After spending nearly a decade heavily involved in politics, it’s quite a departure for me to admit I can’t name all the candidates running for Lt. Governor off the top of my head. I’ll be honest…I’m not even sure I can name all 27 – or however many – gubernatorial candidates.
Sadly, I’m not dying about it. Why? I’m still plugged in enough to know who to go to for voting advice and I still READ. Yes, it’s true! There are actually things you can READ to get information enough to make informed voting decisions!
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Though it definitely frustrated me to see teachers leave their classrooms and picket the legislature for more taxpayer funding of public education – shutting down some schools for as many as two full weeks – the level of activism displayed by high school students on this issue bothered me more.
This post was sent to me by "Elizabeth":I have never thought of myself as any kind of activist. I have never marched in protest or in support of anything that I can remember. It isn’t that I don’t have opinions – I definitely have them. There are often facets to issues or politics that I don’t understand or, more likely, haven’t taken the time to research.
But my blood pressure rose when I received a text from my teen after returning to school following the Oklahoma teacher strike.
“Our teacher just had us write a paper on our feelings about the walk-out!”
Today I received a communication from a ROPE reader. She told me she had received a letter from her Assistant Principal in response to her request to opt her child/children out of state testing. The letter said, in part:
As guided by the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE), indicating laws and rules set by our legislature, we are required to assess all enrolled students who are present on scheduled test days. In fact, “Because of these statutory and rule requirements, there is no “opt-out” option offered through the OSDE. In addition, 70 OS Section 5-117 states that local school boards of education do not have the authority to take actions inconsistent with state law or rules that have been adopted by the State Board of Education.”
That sounds very official. Even a bit scary.
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Last week, ROPE created a website with a petition to AUDIT THE OSDE. Two things:1. NO, we are NOT collecting signatures for a referendum vote on the taxes passed during this session by our legislature. Yes, there is a group to do that – Oklahoma Taxpay…
With many Oklahoma teachers out of their classrooms during the testing window for administration of Oklahoma standardized tests, there have been questions from parents who now wish to simply opt their child out of testing altogether.page 24Th…
Click on the headline link to continue reading via OKGrassroots
While some are asking where money can be found to fund core government needs in Oklahoma, one simple answer is ending corporate welfare to the Corporate Wind Industry! If we don’t do something truly meaningful this session, another $70 million dollars is going to LITERALLY be “Gone with the Wind” when it could have, instead, gone to meet other state needs.
Photo from NewsOK story: also pictured, Randy Weingarten and Ed AllenAs the teacher’s walkout in Oklahoma continues into its second week for many schools in the state, the questions which really need to be asked at this point are “Why?” …
Since the beginning of this legislative session here in Oklahoma, teachers have been demanding raises. In March, the Oklahoma legislature passed an unprecedented tax to fund teacher raises and other educational needs, raising oil and gas production taxes to 5%, adding a $1 increase per pack on cigarettes, 6 cents on diesel/3 cents gas increases and a $5 tax on hotel motel tax (later repealed). While public education advocates celebrated, taxpayers fretted – and they have good reason to do so.
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