, the OEA/NEA urged schools to hold a Jazz & Friends National Day of School & Community Readings. As part of that event, the union recommends that teachers read three books, including one about a child who “knew that she had a girl’s brain in a boy’s body” and a book on pronoun use that breaks down “assumptions of who is ‘she’ or ‘he’ and expand beyond the binary to include ‘they’ and more.”

In years past, teachers who have read the book in class included none other than an OEA award winner who the union says represents “all that’s great” in Oklahoma public schools.

Left-wing teacher unions are firmly allied with liberal billionaires in an explicit effort to normalize transgender children. But how does this child abuse relate to Oklahoma Republicans spiking common-sense union reforms year after year? Because of the $466 in dues paid by an Oklahoma teacher to the OEA in 2017-18, $189 went to Washington, D.C. to the NEA. That money helps directly and indirectly fund NEA programs and events like transgender reading day and a host of other left-wing causes.

No doubt, many teachers don’t support a transgender reading day, and neither do many Oklahomans who send their children to public school. Yet those teachers are limited in their ability to decertify their union and stop funding such extreme political activism.

If transgender reading day occurs at your child’s school, don’t just blame the OEA/NEA. Ask the Oklahoma Republicans who control the state legislature why they continue to preserve the union’s grip on local schools.

After Oklahoma Republicans side with OEA, union touts transgender reading program

After Oklahoma Republicans side with OEA, union touts transgender reading program

by Ray Carter, Director, Center for Independent Journalism

(February 27, 2020) Two days after six Republican senators joined Democrats to defeat legislation opposed by the Oklahoma Education Association, which is a National Education Association state affiliate, the union is promoting a national day of school readings on transgender issues.

“The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Welcoming Schools Program and the National Education Association (NEA) invite you—our friend and ally—to join us in our fifth annual Jazz & Friends National Day of School & Community Readings on Thursday, February 27, 2020,” a joint announcement declares.

The NEA and the Human Rights Campaign are urging teachers to read three specific books to students: “Julián Is a Mermaid,” “I am Jazz,” and “They She He Me: Free to Be!”

The NEA/Human Rights Campaign announcement said reading those books would provide children “a sense of belonging,” allow students to “learn about diverse backgrounds,” and develop “an understanding about the wider world.”

The summary for “Julián Is a Mermaid” says the book is about a boy who sees several women “spectacularly dressed up” and “how all he can think about is dressing up just like the ladies in his own fabulous mermaid costume: a butter-yellow curtain for his tail, the fronds of a potted fern for his headdress. But what will Abuela think about the mess he makes—and even more importantly, what will she think about how Julián sees himself?”

The summary for “I am Jazz” explains, “From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl’s brain in a boy’s body.”

The summary for “They She He Me: Free to Be!” cites a School Library Journal review as stating, “The authors have succeeded in creating a gorgeous and much-needed picture book about pronouns and gender fluidity.” The book description further states that “They She He Me: Free to Be!” helps “break down assumptions of who is ‘she’ or ‘he’ and expand beyond the binary to include ‘they’ and more.”

According to Opt Out Today, a project of the Freedom Foundation, of the $466 in dues paid by an Oklahoma teacher to the OEA in 2017-18, $189 went to Washington, D.C. to the NEA. That money helps directly and indirectly fund NEA programs and events like the Jazz & Friends National Day of School & Community Readings.

Earlier this week, several Republican senators voted to kill a bill that would have given teachers greater ability to choose alternatives to the OEA/NEA for representation. In killing that bill, critics note the lawmakers indirectly preserved funding for the OEA/NEA and its various political activities, which include not only events like the transgender reading program but also lobbying in favor of gun control, abortion, and more.

Senate Bill 1716 would have required that Oklahoma teachers be given the opportunity to hold a “secret ballot election” every four years to recertify a union. While teachers can choose not to join a union in Oklahoma, if they do join they are limited to just one choice, and that entity was often selected as the school’s designated bargaining union decades ago.

If teachers believe an entity other than the OEA/NEA better represents their values, supporters of SB 1716 note the process to decertify a union is currently onerous and requires teachers to publicly identify themselves as union critics, creating the potential for retribution. With SB 1716, supporters said teachers would have been given the chance to re-evaluate unions on a routine basis without the threat of retaliation.

The OEA strongly opposed the legislation. Six Republican senators sided with the OEA/NEA and voted to kill the bill in committee: Sens. Chris Kidd, R-Waurika; Tom Dugger, R-Stillwater; Dewayne Pemberton, R-Muskogee; Paul Scott, R-Duncan; Brenda Stanley, R-Midwest City; and Joe Newhouse, R-Broken Arrow.

Individuals who previously served in the Legislature say it is a mistake when lawmakers defer to interest group pressure rather than local citizens.

“When I was serving in the House, I always felt my job was to represent my constituents, not a political group such as the OEA or the NEA,” said former Rep. Dennis Johnson, R-Duncan. “It’s not that they don’t have a say, because they certainly have  a legal right to advocate and all of those things, but at the end of the day when I take my vote I’m thinking of about your average parent with children in school—is this going to be better for them, or not, overall? And that was always my viewpoint. I honestly never really tried to impose my will on them, and I certainly didn’t allow them to impose their will on me. Because at night, I had to sleep with the decisions I made.”

Former Rep. Pam Peterson, a Republican whose district included the Jenks school district, recalled voting in support of charter schools, a school-choice option strongly opposed by the OEA/NEA and similar groups. Families buy homes in the Jenks area due in part to the school, she noted, but other families cannot afford that form of school choice and charter schools gave them a better alternative.

“That was, I thought, in the best interest of the children of the state to allow more choices for them outside of their ZIP code if their ZIP code didn’t allow them to have a good school,” Peterson said.

She cast her vote in favor of charter schools with local school officials sitting in the House gallery at the time.

“You just have to stand on principle,” Peterson said.

Sen. David Bullard, a Durant Republican and former teacher, was among the lawmakers who defied the OEA/NEA and voted in favor of SB 1716. His vote hasn’t gone unnoticed or unappreciated in his district.

“I am grateful for Senator Bullard’s stand,” said Bill Ledbetter, senior pastor at Fairview Baptist Church in Durant. “We have to, in this country, come the realization that we don’t affirm someone in destructive, damaging behavior, like a transgender reading would do. Furthermore, that invades the rights and the freedom and the privacy of young people who go to school but don’t hold to those ideals, so it’s just very difficult to make that fair. It imposes on other people.”

Small: Stitt, OEA have stark difference in views of children

Stark difference in views of children

By Jonathan Small

In education debates, some people see children whose lives can be immeasurable improved, while others see children only as tools to gain political power. This sad contrast became glaringly apparent during Gov. Kevin Stitt’s recent State of the State speech.

Stitt urged lawmakers to raise the cap on the Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Act in order to “provide additional incentives for donors, resulting in more public-school grants and private-school scholarships.”

In attendance were Alegra Williams and her sons, Sincere and Chaves. When Sincere attended a local public school, he struggled and officials told Williams he had learning disabilities. But when a tax-credit scholarship allowed Sincere to attend Crossover Preparatory Academy, an all-boys private school in north Tulsa, Sincere jumped two-and-a-half reading levels. Crossover officials found he has no learning disabilities. Similarly, Chaves jumped three reading grade levels. Tax-credit scholarships allowed both boys to attend Crossover.

In touting his support for raising the cap on the tax-credit scholarship program, Stitt called on lawmakers to “join me and their mom in applauding” Chaves and Sincere’s “hard work this year.” When he did, the official Twitter account of the Oklahoma Education Association complained that Stitt had “called for a standing ovation of a family that left public schools for a private.”

For the OEA and similar entities, the success of children like Chaves and Sincere cannot be cheered. They view such children’s success only as a loss of political power. The OEA’s action was reminiscent of congressional Democrats’ refusal to applaud record-low unemployment for racial minorities and blue-collar income gains during President Donald Trump’s recent State of the Union address.

Trump, by the way, echoed Stitt and endorsed a federal version of Oklahoma’s Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Act in his speech, saying the “next step forward in building an inclusive society is making sure that every young American gets a great education and the opportunity to achieve the American dream. Yet, for too long, countless American children have been trapped in failing government schools.”

Supporting tax-credit scholarships and children like Sincere does not mean abandoning efforts to improve traditional public schools. Given that Oklahoma’s educational outcomes remain among the nation’s worst, we cannot afford to ignore those schools. But neither can we afford to squander children’s lives by telling them to expend their limited school years waiting for traditional schools to get their act together.

Like the Soviet Union’s old “five year plans,” the “turnaround” efforts of many local districts lead only to calls for more multi-year improvement programs. In the meantime, all 13 years of a child’s K-12 experience fly by and those youth are robbed of a quality education.

Even if the OEA doesn’t understand this, Governor Stitt and President Trump realize we are talking about children’s lives and Oklahoma’s future. For both to be brighter, Oklahoma lawmakers must side with Stitt and Trump, not the OEA.

Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

OCPA column: Bernie Sanders reveals teacher union goals for Oklahoma

Bernie Sanders reveals teacher union goals for Oklahoma

By Jonathan Small

In a recent column published by The Oklahoman, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist, declared himself connected at the hip with Oklahoma teacher unions. There’s good reason to take that claim seriously—the Oklahoma Education Association’s national parent, the National Education Association, has given Sanders an “A” rating for years—so one should take seriously Sanders’ agenda as one shared by his teacher union comrades.

It’s an agenda that means more money for the government and less money for working Oklahoma families—even though Sanders tries to pretend otherwise. And it’s an agenda that would limit educational opportunity for Oklahoma children.

Over two years, Oklahoma lawmakers have increased K-12 school appropriations by 20 percent, funneling $638 million more into the system for teacher pay raises and classroom funding. Much of that funding came from more than $1 billion in tax increases and other revenue measures passed since 2015.

Sanders says those tax increases have “not been nearly enough” and calls for even more taxes. But Sanders decries Oklahoma’s recent tax increases—explicitly demanded by Oklahoma teacher unions—as falling “heavily on working families.” And he argues Oklahoma school problems were caused by state “tax cuts favoring the wealthy and large profitable corporations.” Since 2005, Oklahoma’s income tax was cut from 6.65 percent to 5 percent. That tax cut kicks in at $8,700 of taxable income for single filers. Who knew that earning $8,700 made one “wealthy”?

So Sanders is in the odd position of praising unions for forcing Oklahoma tax increases on working families, even as he decries those tax increases, and then argues that tax cuts that benefitted those working families were a mistake. Make of that what you will.

And Sanders says he now wants additional tax increases—on the “wealthy,” of course.

Sanders also took aim at EPIC charter schools, an online provider, saying that school is “draining” $112 million from public schools, and declared as president he would put “a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools.”

Never mind that every dollar spent on a student at EPIC—which is a public school—would have been spent on those same students in other public brick-and-mortar schools, so there’s no diversion of funding from education at all. And never mind that charter schools disproportionately serve low-income and minority students who would otherwise not get a quality education. Sanders and his teacher union allies are willing to sacrifice those children simply out of ideological pique.

In 2019, Gov. Kevin Stitt and legislative leaders chose a different path than the 2018 teacher-walkout model that Sanders praises. Instead of raising taxes, they increased state savings—something the OEA opposed, even though those savings will protect schools from budget cuts in future downturns.

Let’s hope saner heads continue to prevail in 2020, because if Sanders and his teacher-union allies prevail, the tax-increase drubbing Oklahomans took in 2018 will become the rule, not the exception.

Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

State Superintendent Hofmeister refuses to discuss LGBT newsletter at public forum

State superintendent refuses to discuss LGBT newsletter at public forum

by Ray Carter, Director, Center for Independent Journalism 

(January 8th, 2020; link) State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister is refusing to meet in public with a state lawmaker and citizens concerned about an August Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) newsletter that focused on “best practices” to create a “safe and valued climate for LGBT students.”

Among other things, the newsletter recommended that Oklahoma schools allow students to select bathrooms based on gender identity rather than biological gender and informed school officials they should “never reveal” a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity without the student’s permission “even to the student’s family.”

Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, asked Hofmeister and department staff to attend a Jan. 14 meeting in the House chamber of the state Capitol. Humphrey said he requested that space to accommodate an anticipated high number of attendees. He said the meeting was intended to allow department officials to discuss why the material, which many perceived as a mandate, was included in an agency newsletter sent to school districts.

However, in a letter of response to Humphrey, Hofmeister wrote that the lawmaker’s “intent is clear” and accused Humphrey of misrepresenting the purpose of the agency newsletter and trying to “turn a private meeting into what amounts to a public circus based on the fabrication that the State Department of Education is promoting any ‘agenda’ beyond keeping children safe at school.”

Hofmeister said she would only meet with Humphrey and pastors from his community “at my office.”

One of those who hoped Hofmeister would agree to a public meeting was Bill Ledbetter, senior pastor at Fairview Baptist Church in Durant and president of the ministry “Lighthouse America,” which describes its mission as “engaging American culture with Biblical truth while endeavoring to preserve and reclaim America’s Christian and Constitutional Heritage.”

Ledbetter said he and other religious leaders have “concern and love” for LGBT individuals, but also oppose government entities imposing mandates that would “validate” what many Oklahomans consider immoral behavior based on their religious beliefs.

“You cannot begin to insert immoral precepts into our schools, our systems of government,” Ledbetter said.

In 2016, under the Obama administration, federal agencies notified schools they would be violating federal law if they did not allow students to use the bathroom or locker room of their choice based on gender identity, rather than biological sex.  Due to a lawsuit, a court subsequently issued a nationwide injunction on enforcement of that directive. By February 2017 the Trump administration rescinded the guidance document.

Currently, there are no federal or state mandates that require schools to have a specific bathroom policy for transgender students. Schools are allowed to determine those policies at the local level.

In her letter to Humphrey, Hofmeister described the agency newsletter, which was sent to Title IX administrators in Oklahoma schools, as a document that simply “provides information and various perspectives regarding the federal civil rights law.”

“We conceded that the newsletter should have made clear that the recommendations were proposed by a non-governmental entity and not the OSDE,” Hofmeister wrote (underscore in original). “The material in question was in no way a directive nor an endorsement, but I will add that the OSDE will never shirk its responsibility to help ensure every student can attend school feeling safe, secure and ready to learn.”

When asked about the source of the agency newsletter’s content, an OSDE spokesperson recently confirmed that the department’s LGBT material came from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), although attribution was not originally included. The SPLC has long been criticized for labeling religiously conservative organizations as “hate groups” comparable to the Ku Klux Klan.

The SPLC once described Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, a well-regarded black surgeon, as an extremist. The SPLC later withdrew that designation, but still insisted Carson “has, in fact, made a number of statements that express views that we believe most people would conclude are extreme.”

Among Carson’s views cited as extreme by the SPLC was the statement, “Marriage is between a man and a woman.” The SPLC also cited Carson’s observation that Judeo-Christian faith and strong families are “things have been systematically attacked over the last several decades” as an example of extremism, as well as Carson’s belief that because “people did not oppose a progressively overreaching government” when the Nazi Party controlled Germany that “the entire world suffered a great Holocaust.”

In 2012, liberal columnist Dana Milbank criticized the SPLC for labeling the Family Research Council as a “hate group,” writing it was “reckless in labeling as a ‘hate group’ a policy shop that advocates for a full range of conservative Christian positions, on issues from stem cells to euthanasia.” Milbank, a supporter of LGBT causes, said it was “absurd” for the SPLC to lump the Family Research Council “in the same category as Aryan Nations, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Stormfront and the Westboro Baptist Church.”

A former employee of the SPLC has described the group as “a highly profitable scam.”

Given the group’s notoriety, Humphrey said Hofmeister and OSDE officials need to explain why the agency chose to distribute material from a controversial organization like the Southern Poverty Law Center. He said lawmakers and citizens deserve to know who authorized use of SPLC materials in state communications and whether any specific rules or procedures are in place to guide how and when communications from third-party special-interest groups are republished and distributed by the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

“How do you pick which group you’re going to promote?” Humphrey asked.

He also wants to know how many documented LGBT abuse cases have been reported in Oklahoma public schools in the last three calendar years.

A 2017 report by The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law estimated that 2,100 Oklahoma youth age 13 to 18 identify as transgender, representing just 0.83 percent of all Oklahoma youth in that age range. Oklahoma public schools have 703,650 students enrolled in pre-K through 12th grade for the 2019-20 school year, according to state figures.

While the department newsletter is a relatively rare instance in which Oklahoma government resources have been used to advocate for policies regarding transgender issues in schools, such stances have been embraced by the state’s major teachers union, the Oklahoma Education Association.

In July, more than 60 OEA delegates participated in the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly. Among the new business items gaining approval from attendees was a resolution that committed the NEA and its state affiliates (such as the OEA) to “organize and mobilize in support of the Equality Act,” declaring it important to increase “awareness of the importance of passing non-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Under the provisions of the “Equality Act,” the National Center for Transgender Equality notes that “everyone must be able to use facilities consistent with their gender identity” at all entities covered by the proposed law.

Ledbetter said Oklahomans deserve to learn how state education officials are developing school policy and directing the use of taxpayer resources—and that those answers should be provided in public.

“The fact that Mrs. Hofmeister is not showing up, frankly, I’m disappointed,” Ledbetter said. “I think it’s time to be accountable to the people—all the people. This is an important thing.”

Originally posted by Ray Carter, Director of the Center for Independent Journalism.

Small: Time for lawsuit reform to benefit teaching profession

Time for lawsuit reform to benefit teaching profession

By Jonathan Small

If listening to someone whack a bell at Christmas dinner “to pierce the silence in the face of all forms of oppression including racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, misogyny, and homophobia” sounds like your idea of a good time, then membership in the Oklahoma Education Association may be for you.

But if you think such political performance art sounds like a root canal minus any end-result benefits, then you’re among a likely strong majority of Oklahomans—including many good Oklahoma teachers. The problem for those good teachers is that current Oklahoma law prods them to financially support teachers’ unions that advocate political positions out of line with the views of many state teachers.

Here’s why: As part of its membership package, teachers’ unions typically provide insurance coverage that protects members from lawsuits. While Oklahoma law technically protects teachers from personal liability for actions taken in the normal course of employment, many educators are still at risk.

For example, when a teacher breaks up a fight, many schools will refuse to back the teacher’s action, which leaves him or her personally liable if someone decides to sue. Ask around, and you’ll quickly find that lack of administrative support is a common teacher complaint.

As a result, many Oklahoma teachers retain their OEA membership to have insurance coverage even though they disagree with much of what the OEA does.

Rather than drive teachers into the union, it’s time Oklahoma gave them an alternative.

Under legislation that could receive final approval in the 2020 legislative session, the state would provide teachers with up to $2 million in liability insurance coverage as an add-on to their payment package.

In addition to providing coverage, lawmakers should also strengthen legal protections for teachers so they can defend themselves and their students in the classroom. If teachers are not allowed to maintain classroom discipline, how are they supposed to improve educational outcomes?

Doing those two things would protect good teachers from financial ruin and also allow them to sever ties with unions, because for many teachers the only appeal of union membership is the liability insurance coverage. The politics of the union often run far from the views of typical Oklahoma teachers.

Recall that last summer dozens of OEA members attended a National Education Association Representative Assembly where attendees declared support for “the fundamental right to abortion,” called on the U.S. government “to accept responsibility for the destabilization of Central American countries,” vowed to partner with organizations “doing the work to push reparations for descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States,” and more.

And my earlier quote about the piercing bell comes from holiday recommendations put out by NEA EdJustice.

Oklahoma teachers should have the right to maintain classroom discipline without fear. And they definitely deserve the chance to teach without having to financially support political extremists.

Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

OEA tweet: "teaching is a political act"

Union declares teaching is political

by Ray Carter, Center for Independent Journalism

Just weeks after roughly 60 of its members attended a conference where participants voiced support for abortion, transgender rights, reparations for slavery, and more, the Oklahoma Education Association tweeted that teaching “is a political act.”

On July 28, a message on the OEA’s official Twitter account stated, “As teachers, we need to realize that teaching is a political act. It affects everyone, and therefore we need to advocate for good policies that invest public resources wisely in the common good. We can no longer shut up and teach.”

That text was a quote pulled from a linked “Education Week” article by Rep. John Waldron, a former teacher and Tulsa Democrat. In that article, Waldron decried an anti-abortion measure passed by Oklahoma lawmakers and criticized the decision to place $200 million into state savings. Waldron also compared “deep-red” states like Oklahoma to the Confederacy as examples of “government under single-party rule.”

Shortly after comparing proponents of slavery and modern lawmakers, Waldron wrote, “One of the reasons we have so many states run by one party is that we have learned to vilify the other side rather than listen to it.”

The OEA tweet is only the latest instance where union officials have voiced apparent support for the intermingling of teaching and politics.

In a 2016 column urging political activism, OEA president Alicia Priest declared that “everything about public education is political. The reforms, the elected school board, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the standards, your salary and benefits, the textbooks that are approved for your use—ALL politically driven decisions.”

Among the benefits of increased political activity, Priest wrote, was “the treasure of building power.”

Other union activists have been even more explicit in advocating political stances via the education system.

On Feb. 8, Priest tweeted a picture of herself and Aaron Baker, an 8th-grade history teacher in Del City. Both were attending the National Education Association Foundation Gala, and Priest noted Baker was an “OEA awardee” at the event.

That tweet was notable because Baker, who has also been a participant in the OEA’s delegate assembly, has often proclaimed that he injects politics into educational settings. Among other things, he has written that he teaches his students “that the phrase ‘law and order’ is steeped in systemic racism,” that “concentrated wealth multiplies poverty,” “that most of the time, when people kill people, they use guns,” and that “the greatest nuclear threat the world has ever seen is the United States of America.”

Baker has also written, “There are seeds of an Oklahoma Socialist revival germinating in the rich soil of progressive #oklaed.”

Some officials who have won election with OEA backing have avoided the explicit rhetoric of the union, but have often fallen in line with the union’s demands when it comes time to vote.

In a November 2018 video podcast with The Oklahoman, Sen. Cari Hicks, an Oklahoma City Democrat and former teacher who was endorsed by the OEA, downplayed the role of partisanship in policymaking.

“Education, to me, is nonpartisan,” Hicks said.

But she subsequently joined a party-line effort to block most of Gov. Kevin Stitt’s nominees to the State Board of Education. As a member of the Senate Education Committee, Hicks opposed confirmation of Carlisha Williams Bradley; William Flanagan, Jr.; Estela Hernandez and Jennifer Monies.

Hicks opposed Flanagan’s nomination after he expressed support for charter schools and virtual education and said officials could reduce administrative duplication and waste in Oklahoma schools.

Hicks announced her opposition to Hernandez and Monies before either nominee appeared before the committee. The Oklahoman reported that Hicks said she “was aided in her decision by a set of criteria put together by Democratic lawmakers focused on education,” but “declined to share the criteria.”

Stitt’s Board of Education nominees were opposed by the OEA.

Ray Carter is the director of OCPA’s Center for Independent Journalism. He has two decades of experience in journalism and communications. He previously served as senior Capitol reporter for The Journal Record, media director for the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and chief editorial writer at The Oklahoman.

OCPA column: Putting politics ahead of children’s learning

Putting politics ahead of children’s learning

by Jonathan Small

At a gathering of educators/union members, you might expect improving schools and addressing labor issues would be dominant topics. But, based on “new business” items at the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly this month, you’d be wrong. And those actions were taken with the full participation of the NEA’s Oklahoma members.

Union delegates considered 160 “new business” items and passed many, including measures that focused on ways to promote and support abortion, open borders, reparations for slavery, transgender issues, and more. Any focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic appeared an afterthought, at best.

Delegates approved a resolution declaring the union “vigorously opposes all attacks on the right to choose and stands on the fundamental right to abortion under Roe v. Wade.” They approved a proposal committing the NEA and its state affiliates, like the Oklahoma Education Association, to “organize and mobilize in support of the Equality Act,” a proposed law that would require Oklahoma schools to allow biological males to use the girl’s bathroom or participate in girl’s athletics – so long as the biological male claims to identify as female.

Another resolution said the NEA “will create space” on its name tags and IDs “for the individuals’ pronouns.”

Attendees called on the U.S. government “to accept responsibility for the destabilization of Central American countries” and claimed U.S. actions are “a root cause of the recent increase of asylum seekers in the United States.” Another resolution committed union members to “push reparations for descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States.” NEA members also adopted a resolution to “incorporate the concept of ‘White Fragility’ into NEA trainings/staff development ...”

Admittedly, some proposals were related to children’s learning. One resolution declared the union would “re-dedicate itself to the pursuit of increased student learning in every public school in America by putting a renewed emphasis on quality education.” Another resolution called for teacher preparation programs and trainings to be focused on “commitment to students and their learning.”

The only problem: Those last two proposals were rejected by NEA attendees.

The NEA Representative Assembly shows the union’s goals for schools nationwide, including Oklahoma, involve a lot more political indoctrination than academic learning. Some will respond, “That’s the NEA, not Oklahoma teachers.” But the OEA reports around 60 Oklahoma educators participated in the assembly. Membership in the OEA requires membership in the NEA, and OEA ships approximately 40 percent of educators’ union dues to the NEA. A member of OEA’s board of directors even served on the committee that developed the proposals voted on by delegates.

Put simply, there’s no sign of friction between OEA and its national parent. The NEA’s agenda is the OEA’s agenda. Parents should take note.

Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

OCPA: OEA silence on 'diversion' of school funds is deafening

OEA silence on ‘diversion’ of school funds is deafening

OKLAHOMA CITY (May 1, 2019) – Less than a week after declaring strong opposition to tax credit legislation because such bills supposedly divert money from public schools, the Oklahoma Education Association has abandoned that stance and ignored millions in new tax credits, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs President Jonathan Small noted today.

“I wish I could say I am surprised by the OEA’s flip-flop and hypocrisy,” Small said, “but it’s been clear for months that the OEA doesn’t care about protecting funding for schools. What the union really objects to is giving low-income and needy children greater educational opportunity and better life outcomes.”

This session, legislators have sought to allow up to $30 million in tax credits to be issued through the Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Act. That law provides a tax credit to those who donate private funds to organizations that provide private-school scholarships to the needy or help pay for public-school programs.

The OEA loudly objected, claiming the tax credit reduced available funding for public schools. One OEA tweet claimed state government “cannot afford to give away money to the super wealthy at the expense of Oklahoma children.”

Yet in the past week, lawmakers have advanced tax-break legislation that provides $20 million in annual tax credits for converting vehicles to compressed natural gas (extending a tax break set to expire). They’ve also voted to double rebate payments to film productions from $4 million to $8 million and even repeal the rebate cap entirely for some films.

Both bills passed with little opposition. The OEA issued no action alerts and said nothing on its social media outlets even though both measures would reduce available state funding that could go to schools.

“When a tax credit will generate millions in funding to help public schools and benefit homeless children, students needing addiction treatment, and low-income families stuck in bad schools, the OEA mans the barricades,” Small said. “But when a tax credit benefits Hollywood moguls or CNG hobbyists, the union is nowhere to be seen. That really says it all.”

Polling conducted by WPA Intelligence and commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs shows 60 percent of Oklahomans support raising the cap on the tax-credit scholarship program. Only 23 percent were opposed.