Guthrie teacher arrested for allegedly sending photos to minor

KFOR has the story.

Oklahomans’ support for school choice is becoming difficult to deny

[This post is updated when new survey data are released.]

Since 2014, numerous scientific surveys of Oklahoma voters have measured Oklahomans’ views on various forms of private-school choice (vouchers, tax credits, education savings accounts, et al.). And time after time, they have found support. Here is the survey research that has shown support for parental choice:

• WPA Intelligence survey (likely Oklahoma voters), November 2021
• CHS & Associates survey (registered Oklahoma voters), September 2020
• Cor Strategies survey (likely Oklahoma voters), August 2020
• Amber Integrated survey (registered Oklahoma voters), December 2019
• Cor Strategies survey (likely Oklahoma voters), August 2019
• WPA Intelligence survey (registered Oklahoma voters), April 2019
• WPA Intelligence survey (registered Oklahoma voters), January 2019
• Cor Strategies survey (likely Oklahoma voters), May 2018
• Cor Strategies survey (likely Oklahoma voters), August 2017
• SoonerPoll survey (likely Oklahoma voters), July 2016
• SoonerPoll survey (likely Oklahoma voters), January 2016
• Cole Hargrave Snodgrass and Associates survey (registered Oklahoma voters), December 2015
• Tarrance Group survey (registered Oklahoma voters), January 2015
• SoonerPoll survey (likely Oklahoma voters), January 2015
• Tarrance Group survey (registered Oklahoma GOP primary voters), July 2014
• Braun Research survey (registered Oklahoma voters), January 2014

And here is the survey research showing that Oklahomans oppose school vouchers (the survey didn't ask about tax credits or education savings accounts):

• Public Opinion Strategies survey (likely Oklahoma voters), March 2015

Like the film critic Pauline Kael, who couldn't understand how Nixon beat McGovern (given that everyone she knew had voted for McGovern), many in the public education community’s epistemic bubble simply cannot come to terms with the reality that most Oklahomans favor educational choice. But a fair reading of the evidence shows pretty clearly that Oklahoma parents want options and they want the money to follow the child.

So why doesn’t the money follow the child? Political scientists can explain why—government employees are able to pick their politicians and keep kids trapped in an iron triangle—but that’s small consolation for the children who need options right now.

Tulsa Public Schools teacher arrested, accused of having sexual relations with a minor

FOX 23 has the story.

OSSBA offers schools lesson that bashes racial equality

A digital resources library offered to Oklahoma schools by the Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA) includes lessons for students as young as pre-K which denounce the concept of racial equality, suggest that only white people can be racist, and encourage litigation against oil-and-gas companies.

Even the teaching of English has gone woke

David Randall exposes how Oklahoma’s universities and public schools teach English.

We can share this country: School choice in a divided America

"From masks and vaccine mandates to critical race theory, it seems like Americans are at war over everything," Greg Forster observes. "It’s time to live and let live: Put parents back in charge through school choice."

As others exit, OSSBA maintains NSBA ties

Ray Carter has the story.

Moore student makes disturbing allegations, claims she was touched inappropriately

It was but one encounter that female students have had with this particular male student, KFOR reports.

She claimed the same student has been sending disturbing messages to the girls since fall 2020. Freeman also told KFOR she and her sister complained to the school’s principal multiple times. “No matter how many times we’ve gone to the principal, nothing has happened,” said Freeman. “It progressed from just regular bullying to sexual harassment. Now, we’re at the point that it’s become a sexual assault.”

One mom told KFOR off-camera, the same male sent her daughter a disturbing message on Snapchat. She claimed he wrote things no child should be exposed to. “He’s constantly talking about how he wants to touch them and how he’s going to hurt them and all of their friends,” the mom said.

None of this is new. "[S]exual assault and harassment in schools is severely under-reported," Mid-Del 8th-grade teacher Aaron Baker observed in 2018. "Every day all across the United States, educators witness countless examples of female students being touched without consent. We have a culture problem in our schools." 

In 2014, state Rep. Rebecca Hamilton (D-Oklahoma City) observed: "Based on what I heard from my constituents, sexual harassment of girls in our public schools is close to being pro forma. ...Your daughter has a much better chance of growing up to be a strong, independent young woman if she can skip this abuse during her formative years."

NEA/OEA admits anti-CRT law does not ban teaching history

Ray Carter has the story.

Groomer schools are damaging young children

"Some critics claim that sex education materials and social justice school courses also expose young students to inappropriate sexual content and to issues, such as transgenderism, for which they are not prepared," Wesley J. Smith writes.

But is it true? Yes, according to Rebecca Friedrichs, an elementary school teacher and activist who has been exposing the sexualizing of children in the schools through her non-profit organization For Kids and Country. Among its other projects, FKAC tracks the sexualizing of students in school through its SeXXX Ed project. ... Rebecca describes how young children are exposed to graphic sexual content, may play “games” involving models of erect penises and condoms, and are taught about anal sex, among other inappropriate lessons. She describes how parents are intentionally kept in the dark about what their children are being taught and how some schools are becoming arenas for lifestyle indoctrination.

The sky didn't fall

"When states consider expanding school-choice policies, opponents inevitably start claiming that the sky is falling on public education." It's not, and the good folks at EdChoice have the receipts.

Parents' children, parents' choice

"Looks like I was right this summer when I predicted that in Oklahoma’s coming legislative year, opponents of school choice would focus their media messaging on 'accountability,'" Greg Forster writes. "In fact, the only effective accountability system for schools is to give the power back to the people who ought to have had it in the first place—the parents. The results of government 'accountability,' by contrast, are on display in the government school system."

Former Oklahoma teacher charged with rape

"Prosecutors on Tuesday charged a former elementary school teacher in Pottawatomie County with first-degree rape," News 9 reports.