Tulsa Public Schools employee arrested, accused of abusing student

The News on 6 has the story.

Tulsa McLain student in custody after being found with weapon

 The News on 6 has the story.

Former Tulsa Public Schools administrator charged with felony wire fraud conspiracy

KGOU has the story.

State Superintendent says Tulsa public schools are failing our kids

He's not wrong.

TPS illiteracy is 'commonplace'

KTUL has the story of "one of many" Tulsa children who can't read.

Police investigate stabbing of 13-year-old girl on TPS bus

KTUL has the story.

Tulsa teacher: 'I do think someone’s going to get killed at school'

A Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) teacher has seen "weapons brought into school and has heard of gang members recruiting students right outside campus," FOX 23 reports.

Tulsa schools pause biology classes, teach sex ed instead

Kelsey Koberg has the story.

Tulsa schools received millions for racial programs

"A new report shows Tulsa Public Schools has received millions of dollars from a national group that claims 'white supremacy' is a problem in education," Ray Carter reports.

Tulsa mother says son is suffering mentally after allegedly being attacked by a school dean

 FOX 23 has the story.

Tulsa mother raises concern after her 5-year-old's school could not find her son

KJRH has the story.

Concerns over racism, porn lead to Tulsa school sanction

Ray Carter has the story.

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

FOX 23 has the story.

Tulsa teachers told to focus on ‘privilege and oppression’

Ray Carter has the story.

Academic outcomes vary in Oklahoma schools, but decline the norm

"In Tulsa Public Schools, 89 percent of students tested below grade level in all subjects, and 64 percent were more than a year behind," Ray Carter reports. "In Oklahoma City, 90 percent of students performed below grade level in all subjects. State tests showed 67 percent of students were more than one year behind."

Parent raises concern over TPS response to HB 1775

"We’ve never been given access just to see all the curriculum that our kids are actually getting from the teachers," one parent says.

OKCPS, TPS leaders do not prioritize freedom or opportunity

[Guest post by Jonathan Small]

In 1964, Ronald Reagan famously warned, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

As we celebrate our nation’s founding on July 4, Oklahomans should keep Reagan’s warning in mind. As a state, we have much to be thankful for this year, especially compared to many of our counterparts elsewhere. But there’s no guarantee that will last. We must protect our freedom, not take it for granted.

Oklahoma’s unemployment rate of 4 percent ranks 12th lowest in the country. In other states, the rate still hovers around 8 percent. A major reason for that difference is that Oklahoma officials moved quickly to reopen the state as much as possible, as quickly as possible, following the COVID-19 shutdown in spring 2020, while states that continue to have high unemployment rates typically kept activity shut down much longer.

State leadership, not blind luck, played a major role.

Some will argue that those other states did a better job handling COVID-19. Not so. A recent study by officials with the Rand Corporation and economists from the University of Southern California examined the effectiveness of pandemic lockdowns, using data from 43 countries and all 50 US states. Researchers did not find any evidence that shelter-in-place policies saved lives.

Locally, parents across most of the state were thrilled when schools reopened last fall for in-person instruction. But parents in several major districts were not so fortunate as their schools stalled reopening for most of the school year. The difference in the approaches taken by the leadership of those two contrasting school groups will be seen in potentially devastating learning loss among students in closed schools while children in the reopened group will have made up ground lost during last spring’s shutdown.

At both the state and local school levels, different outcomes are the indirect product of election results that place certain people in power. To think that the state of Oklahoma is automatically going to be more free than other states is a mistake. As the lack of in-person schooling in districts like Tulsa and Oklahoma City shows, some voters have promoted leaders who do not prioritize freedom or opportunity.

There are those who view Oklahoma’s success as failure, and they will be seeking office in the future. Whether they succeed is up to you.

This July 4, celebrate your freedom. But be sure you also secure your freedom at the next election—by voting for candidates who will protect and preserve it.

Tulsa providing 'inclusive and stigma-free' sex education

"In sharp contrast with the sketchy Reagan-era Falwellian Scare Tactics brand sex-ed curriculum," one writer notes, rest assured that Tulsa Public Schools is providing "inclusive" and "stigma-free" sex education to 7th graders.

Inaction on parental choice is impossible

An overwhelming 74% of GOP primary voters believe the money should follow the child.

[Guest post 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.”

Some school officials now want to end state testing, ensuring parents will not be notified of a child’s learning loss.

Oklahomans’ support for school choice is not tied solely to COVID-19. Polls have found strong support for parental school choice repeatedly since 2014. And Oklahoma’s political leaders have embraced it.

In January 2019, House Speaker Charles McCall said lawmakers “must put parents back in charge of their children’s education and give underprivileged families more options and more opportunity to thrive.”

This year Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat endorsed raising the cap on Oklahoma’s tax-credit scholarship program, saying, “Where there are kids that lack opportunity, my heart pains for them. We need to make sure they are not forgotten.”

Gov. Kevin Stitt endorsed school choice in his 2020 State of the State speech, saying, “Let’s work together to make sure all students at all schools have access to an innovative, enriching curriculum, regardless of ZIP code.”

Yet, despite public support and the backing of legislative leaders, the bidding was done of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, socialist Bernie Sanders, and the OEA/NEA union, which heavily opposed both school choice and President Trump and instead backed Biden and Kendra Horn.

Thankfully for the most vulnerable, there is now no reason for delay. In addition to public support, GOP lawmakers also have the numbers on their side. Republicans now hold 82 of the 101 seats in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and 39 of the 48 seats in the Oklahoma Senate. It takes only 51 and 25 votes, respectively, to pass a bill in each chamber.

With this favorable environment for saving the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable through significant expansions of parental school choice, inaction will be impossible.

Tulsa schools include ‘social justice’ in staff training

"A recent training program at Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) advised teachers to incorporate 'social justice' into all courses, including subjects such as physical education and math," Ray Carter reports.