Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Monday, May 16, 2022
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Deer Creek hires pro-CRT group
"The Deer Creek school district has hired the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice (OCCJ) to provide up to 13 workshops whose objectives include a focus on 'diversity, inclusion, implicit bias, and inclusive leadership,'" Ray Carter reports. "Notably, a blog post on OCCJ’s website touts Critical Race Theory (CRT) as an important 'means of learning and education that acknowledges our country’s history of colonization and enslavement.' The OCCJ blog also appears to tout Marxism."
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
School spending surge brings complaints, not improvement
Monday, May 2, 2022
Let’s appreciate homeschool teachers
But there are many other teachers who also deserve our gratitude, including one who lives under my own roof. The very picture of unselfishness, for years Susie Dutcher has gone about her work each day with a quiet strength and dignity, often toiling into the wee hours over essays and worksheets and lesson plans for our homeschooled children.
“She looks well to the ways of her household,” as the proverb says, “and does not eat the bread of idleness.”
“I respect your public service,” she once testified in the nation’s capital before a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. “And I hope you respect my public service, which consists of providing the public with one healthy family, comprised of well-adjusted, productive individuals.
“Because of the time and money and energy I invest in their lives,” she said, “I believe my children will grow up to do great things.”
Economists tell us the difficult work of childrearing provides a benefit to society (I believe the term is “positive fiscal externality”). “Everyone benefits from having a next generation in place to sustain the society and keep its institutions going,” writes Jennifer Roback Morse. “In modern developed countries, the family saves the state money by taking care of its own dependent young, rather than foisting that responsibility onto the taxpayers.”
Our political leaders should appreciate these parents, including those mothers who educate their own children. These teachers build human capital without making demands on budget-conscious appropriators already besieged with requests from competing interests.
After all, policymakers don’t have to provide my children’s teacher a salary, health and retirement benefits, and so on. Indeed, her family’s tax dollars help pay the salaries of public school teachers. She pays for school breakfasts and lunches, too—both for our own children and for the children of our fellow citizens. She buys her own school supplies (without the tax deduction, alas, that other teachers enjoy) and also buys school supplies for others.
When it’s all said and done, her hard work of educating our children will have saved our political leaders well over half a million dollars. That’s money they can use to build roads and bridges, incarcerate criminals, or pay schoolteachers.
Imagine how much money politicians would have to come up with—not only current expenditures but also construction costs—if a few million homeschooled students showed up at public schools nationwide tomorrow morning wanting to enroll.
My children’s teacher is not a professional. She’s an amateur, a word that traces to the Latin amare (“to love”).
“Rather than an exchange,” economist John D. Mueller explains, “love is best described in economic theory as a gift or voluntary ‘transfer payment’—that is, as a voluntary distribution out of one’s resources not made in compensation for useful services rendered.”
As she told the senators that day, “I used to be a schoolteacher, and certainly the salary and benefits I could earn teaching school would improve our material well-being. But some checks can’t be cashed at the bank: My son, when he was 3 years old, said to me one day, ‘I’m proud of you ‘cause you do the right things. Like take a shower, and fix my breakfast … Those kind of things.’
“I know it’s all worth it when we’re on the floor playing with blocks and I notice out of the corner of my eye that he has stopped playing and is staring at me like a smitten young man. ‘I love the way you talk,’ he said to me. ‘And I love the way you smell.’
“‘How do I smell?’ I asked.
“‘Like a mommy.’ ”
That little boy’s all grown up now, doing a residency in orthopedic surgery—thanks to his teacher, who very much deserves our appreciation.
Thursday, April 28, 2022
Edmond teens could face charges after allegedly sexually assaulting girl
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Did state superintendent candidate violate reporting law?
Homeschooling skyrocketed during the pandemic, but what does the future hold?
Monday, April 25, 2022
Having school board elections on Election Day? Brilliant!
Indoctrination in public schools continues even after legislation
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
Court filing delay kept Tecumseh school bus driver accused of sex crimes on the job
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Saturday, April 16, 2022
Police investigate alleged choking of OKC elementary student
Thursday, April 14, 2022
Pornographic materials available in Oklahoma school libraries?
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
Teacher accused of giving cocaine, alcohol to a minor
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
CRT's 'wicked woke stepsister' in Oklahoma
Friday, April 8, 2022
Hofmeister: School transgender bathroom policies mandatory
Thursday, April 7, 2022
Stillwater transgender-bathroom policy in place ‘for years’
Grand jury investigation sought for Shawnee schools
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Let parents (not the state) decide on pre-K
Saturday, April 2, 2022
Saturday, March 26, 2022
Allegations against Okay teacher turned over to FBI
Thursday, March 24, 2022
Still moving in the right direction
And indeed we have. Oklahoma now has two private-school scholarship programs, and most Oklahoma students are eligible to apply. We still have a long way to go—an Oklahoma Empowerment Account for any parent who wants one (still a possibility for 2022)—but it’s pretty clear to me that the momentum is on our side. Indeed, the destructive trends we’re seeing in the government’s system leave me more optimistic than ever that policymakers will eventually get it right.
Year | Major Private-School Choice Victories in Oklahoma |
1994 | |
1995 | |
1996 | |
1997 | |
1998 | |
1999 | |
2000 | |
2001 | |
2002 | |
2003 | |
2004 | |
2005 | |
2006 | |
2007 | |
2008 | |
2009 | |
2010 | Created a private-school voucher program for special-needs students |
2011 | Created a private-school tax-credit scholarship program |
2012 | |
2013 | |
2014 | |
2015 | |
2016 | |
2017 | Expanded voucher eligibility to foster children and children adopted out of state custody |
2018 | |
2019 | |
2020 | |
2021 | Raised the tax-credit cap for private-school scholarships to $25 million |
2022 | TBD |
2023 | TBD |
2024 | TBD |
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Oklahoma Constitution supports school choice
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Moral insanity in Stillwater
Woke teachers continue to out themselves
Duncan teacher says schools should be more 'woke'
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
The solution to groomer schools? Parent choice
"Traditionalists are right that the government school system has proven that it can’t be trusted," Greg Forster observes. "That’s precisely why they’re wrong to think they can take control of it. The best way to cope with the challenge of sexualized schools is to put parents back in charge by letting them take the public funding that supports their children’s education to the school of their choice."
Friday, February 25, 2022
Bootleggers, Baptists, and school choice
Credit: Unknown photographer, Orange County Archives, "Sheriff dumps bootleg booze," CC BY 2.0 |
[Guest post by Robert Ruiz, executive director of ChoiceMatters]
In 1983, Federal Trade Commission executive director Bruce Yandle published a colorful essay entitled “Bootleggers and Baptists: The Education of a Regulatory Economist.” In his piece, and subsequent works on the subject, Yandle explained:Durable social regulation evolves when it is demanded by both of two distinctly different groups. “Baptists” point to the moral high ground and give vital and vocal endorsement of laudable public benefits promised by a desired regulation. Baptists flourish when their moral message forms a visible foundation for political action. “Bootleggers” are much less visible but no less vital. Bootleggers, who expect to profit from the very regulatory restrictions desired by Baptists, grease the political machinery with some of their expected proceeds. They are simply in it for the money.
In the Prohibition era, Baptists were the standard bearers in the charge to ban alcohol, railing against the evils of drinking and the obvious impact on physical health and well-being. But it was the bootleggers, who became rich when Prohibition granted them an (illegal) monopoly on booze, who were really pulling the levers of power, whispering into the ears of pliable politicians.
Yandle argues that most movements, not just the temperance movement of the early 20th century, have their Baptists and their bootleggers. This holds true in the debate over school choice and, most recently, the Oklahoma Empowerment Act (SB 1647), which seeks to give every parent a portion of their state education tax dollars to be used for either private school tuition or homeschooling expenses.
In this case, with due respect to teachers and superintendents who have important and noble jobs, the professional unions who represent their interests are the obvious choice for the role of bootleggers. The source of their wealth and influence comes directly from their monopolistic control of the public education system. In a world where 90% or more of students go to their assigned public school, where only the wealthy can “opt out,” the power and the revenue stream of these unions goes unchallenged and unchecked. If parents do not have the legal or financial means to leave a school they feel is a poor fit for their child, then the status quo will never change and the adults who make money off the current system will continue to make their money.
Homeschool parents, on the other hand, have often been the strongest voices opposing the status quo—mainly because so many turned to homeschooling only after it became clear that the current system was failing their kids. That is why it has been surprising to see at least some of these parents, who have been longtime school choice supporters, now being co-opted by teachers’ unions and campaigning against the Oklahoma Empowerment Act.
These parents believe, incorrectly, that allowing the state government to help support anyone’s homeschooling expenses would somehow expose their own homeschooling practices to increased government oversight. In their minds, they have opted out of a government-run system and don’t want any form of government involvement, even financial assistance.
These parents’ voices are now being shared and amplified on social media by the very people who have ridiculed them and worked to limit their options for decades: teachers' unions and other organized interests in the public education bureaucracy. As sad as it is to say, this vocal minority of homeschooling parents have become the Baptists in Yandle’s analogy, a righteous front group whose sincerely held beliefs are being co-opted by entrenched and nefarious special interests that do not share their convictions or selfless goals.
My plea to these parents is twofold: first, examine the substance of SB 1647. It does not compel any parent to accept any state funds for either private school or homeschool. It does not compel any homeschooling parent to adopt new curricula or to do anything differently than they do today. In fact, the rights and autonomous nature of those who choose to homeschool are protected in our state constitution. SB 1647 simply offers to return a portion of a parents’ state tax dollars—at least $3,500—to support homeschooling expenses. This is for parents who struggle to pay for textbooks, computers, and things like museum memberships to be able to offer those things to their kids. It is not a stealth attempt by the government to control how homeschool parents teach or how homeschool students think. To the contrary, SB 1647 serves as the ultimate form of deregulation and small-government thinking, taking money away from a highly regulated bureaucracy and placing it directly in the hands of parents.
Second, remember who your friends and allies are. In Yandle’s analogy, the bootleggers form an unlikely alliance with the Baptists until they get power over the very things the Baptists despise the most, laughing all the way to the bank. Similarly, teachers’ unions will discard homeschooling parents once they get what they want—a win for the status quo and another loss for those who believe in school choice and parental empowerment.
The authors of the Oklahoma Empowerment Act are fighting for the rights of all parents, especially homeschooling parents. The sooner these parents realize that, the more likely they are to be the beneficiaries of a decisive and impactful win for school choice.
Do Oklahomans want educational freedom?
Homeschoolers for school choice
Thursday, February 24, 2022
More whistleblowers emerge from Bowring school district
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
School library concerns growing in Oklahoma
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
Driving students away reaps benefits for public schools
"Data released by the Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA) indicates that Oklahoma public schools directly or indirectly reap as much as $534 million annually for students they don’t serve," Ray Carter reports.
Friday, February 11, 2022
Broken Arrow students demonstrate against bullying after classmate commits suicide
"I had known him since kindergarten and he was my best friend," said 14-year-old Rory Morrell. She organized a demonstration to raise awareness of bullying after the recent suicide of a classmate. "I know there was people who were harassing [name withheld] and there was a bunch of guys who were telling [name withheld] to kill himself," Rory said."I couldn’t think of any better way to spend my day today than this," said Angela Brewster. For Angela, the demonstration was very personal. Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the death of her 12-year-old daughter Makayla by suicide."For her, it was bullies among her group of friends because she wouldn’t send nude photos to a boy," Angela said.
Monday, February 7, 2022
Muskogee student stabbed in school
Saturday, February 5, 2022
Morris School District riddled with abuse allegations
Friday, February 4, 2022
Child abuse, cover-up alleged at Bowring school
Thursday, February 3, 2022
School choice makes homeschoolers and private schools more safe from government — not less
Friday, January 28, 2022
Thursday, January 27, 2022
Sand Springs mother pleading for help as daughter struggles with bullying at school
Parent says Mid-Del teacher scolded and separated her daughter for not wearing a mask
"Mid-Del does have a mask mandate in place currently," KOKH reports, "but parents can opt out for health, religious, or personal reasons. Jana says she turned the form in months ago after Kylie complained she was getting headaches and feeling light-headed."
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
OSU Writing Center seeks ‘antiracist’ tutors who will ‘accept all Englishes’
Friday, January 21, 2022
Oklahoma Senate leader seeks school choice for all families
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Thursday, January 13, 2022
Oklahomans’ support for school choice is becoming difficult to deny
[This post is updated when new survey data are released.]
- Cole Hargrave Snodgrass and Associates survey (registered Oklahoma voters), January 2022
- WPA Intelligence survey (likely Oklahoma voters), November 2021
- Morning Consult (general Oklahoma population), rolling 12-month results
- 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 choice:
- Tarrance Group survey (likely Oklahoma voters), March 2022
- 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.