Guymon schools locked down for five hours

KFDA has the story.

TPS decides reality is optional

"During its meeting Monday evening, the [Tulsa] school board added gender expression and gender identity to the list of categories the district does not discriminate against," the News on 6 reports. This calls to mind a passage from Steven F. Hayward in the current issue of Intercollegiate Review:

The single most important overarching political question at the present time is whether we still think there is such a thing as human nature. The core of postmodernism—and many of the campus enthusiasms about how one's gender identity is solely a matter of free choice or will—explicitly denies the idea of human nature, though this often comes disguised in an attack on "objectivity," "social construction" of language and reality, and so forth. The rejection of human nature is catching on slowly in our wider popular culture ...

School choice and school discipline

We should expect the former to improve the latter, John Garen writes in the Journal of School Choice.

Berkeley liberals and the roots of ESAs

Ron Matus has the story.

'Bullying and teen suicide explained: It's public schools'

"The root cause of school bullying and subsequent suicides is the public school system itself," writes Walter Hudson, president of the Minority Liberty Alliance. "We have turned our children over to an institution of collectivism which punishes people for being different. It’s a condition we would never tolerate in any other area of our lives, where we monitor and control our associations in pursuit of our own happiness."

Court should treat religion fairly

No matter the origins of Oklahoma's Blaine Amendment, writes law professor Andrew Spiropoulos, "the court cannot read it out of the constitution."

The problem is that, when read broadly, this language would prevent any use of public property by any religious organization. Scout troops or church groups, for example, couldn’t use public parks. Given the history and pervasive religiosity of our society, this provision cannot reasonably be interpreted to forbid the faithful from benefiting from public facilities or services. 

Our court should read this provision so that, while government cannot favor religion, it may treat religion equally, both compared to different faiths and to the secular. When a recipient of publicly funded services, like health care or education, for example, chooses religious providers over secular agencies, compensating the religious provider for providing the service isn’t supporting or benefiting religion. It’s treating religion fairly.

Guthrie High School staffer arrested, accused of sexual relationship with student

NewsOK.com has the story.

Loaded gun found on Oklahoma school campus, student arrested

The AP has the story.

Why home schooling?

Economist Walter Williams says there are both safety reasons and academic reasons to teach your children at home.

The voucher left

Ron Matus reminds us that school choice has deep roots on the left.

Expand and improve higher-ed vouchers in Oklahoma

"The United States has long been a world leader in school vouchers—for higher education," Greg Forster writes in Perspective. "Now we need a revolution in higher education vouchers similar to the revolution that is hitting K-12 vouchers in the form of education savings accounts (ESAs)."

Editorials laud Henry Scholarship program

In the last 24 hours, three great editorials have made the case for the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship program. In The Journal Record, law professor Andrew Spiropoulos writes:

We must free ourselves from the destructive notion that public funding of education means that a student must be educated at a public school. These reports prove that there are some children who require a different school environment than a public school can supply. Our children, the school district, and the larger community will all benefit if the state enables parents to send their children to the school, public or private, that best meets their needs. 

Fortunately, our state has established a program, the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship Program for Students with Disabilities, which empowers parents to choose the right school for their disabled child. At best this program helps a few hundred children. We need to expand and trumpet it so it serves thousands. 

Unfortunately, instead of treating the scholarship as a blessing, too many public educators perceive it a threat.

Meanwhile, The Oklahoman opines:

[M]any Oklahoma public schools need a culture change. By freeing the families of children with special needs to take those students to private schools that do a better job, as the scholarship law does, lawmakers have taken a step in the right direction. 

It's not irrational for parents to think second-graders can be disciplined without being handcuffed, or wrong to want their education tax dollars to pay to actually educate their children.

And in The Journal Record, OCPA president Michael Carnuccio writes:

Oklahoma has an opportunity to innovate, create its own solutions to address autism and avoid the perils of mandates. State-specific programs such as education scholarships, high-risk pools, and expanded training for parents and teachers with autistic students are the right solutions. 

Oklahomans should rally to make their voices heard and oppose state bureaucrats who are currently trying to overturn the Henry Scholarship program in court.

I encourage you to read all three pieces in their entirety.

Tulsa teacher charged with sexual battery bound for district court arraignment

The Tulsa World has the story.