Union parent sues district, alleging failure to protect daughter from bullying

KTUL has the story.

Never let a crisis go to waste

A Tulsa nonprofit organization is working “to make sex education as accessible as possible for youth and families in our community to engage with during the COVID-19 pandemic.” One featured item is a coloring book with the typical pronoun propaganda (not to mention words that are inappropriate for children who are young enough to like coloring books). The organization coordinates programs for Tulsa Public Schools, Tulsa Union, and other districts.

Union Public Schools increasing security after social media threat

KJRH has the story.

Priorities

Superintendent who’s paid nearly a quarter-million dollars annually to lead an #OklaEd district where the majority of students lack proficiency in every subject says this $22.5 million stadium project is totally worth it you guyshttps://t.co/8w1fa3KYoU @trentengland @davejbond

— Brandon Dutcher (@brandondutcher) April 28, 2018

Tulsa Union mom speaks out after intoxicated man goes into school

KFOR has the story.

Tulsa mother claims cocaine was found at Union Middle School

KTUL has the story.

Bureaucrat calls baloney—but why?

In a recent column published in The Oklahoman ["Oklahoma’s (missing) $8,872 teacher pay raise"], economist Benjamin Scafidi cited federal data showing that a decades-long employment surge of non-teaching staff (in Oklahoma and nationwide) has far outpaced student enrollment growth. Scafidi, who earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia, is a professor of economics at Kennesaw State University. He is also a Friedman Fellow with EdChoice, a nonprofit organization founded by Milton and Rose D. Friedman.

One commenter is not a fan of Dr. Scafidi's article:

If nothing else Mr. Payne's comment should elicit a wry smile. Scafidi makes the case that teachers haven't gotten pay raises because non-teaching bloat has swallowed up the money. Then, as if to prove Scafidi's point, straight out of central casting comes a critic: a generously compensated non-teacher with a title that could have come from one of those parodic bureaucratic-job-title generators. Unlike teachers in the Union school district, Mr. Payne receives an annual salary of $99,220—as well as a six percent on-call stipend, paid teacher retirement of seven percent, a paid life insurance policy of $80,000, paid health, dental, and disability insurance, and 20 days of vacation.

Mr. Payne's comment raises some questions.

(1)  He says Scafidi's article is "not in line with the reality inside Oklahoma schools." But according to the latest data reported by the Oklahoma State Department of Education to the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education, Union has more non-teachers (1,036) than teachers (828). Why is that? And why did Union's non-teaching staff grow by 150 percent over the past two decades while the number of students increased by 49 percent?

(2)  He says Scafidi's "numbers are highly suspect." How so? After all, they are numbers reported by the Oklahoma Department of Education to the U.S. Department of Education. Is Payne implying that Oklahoma bureaucrats have done something suspicious? Federal bureaucrats? Dr. Scafidi? A drive-by accusation is not sufficient; if Payne believes the numbers are suspect, he should explain why.

(3)  He says Dr. Scafidi's "premise is baloney." Again, please elaborate: What is his premise, and why is it baloney?

(4)  He says Ed Choice "has a vested interest in making public schools look bad." Here's what EdChoice says in its latest publication of Dr. Scafidi's findings:

EdChoice is committed to research that adheres to high scientific standards, and matters of methodology and transparency are taken seriously at all levels of our organization. We are dedicated to providing high-quality information in a transparent and efficient manner. ... All individuals have opinions, and many organizations (like our own) have specific missions or philosophical orientations. Scientific methods, if used correctly and followed closely in well-designed studies, should neutralize these opinions and orientations. Research rules and methods minimize bias. We believe rigorous procedural rules of science prevent a researcher’s motives, and an organization’s particular orientation, from pre-determining results. If research adheres to proper scientific and methodological standards, its findings can be relied upon no matter who has conducted it. If rules and methods are neither specified nor followed, then the biases of the researcher or an organization may become relevant, because a lack of rigor opens the door for those biases to affect the results. The author welcomes any and all questions related to methods and findings.

Again, Payne's vague drive-by accusation is unsatisfactory. Is he implying, as with the "propaganda" and "highly suspect" remarks, that Scafidi's research is inaccurate?

My colleague Trent England will be discussing these matters on his radio program. (Be sure to listen to Trent weekday mornings from 7:00 to 9:00 on AM 1640 The Eagle, with the TuneIn app on your phone, or at KZLSAM.com.) If Mr. Payne would like to elaborate on his comment, he has an open invitation to do so on The Trent England Show.

One more question. Despite Union's per-student spending of $11,566 (higher than it was a decade ago, even when adjusted for inflation), the average Union student is performing better in math than 55 percent of students in Oklahoma, 49 percent of students in the nation, and only 38 percent of students in other developed economies. Is this performance good enough to justify the Union superintendent's total annual compensation of $238,728?

Ex-Union Public Schools teacher sentenced to 13 years for child pornography

The Tulsa World has the story.

Tulsa Union student taken into custody after reports of a weapon on campus

KJRH has the story.

More creepiness from Tulsa Union

A Tulsa Union student has been arrested for taking a picture of a special-needs student using the restroom and then posting it online.

What is it with all this creepiness at Tulsa Union?

Jenks and Union should teach math rather than sue parents

Three weeks ago, I tweeted the following from my @SchoolChoiceOK Twitter account:

Union, Jenks sue parents of special-needs kids is.gd/dctNoQ Classic rearguard action ocpathink.org/articles/1506

Jennifer Carter, chief of staff for state Superintendent Janet Barresi, retweeted it, adding her own colorful comment at the beginning:

Dirtbags @SchoolChoiceOK: Union, Jenks sue parents of special-needs kids is.gd/dctNoQ Classic rearguard action ocpathink.org/articles/1506

In today’s Tulsa World, Kim Archer has a news story on the matter (“Barresi staffer calls Union, Jenks administrators ‘dirtbags’ via Twitter”).

State Superintendent Janet Barresi defended her chief of staff for referring to Union and Jenks administrators as "dirtbags," describing Jennifer Carter's statement on her personal Twitter account as "a poor choice of words."

"While Jennifer's tweet was a poor choice of words, it is morally wrong for superintendents of school districts to sue parents who want nothing more than what's best for their children," Barresi wrote Wednesday in a statement to the Tulsa World. … Barresi said she believes that Oklahomans are "concerned and shocked that any school district would vindictively target the parents of special needs children with a groundless lawsuit."

"These parents' lives are stressful enough without having to deal with a vengeful lawsuit from two superintendents who make more than our governor," she continued.

Barresi said she is "absolutely committed" to defending the rights of parents and expanding their choices.

"We find it revealing," said Jenks Superintendent Kirby Lehman and Union Superintendent Cathy Burden, "that others apparently do not want this issue decided by the courts." That, of course, is false. No one is objecting to the issue being decided by the courts. It’s simply that Jenks and Union sued the wrong people. But, given their incompetence at Pin the Tail on the Defendant, I guess you can’t blame Lehman and Burden for trying to spin it that way. As for the scorn, well, this is what happens when you treat parents like dirt, and Jenks and Union should just get used to it. In his Journal Record column today, law professor Andrew Spiropoulos decried the districts’ vindictive thuggery, and in a press release state Rep. Jason Nelson

said the leaders of the Jenks and Union Public Schools should get used to criticism after targeting the parents of special-needs children with a frivolous lawsuit.

He said criticism is more than warranted in light of the districts’ apparent continued violation of state law and mistreatment of special-needs children.

“Apparently, Jenks and Union officials are shocked that anyone would call them ‘dirtbags’ for persecuting the families of children with special needs,” said Nelson, R-Oklahoma City. “I’ve got news for them: Get used to it. Oklahoma citizens will no longer stand by while wealthy school bureaucrats abuse their power.

“I believe these districts continue to violate state law and know their actions are indefensible—which is likely the reason they did not include ‘suing parents’ on any school board agenda,” Nelson said. “I’ve not heard one person defend suing parents outside the administrators of Jenks and Union schools. I’ve visited with numerous people who shudder at the idea of a school district suing parents—especially in this case—and many of them used far more colorful language to express their opinion.”

Several months ago, the Jenks and Union school boards voted to sue the state attorney general to challenge the successful Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Program Act. However, they never filed that lawsuit, and instead suddenly sued parents who legally obtained scholarships as a result of the law.

Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships allow a student with a disability (such as Down syndrome or Autism) who has an individualized education program (IEP) to receive state-funded scholarships to attend a private school that parents believe can better serve their child. The scholarships come from the amount of money already designated for the education of those children.

“At the start of September, the amount spent on all students receiving these scholarships statewide was a combined total of $197,345—far less than the combined salaries of the two superintendents at Jenks and Union,” said Nelson, who authored the scholarship law. “When you have school administrators obsessing over a month-old, offhand, one-word Twitter comment instead of working to provide each child a quality education, that suggests the school funds being wasted are those spent on administrators’ fat paychecks and not the pittance spent helping educate children with special needs.”

Rep. Nelson’s video message on the subject is also worth watching, and the World has a follow-up story here. Jennifer Carter has issued a statement here.

I agree with Superintendent Barresi that her staffer’s remark was “a poor choice of words.” Interestingly, however, when we turn to the authoritative lexicographers at Webster’s UrbanDictionary.com, we learn that dirtbag is a slang term used in the Army to describe a soldier “whose performance is lacking.” And by international standards, the performance of Jenks and Union is indeed lacking.

Now this will doubtless come as a surprise to Lehman and Burden and all the Jenks and Union folks accustomed to reading their own press releases and assuring themselves that their school districts—among the best in the state—are better than Muskogee and Cement. Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for taxpayers, this week saw the release of a new study, “When the Best is Mediocre,” that could kick-start a much-needed discussion.

The study’s findings rest on a new index called the Global Report Card (GRC). According to the authors, “the GRC enables users to compare academic achievement in math and reading between 2004 and 2007 for virtually every public school district in the United States with the average achievement in a set of 25 other countries with developed economies that might be considered our economic peers and sometime competitors” (methodological appendix here).

According to the Global Report Card, the math achievement of the average student in Jenks is at the 41st percentile relative to the international comparison group. The math achievement of the average Union student is at the 40th percentile. In other words, some of Oklahoma’s best districts—districts with admittedly impressive artificial turf—produce students with math performance worse than that of the typical student in the average developed country.

Look at it this way. If you picked up the Jenks school district and plopped it down in Canada, it would be at the 33rd percentile in math achievement. If you placed it in Singapore, the average student would be at the 24th percentile in math achievement.

Same story for Union, which would be in the 32nd percentile if relocated to Canada and the 23rd percentile if relocated to Singapore.

“In short,” the authors say, “many of what we imagine as our best school districts are mediocre compared with the education systems serving students in other developed countries.” The average Jenks or Union student is not keeping pace in math achievement with the average student in other developed countries, “despite the fact that the comparison is to all students in the other countries, some of which have a per-capita gross domestic product that is almost half that of the United States.”