Educator-misconduct watch

According to a story today in The Oklahoman,

Ten states have taken action in recent months to crack down on sexually abusive teachers following a stream of arrests and reports that have documented the problem of educators victimizing students. ... They are focusing on an increasingly undeniable phenomenon: While the vast majority of America's roughly 3 million public school teachers are committed professionals, a disturbing number have engaged in sexual misconduct.

A recent analysis by the Associated Press found that "sexual conduct plagues U.S. schools" and suggests that sexual misconduct among male schoolteachers is at least as common as among male priests. A 2004 U.S. Department of Education study found that one in 10 public school students is sexually harassed or abused by a teacher or other school employee at some point between kindergarten and 12th grade.

School choice, not insurance mandates

The lead story in today's Oklahoman tells us that an Oklahoma family is moving to Ohio so it can participate in a special scholarship program for autistic children.

Rather than passing Nick's Law and driving up health insurance costs for Oklahomans, policy-makers should enact a scholarship program for autistic children.

Tulsa charter faces TPS resistance to move to new sponsor

The Deborah Brown Community School, one of a tiny number of charter schools sponsored by Tulsa Public Schools, is seeking to end its contract with TPS a year early so they can operate under the sponsorship of Langston University. Recent legislation allows state colleges and universities to act as charter school sponsors, providing a bypass around uncooperative school boards. A majority of TPS board members are hostile to charter schools; in December, the board voted to challenge the constitutionality of the state's charter school law.

The Tulsa World reports today, in a front-page, above-the-fold story, that negotiations between Deborah Brown Community School and TPS attorneys have stalled. TPS wants reimbursement for DBCS's property, which was acquired with public funds, and the two sides cannot agree on a settlement amount.

Oklahoma school board members: The untouchables

Oklahoma voters need a way to dump lousy school board members. Case in point: Dennis McCord, president of the Welch School Board, who has been banned from school property by the superintendent for being a Sports Dad from Hell. Blogger and Welch HS alum Tyson Wynn reports that McCord is alleged to have cussed out coaches and threatened the superintendent over his kids' playing time. Despite unanimous censures from his fellow board members, McCord refuses to resign and nothing can be done to force him out, short of a criminal conviction. Patrons, students, teachers, and administrators seem to be stuck with McCord until his five-year term expires, but a grand jury petition is being circulated by an organization called Save Welch Schools in hopes of finding grounds to remove him. In the absence of full-fledged school choice, school board members should have to answer to voters more frequently than twice a decade, and in between elections recall should be an option.

Academic excellence

The Tulsa World reports today that the 12-member St. Pius X School middle school academic team won 21 consecutive competitions in Oklahoma and is now advancing to the first Junior National Academic Championship in Washington, D.C.

All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge

The newly minted graduates of this Tulsa high school have an invaluable possession: a Christian worldview.

Educator-misconduct watch

"A former high school principal and football coach at Midway High School in Council Hill is being ordered to stand trial on felony charges of having sex with two female students," The Oklahoman reports today. "Curtis Thomas Been faces 10 counts of lewd molestation, sodomy, second-degree rape and making indecent proposals to a child younger than 16. Two girls say they were 14 and 15 when they had sex with Been in his office and in the school's gym, weight room and cafeteria. Been denies the allegations and is suspended with pay from the school in Muskogee County."

A recent analysis by the Associated Press found that "sexual conduct plagues U.S. schools" and suggests that sexual misconduct among male schoolteachers is at least as common as among male priests. A 2004 U.S. Department of Education study found that one in 10 public school students is sexually harassed or abused by a teacher or other school employee at some point between kindergarten and 12th grade.

A 'milestone development'

"There has been a major development in the State of Georgia," conservative stalwart Paul Weyrich points out, "yet the so-called mainstream media has completely ignored it and even the alternative media hardly has covered it. This past week Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed into law the most expansive school-choice program in the nation."

"For many years the teachers unions used scare tactics to prevent school choice programs from enactment," Weyrich writes, but now "the public is able to see that union propaganda was a big lie. ...

"At a time when conservatives are in a funk, believing that nothing good is happening in America, it is time to celebrate this milestone development in Georgia. This is a victory not just for Georgians but for all parents who are concerned with the state of public education in these United States."

'Devastating'

That's how the state's largest labor union describes the proposed New Hope Scholarship Act, which would have allowed roughly 0.16 percent of the state's public school students to attend private schools.

Think about that. It would be nothing short of "devastating" if 0.16 percent of the kids leave. The unions know what they know: Their product is unsatisfactory, and if students have a chance to escape, there's not much doubt that untold thousands will in fact try to escape.

Lowering the bar

Yet another report shows how Oklahoma's education officials are lowering the bar and misleading taxpayers on student performance.

Todd Thomsen and new hope

In the face of massive misinformation being spread by the school-employee labor unions, last month Rep. Todd Thomsen (R-Ada) showed real courage and leadership in debating for and voting for a bill which would have given new hope to children trapped in the worst of the worst urban schools. This story in the Ada Evening News touches on Thomsen's vote for the New Hope Scholarship Act.

Democrats for school choice

They are plentiful in Florida.

Horace Mann prophecy watch

Horace Mann, generally regarded as the father of America’s current public school system, once prophesied: "Let the Common School ... be worked with the efficiency of which it is susceptible, and nine tenths of the crimes in the penal code would become obsolete; the long catalogue of human ills would be abridged."

Not sure what he'd think of two elementary students in Enid bringing drugs (including marijuana) to school this week.