Open Letter to Legislators: Should You Legislate the Bible?

May 24, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal ~ 2 Comments

This post is addressed primarily to Oklahoma legislators or other office-holders in my poor, dysfunctional state. Since most of them won’t openly admit they read this blog obsessively – although obviously they must – loyal readers should feel free to send it to them or ask them these questions when calling or visiting their offices. I suspect some of our colleagues in neighboring states might find it relevant as well.

Ask not for whom the blog posts; it posts for thee.

Any Oklahoma politician – current, previous, or aspiring – who wishes to respond is welcome. The comment section is always open, but if you have more than a few hundred words, I welcome you as a Guest Blogger – whether I agree with you or not.

Dear Legislator:

Should you legislate the Bible?

I ask because it seems every time we read about something controversial being pushed through the legislature, the story is accompanied by a quote from the bill’s sponsor blaming God.

We’ve been told that Jesus is against handgun registration, that the Bible frowns on people of different genders using neighboring bathroom stalls, and that while God doesn’t want young ladies to know where babies COME from, He DOES insist they know how magical and special the little critters are up until they’re born, at which point He loses complete interest in them.

Jesus never did like children, as I recall.

Just last year we were assured that God wanted us to fudge our own history in order to play Him up – that He’d overlook our failings if we’d only brag about our national infallibility a bit more boldly. As it says in His Word, “Pride cometh before even more things to be proud of.”

He’s apparently uninterested in our tax policies, health care, or how we treat widows and orphans, but was QUITE worked up about Common Core for fear that someone at some point might read a dirty book – something inconceivable under existing guidelines. There’s simply no good reason to write about lust, rape, family dysfunction, or other perversion; such things suggest we are a fallen people in need of redemption. Better we stick to wholesome, happy stories like those in the Bible.

Our Legislators seem to have difficulty distinguishing between Yahweh, the “I Am”, and Tinkerbell, whose very existence hangs by the thread of our applause. Other times they treat the Lord Their God as a sort of corporate sponsor, demanding more patches and stickers pushing His brand or He’ll withdraw His funding. Neither makes sense to me based on the Bible I remember from my days of faith, so I’m hoping you can help me clarify.

Should you legislate the Bible?

If not, would you maybe briefly address what role faith should play for public office-holders in an intensely religious state such as ours? After that, thank you for your time – we’re good.

If so, would you please explain how this is consistent with the First Amendment and established Case Law regarding separation of church and state? How do you justify citing the Holy Book of one specific faith – one whose meaning is regularly debated even by those who accept it as divine – to make secular law?

How do you reconcile your Oath of Office (“I… do solemnly swear… that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma…”) with elevating your personal theology above either constitution? Did you lie when you took the oath, or do you consider yourself above keeping your word? If you believe the Bible is a higher authority than secular law, shouldn’t you have objected to taking this oath as a matter of principle?

If you support legislating the Bible, could you give us an idea of which parts you believe are appropriate to be written into secular law?

There’s been quite an obsession lately with having the Ten Commandments posted at the Capitol. Maybe we could start there.

One – “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” Should this be secular law? No ‘gods’ before the Jewish god? How might we enforce that?

Two – “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…”

This one’s tricky. God isn’t apparently opposed to statues in general, only those which become objects of such obsession that the symbol takes focus off relationship with the divine – ceremony over substance, as it –

Oh! Um… guess I answered my own question there.

Awkward.

Three – “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” For some reason this is commonly interpreted as exclusively about swearing. Sounds to me it pretty clearly includes those who claim to be acting in God’s name for selfish ends.

Four – “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns…”

Why is this not law? This one would be so easy. And obviously it’s important to God – he made sure this was one of the TOP TEN, while stuff like homosexuality or handgun regulation didn’t even make the list. I assume you’re working on a bill of some sort…?

Five – “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” I’m open to suggestions on this one.

Six – “You shall not murder.” Hey, this is a good one! This is already against the law, right? Score one for the Commandments!

Seven – “You shall not commit adultery.” Biblically this includes divorce and remarriage. How many of your peers in the legislature are on their second spouse? How many have had pre- or extra-marital sex? I’m asking because, as with stores being closed on Saturdays, God obviously considered this one WAY more important than some of the stuff being legislated in His name. I just wondered why this one keeps getting skipped.

Eight – “You shall not steal.” Too many easy jokes to be made here when the state is involved. Instead, we’ll count this one as another win for Commandments as Secular Statute. That’s what, two?

Nine – “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” So… lying about someone else? Like, how you get elected, I guess? Or the various political games which are considered the norm ‘round those parts? Or the way various demographics or professions are caricaturized across the state and the nation, not because it’s true but in order to justify mistreating them?

Hello?

Ten – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Coveting is like desiring, or lusting, yes? But in a negative way? I’m not sure how you legislate away want. We seem intent on creating it, actually.

There are entire books in the Old Testament dedicated to rules and laws – would you clarify which you believe should be enforced today? Incest is in there, and still a ‘no-no’ all these years later. Eating shrimp is also a severe offense – why are we letting that slide? Homosexuality is arguably frowned on in the Old Testament, as is wearing mixed fabrics or allowing women to go about their business in the community while they’re on their period. Should we pick and choose, or just put all three into one bill?

Finally – and please, pardon my ignorance – why is it that nothing from the New Testament ever seems to be cited as justification for state legislation? Do we not believe the New Testament any longer, or is there something else I’m missing?

Liberals love to talk about Jesus’ treatment of children and the poor and such when it’s time to make public policy, at which point we’re firmly assured by those in power that such issues are best left to the church, the home, and private agencies. Could you help me understand why the ‘Thou Shalt Not’s are so essential, while anything helpful to the hungry, thirsty, foreign, poor, or sick – are clearly off-limits?

I wish there’d been professional law-makers and interpreters around while Jesus was physically walking the earth. They could have had these sorts of conversations and – assuming someone was willing to devote some papyrus and ink to recording them – we’d have a MUCH clearer understanding of how this whole law/grace balance is supposed to work.

Forgive my not being more up-to-date on my Bible scholarship. I’m sure there are good reasons to ignore Matthew 25:31-46 while focusing on the extensive time Jesus spent worrying about bathrooms, sexual immorality, handgun restrictions, and inadequate border patrol. That’s why I’m asking.

The most likely explanation is that I’m missing something obvious to you and your legislative peers. Otherwise, the rhetoric coming for OKC over the past several years would be nothing but a stream of self-serving cynicism, glaring contradictions, and rampant hypocrisy.

I look forward to better understanding this complex and emotional issue. Thank you for your time.

Across The Aisle

May 19, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal ~ 1 Comment

Since late December, I’ve been doing my best to profile sitting legislators and introduce education-friendly candidates running for state office in 2016. My critiques of sitting legislators have been diverse, but I’m pretty much only highlighting new candidates I support.

This may not be ‘fair’, but I’m not a news source – I’m an education blog. I advocate. Like a mofo.

Several of you have noticed that this sometimes means profiling or linking to multiple candidates in the same district. Occasionally they’re even in the same party – competitors in the State Primaries next month, on June 28th.

Am I that confused? That unbiased? Pulled that many different directions?

I won’t argue with confused, and I’m definitely biased. But the issue isn’t different directions – quite the contrary. I’m all about One Direction.

I want candidates who are likely to be good for public education. I don’t know all of them personally, but I’ve read through their rhetoric, their promises, their backgrounds, and made the best calls I can. I’ve allowed many of them to respond in their own words to questions related to education and funding – even poodles, if I can draw them in on that part.

Whatever else you can say about the folks trying to kill public ed in Oklahoma, they don’t disguise their intentions very well. Once you get past ‘I Just Loooooove Smurtness!’ their rhetoric screams ‘ALEC Paid Me To Say This’ and ‘I Still Haven’t Realized That Glenn Beck Is Satire.’

It’s certainly possible we might not get exactly what we’ve paid for with every edu-candidate successfully elected this November, but I feel good about my choices overall.

Sometimes there are no candidates in a district about which I feel very much hope. Other times, there are several. After the primaries, there will be fewer. It’s just how things work.

Senate District 37 is one of the districts in which many people are running. Seven, at last count. Of those, I’ve profiled two – Lloyd Snow, Democrat, and Brian Jackson, Republican. I wholeheartedly endorse BOTH of them for purposes of state primaries. If they both make it through – and I hope they do – we’ll go from there.

Why? Because while they disagree on many other issues, they’re both strong advocates for public education in Oklahoma. They both consider it a priority. And they both know what they’re talking about when it comes to teachers, kids, and edu-slation.

So yeah – I support them both. As do they.

See, Jackson and Snow have actually campaigned together a number of times, knocking on doors and talking to voters. Their campaign Facebook pages and Twitter accounts regularly send shout-outs to one another. They’re even nice to each other when no one’s watching.

I realize there will eventually be limits to this warm fuzziness. At some point someone will win that seat and six other people won’t. If they were both in office (from different districts), there would be bills over which they’d disagree – perhaps vigorously. There would be times their parties would play reindeer games in order to accomplish some greasy goal or other. It’s the nature of the beast.

But is it SO crazy to hope that offsetting these differences are areas of genuine cooperation and understanding? Was it SO long ago that legislators were able to debate across the aisle, then drink across the barbeque grill while their kids tore up someone’s yard and ruined their new cargo pants?

Some apparently think so. One of the other candidates from that district posted this on her Campaign Facebook page a few weeks ago:

While I’m normally humble and demure, I found this, well… horrifying.

Barely polite words were exchanged.

I don’t think Ms. Patterson is a bad person. She wasn’t even the one initially responding on her account. But that last phrase really captures something familiar to those of us weary of political realities, doesn’t it?

Supporting public education, or generally agreeing with someone in the other party about even a single priority, is “forfeiting.” It’s “unethical” and “deceiving to the whole community.”

We all know that nationally, partisan vitriol overrides all other considerations. President Obama could discover a cure for cancer tomorrow, made only out of discarded potato peels, and Congress would shut it down out of spite. I have no doubt a Democratically-controlled Congress will be just as contrary when President Trump tries to free us from the ridiculous constraints of the first 19 Amendments.

But surely we don’t have to emulate that at the state level? I don’t want to trot out all the Pro-klahoma clichés that come up every time someone needs a hand from the community, but come on – this is the freakin’ Midwest. Let’s not be dillweeds about everything.

The conversation continued, more or less civilly, until I wrapped it up with something I thought was both pithy and hilarious.

My wife hates it when I’m so obviously amused with myself like this. That’s unfortunate, because it happens A LOT.

The point I was trying to make, potentially humorously, was that by making claims with which we both agreed, Ms. Patterson (having eventually seized the keyboard from her minions) had violated her own standards of political legitimacy. That’s an absurd measuring stick, of course, which was where the whole exchange started.

The entire conversation was deleted shortly thereafter. Too bad – I thought it was interesting.

I have nothing against Paula Patterson. She’s probably in the majority on this one. She took a cute shot at something her opponents were doing which seemed silly, and this crazy interloper on Facebook (me) made a big thing of it and OMG-who-lets-these-people-on-social-media-anyway?!

Politics and game-playing shape everything at the national level, and far too much at the state Capitol. I’m not a deeply entrenched insider, but I catch enough of the behind-the-curtains shenanigans to know that parties jump ship on their own bills, politicians vote against their own ideas, press releases are press released and statements are stated OFTEN just to mess with the other party or manipulate public perception.

It’s ridiculous. And maddening for the handful of folks up there trying to do real good.

I don’t expect it to stop just because we get a few educators elected. I certainly don’t expect it to change just because I write about it and do my best to rile up all Eleven of my Faithful Followers.

But we can fight it, at least. We can occasionally step away from it and try to model how things COULD work. How they SHOULD work.

It’s not selling out your party or your values to hear what the other side is saying. It’s not deceptive to agree on a few fundamentals. Both parties, for example, are against murdering someone for cupcakes. I mean, I assume – it’s not in their platforms or anything. But as far as I can infer, neither side thinks killing someone in cold blood for baked goods is acceptable behavior.

Is that a partisan issue? An unethical compromise? Is that another example of ‘big government overreach’? Or is it simply something so fundamental that they don’t feel the need to argue about it?

Public education should be a priority for every candidate from every party. We can argue about how to best make it more gooder – consolidation or testing or pay raises or charters or magic. We should be arguing about it – that’s why we have a two-party system.

But how amazing would it be if we could at least all agree that it IS important? That it’s WORTH arguing about? That we’ve not done a very good job on this topic legislatively, and it needs a major revisit?

How awesome could it be if we’d agree that what matters most is helping all Oklahoma students, whatever their color, religion, or income level, and without concern for their parents’ political persuasion? How much good could we accomplish if we started with ‘what are your ideas and why do you think they’ll work?’ instead of ‘what’s your party?’

That’s all Snow and Jackson are doing. They’re not campaigning to conquer their opponents, or to better serve their fiscal overlords, or to lay foundations for their future political careers.

They’re campaigning – sometimes together – because they believe our kids matter. Ethically, economically, culturally, and inherently – our kids matter.

Is that truly so very controversial?

RELATED POST: #OklaEd Call To Action (It’s Time)

Time to Get Involved – #OKElections16

March 18, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal ~ 3 Comments

I wanted to compile a short list of talking points, a resource for educators or parents willing to encourage others to get more involved in state elections but unsure what to say. My goal was for it to be succinct, informative, and relatively free of tone and attitude, so as to be more palatable to the masses.

I think it at least ended up relatively informative. Modify tone and length as you see fit.

Please ask your prinicpal if you can have five minutes at the next faculty meeting to discuss getting teachers more involved in the decisions which substantially impact them – AND THEIR KIDS. Discuss it with your department. Email this to friends, neighbors, co-workers – and then follow up with actual conversations.

The goal isn’t to get them to vote for your guy, or agree with you about everything. More educators and thoughtful parents involved in the process will have a positive impact, period. Vote your conscience; it’s the not voting and not having a conscience that’s killing us right now.

See, other than a vigorous sign-carrying from time to time, far too many of us don’t pay attention to the legislation that affects us or the office-holders who – supposedly – represent us in OKC. It can seem time-consuming, confusing, and depressing. We’re busy, and that stuff seems so far away. It’s not like we can DO anything about it, right?

But there are something like 45,000 teachers in Oklahoma. Many of us are married, or have adult children, or siblings in the state, or even, like, friends – meaning an easy 100,000+ voters if we’ll only decide it’s important. Roughly 800,000 people voted in the last statewide election. See the math?

With a little agitating, we can have actual impact this year. We don’t even have to win them all – we just have to be a reliably involved constituency. Right now we’re not. Many legislators – both friend and foe – will tell you that teachers sometimes fuss, but they don’t show up and support candidates who support them. They’ll call and email and gripe, but don’t vote out people who serve their fiscal overlords in ways that hurt our kids. That must change.

We have momentum, starting with an early win in the District 34 Special Election this year. Social media is abuzz. The weirdness of the national campaign has people paying attention, so let’s build on that. Be vocal, be reasonable, be civil – and be informed.

I’m sharing this as someone who avoided state politics for many years. My goal is to make the information as accessible as possible for any of you who perhaps haven’t been as involved as you are now considering. No judgment – we just need your help.

#OKElections16 State Primaries

March 1st was, as you were probably aware, the date of the Presidential Primary in Oklahoma. That’s a whole other descent into madness we won’t worry about here.

Statewide Primaries are on Tuesday, June 28th. This is when we begin the process of choosing who’ll be setting state edu-policy for the next 2 – 4 years. This is when you help choose your party’s nominee for each office serving the district in which you live. Sometimes there will be multiple candidates from the same party running for an office; sometimes not.

Members of the State House of Representatives are elected every two years – every one of them is up for re-election (or not) every time. State Senators are elected every four years, meaning half are up for re-election (or not) each time.

You have until June 3rd to make sure you’re registered to vote in Statewide Primaries. Here’s why that matters…

We really do have Democrats here. Some even hold office. A few are kinda out there, but most are strong supporters of public education. They have limited impact, however, unless there are MORE of them working together. So, if those are your leanings, you need to get involved and vote these folks in. I realize national politics seems a bit futile for lefties in these parts, but you can have a huge impact closer to home.

As to Republicans, the state has quite a range. Primaries are even MORE important on this side of the aisle. They won’t ‘feel the Bern’ on many issues, but some are nicer to public education than others. Don’t take their word for it – they all SAY they support teachers. Figure out who’s been voting for what.

If you care about other issues deeply, that’s great – look at their records on those ALSO. But be realistic about what state legislators CAN and CANNOT actually do. They CAN substantially help or hurt public education, they have great impact on whether or not your grandmother has access to health care, and they come up with all the reasons to keep everyone locked up indefinitely. They make state policy for state-level issues.

Most social issues in the 21st century are shaped by federal legislation and Supreme Court decisions. For better or worse, the North won the Civil War. The 14th Amendment is a thing. All we accomplish by repeatedly passing laws in clear violation of national socio-political realities are expensive lawsuits (remember that budget crisis?) – which the state always loses – and national mockery.

A vote to return to the 19th century is a wasted vote – and that’s before we even address how ethically abhorrent it is to begin with.

But public education IS in their power to improve. Or change. Or destroy.

Any state primary in which no candidate receives a majority of the vote will result in a Primary Runoff election on August 23rd. Only the top two candidates for each disputed office will be on these ballots.

#OKElections16 State Elections

Statewide elections are on the same date – November 8, 2016 – as national elections.

PLEASE DO NOT VOTE STRAIGHT PARTY TICKET when it’s time to fill out your ballot. I’d not presume to tell you who to vote for nationally (well, I would – but not right this second), but it’s SO WORTH TAKING A LITTLE TIME to get to know something about your state and local options.

An Oklahoma Democrat isn’t necessarily the same creature as a California Democrat or a Massachusetts Democrat. Our ‘lefties’ often have strong approval ratings from the NRA, conservative social values, or other traits which would count as ‘crazy right-winger’ in other parts of the country.

As far as Oklahoma Republicans, as I suggested above, there’s quite a range. Some of them are the sorts of bile-spewing demagogues who brand the entire party as haters and nut-jobs, but many are good enough folks genuinely trying to guide the state along the right path, whether we agree on the details or not.

I’ve profiled as many candidates as time allows, and keep a running compilation of current issues in #OklaEd. If these don’t cover what you want to know, you can try several things:

* Several of the top #OklaEd bloggers and news sites cover this stuff regularly. You can subscribe to their blogs, read the stuff that interests you, and easily discard the rest.

* Subscribe to the Tulsa World and/or that Oklahoma City paper that’s not nearly as good. They’ll often have candidate info as election time approaches, and with a subscription you can search past months and years to see if they’ve been in the news before, and for what.

* OpenStates.org is free to use and allows you to easily search for specific legislation or for specific legislators. You can pull up a list of every bill they’ve authored, successful or no, or look at who voted which way for any specific piece of legislation over the past several years. There are topic searches of state legislation as well, so if you’re not sure which bills you’re looking for, you can look at bills involving “education” or other key words.

* OKLegislature.gov is the official website of the State Legislature. Here you can easily find out who your elected officials are, and look over their official profiles. Many have official biographies, some have introductory videos, and most have basic contact information. Some respond to constituents, some don’t – which by itself tells you something, yes?

* If you’re on Facebook, groups like Oklahoma Parents and Educators for Public Education post regular articles and updates and engage in discussions related to public ed. If no one’s talking about your legislative district, bring it up yourself and see what happens.

* If you’re on Twitter, watch for (or search) the hashtags #OklaEd and #OKElections16. We’re pretty free with our opinions.

Between Now and Election Days

Let your elected representatives for your districts KNOW that you support them – and why, or that you DON’T – and why. Be clear, concise, and polite.

Better yet, run yourself. I’m absolutely serious. You’ll work fewer hours for far more money, and have a seat at the table making policy. If not you, talk to your spouse, your favorite principal, or that amazing educator who just retired. I’m telling you, teachers and their people running for state office is a thing this year.

I’ll support you. Many of the legit blogs will, too. Yes, some of the current office-holders have big financial backing from out-of-state, but all that money means little if they can’t get the votes – and their fiscal overlords show little mercy to losers.

This is the year. I can’t tell you what next year will bring, but I can assure you it will be better than it would have if you’ll simply get involved and stay informed. You owe it to yourself, and your state, and your family.

Most of all, cheesy as it is, you owe it to our kids.

A Public Thank You To OK Legislators

March 13, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

I’d like to thank the Oklahoma State Legislature for approving the use of $51 million from the state’s “Rainy Day Fund” in order to soften the blow taken by public education this year.

I’ve been very critical of this legislature for their handling of our state budget over the past several years. I’m still opposed to the extent of the tax cuts they’ve approved, and there are some in leadership I’m convinced are willfully and maliciously dismembering public education at the bidding of their fiscal overlords from other realms.

But I’m not talking about them right now.

Thanks to the rest of you for softening your stance enough to recognize that public education and other essentials of the social contract have been demonized and attacked by those elected to implement and support them, and for doing what you could to provide airbags for our crash landing.

Thanks to those of you who’ve advocated for public education throughout your time in office, often at the expense of having your other issues taken seriously or your legislation heard because you weren’t “playing ball” with those sitting at the biggest desks. We recognize that in speaking truth to power, you’ve crippled your own ability to implement change – a paradox I couldn’t navigate so gracefully.

A special thanks to those of you who’ve been fighting these extreme tax policies for years, and who years ago publicly predicted the situation we’re now in. We don’t always acknowledge or appreciate you, despite what should be a natural alliance of “Davids” in a system controlled by “Goliaths”.

Thank you to the members of the Education Committees in both the House and Senate who opposed even bringing voucher bills to the floors of their respective houses. I know you took substantial heat from leadership and I want to publicly acknowledge that you voted your conscience and what you believed your constituents wanted despite the political costs, and despite not immediately having the numbers to prevail.

Thank you to the many legislators in both houses who worked behind the scenes to prevent these bills from coming to the floor. It’s difficult to express this with any specificity, because unless you’ve communicated your convictions publicly, we don’t know who you are.

Even if we did, I’m not sure I’d be doing you any favors by listing your names. I recognize that you’re now targeted by state leadership for doing what was right for the marginalized and underserved across our state, and a Blue Cereal endorsement wouldn’t exactly improve your status in their eyes.

Otherwise I’d send you a mug or something. I know, I know… but that’s politics.

Thank you to the many Republicans in both houses who refuse to accept that their party must stand only for the elite and the chosen few, and who’ve endured a “calling out” by the Governor’s office as closet Democrats – as if concern for your constituents or the children of this state is a character flaw and the defining element of Republicanism is not a passion for America’s potential or a belief in self-reliance, but mindless obedience to one’s fiscal overlords. Thank you for believing that your party can stand for more than some malevolent caricature, even when it costs you influence and support – and may cost you your office.

Thank you to the Democrats in both houses for providing the kind of minority opposition essential to meaningful democracy and thoughtful decision-making. Your role is critical even when final decisions aren’t as “thoughtful” as our system intends.

Thank you for those behind-closed-doors efforts to kill hundreds of horrible ideas before they reached the floor. A few got through – and we’re dealing with those – but most of it went away. While I’m not privy to details, thank you to those of you who made that happen.

Thank you Superintendent Joy Hofmeister for calling on me during Q&A even though you know you’ll regret it every time. You’ve been pretty tight-lipped about your role in all of this over the past month, but I suspect you’re a big part of whatever damage control was managed this time around.

I suspect your relative silence is pragmatism allowing you to be more effective rather than maneuvering allowing you to advance your political future. Thank you for choosing the right thing over the ambitious thing, whether we see it clearly just yet or not.

I don’t speak for all of #OklaEd – only the wisest and best-looking among them – but I hereby commit myself to do everything in my humble power to promote the re-election of sitting legislators who chose to shield public education from at least some of the blast this time around.

I don’t agree with all of you about everything, and given a little face-to-face time and a drink or three, I’d argue that few of us are completely guiltless in this mess. But we choose our representatives from those who run, and we work with those actually able to get elected in Oklahoma – and that means a few compromises and reality checks here and there.

I resolve to do my best to get every teacher or parent who called or emailed or shared FB posts cursing you for this session’s insanity to follow up by voting their voice in June, and August, and November. I know that all of our talk about you “working for us” only matters if we play our role as well and make sure the good ones stay in office and the bad ones are replaced.

I’m officially calling on all #11FF and the entirety of #OklaEd to reach out to at least a half-dozen co-workers, neighbors, folks at church, parents of students, etc., and encourage them to get informed and get involved.

Yes, we’ll keep calling and emailing and carrying on about legislation still on the table, but let’s do so in informed, targeted ways. Let’s put the same effort into thanking and supporting those fighting FOR us as we’re putting into calling out those AGAINST us.

Finally, I’d like to encourage those of us NOT in office, but still fighting FOR public ed, to resist the temptation to turn on one another over details, or to let legitimate disagreements fragment our collective voice. I’d remind myself as much as anyone else that private schools and their teachers, parents, and students are NOT the enemy, nor are those trying to serve kids through charters, TFA, homeschooling, or whatever.

Our fight is with corporate exploitation and manipulation of the weak; not with individuals trying to educate kids in a different way than ourselves. I’ve been guilty of forgetting this distinction too many times to take it lightly now.

As educators, we pride ourselves on looking past clichés and stereotypes, or even the facades willfully projected by our students, in order to find the “real child” and the potential underneath. Thank you for doing the same for us and for our kids. We are resolved to do a better job of doing the same for you, starting now.

Let us know how we can help.

Let’s Talk About Choice

February 23, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal ~ 4 Comments

There’s been a real emphasis recently on parent choice in regard to public schooling. Apparently, parents know better than anyone what’s best for their child and what sort of education is most appropriate for their individual needs.

Of the many pro-voucher arguments out there, this seems to be the one state leadership has decided on as their primary talking point. I must confess, I’m a bit bewildered when they became such fans.

When parents began opting out of standardized testing because they didn’t think it was best for their children, state leaders didn’t seem too excited about parent choice. Many were annoyed, others apathetic. The overall tone seemed to indicate that these stupid parents were just causing trouble – probably because they’d been led astray by radical bloggers and corrupt superintendents. I certainly don’t recall many legislators applauding for these wise parents and their use of choice.

When parents protested that their third grade children were being brutalized by high-stakes reading tests, facing retention and large scarlet ‘F’s on their chests as a result, state leaders absolutely loathed parent choice. A feisty group of elected representatives finally managed to change the rules enough that parents at least have SOME voice in whether it would be ‘best for their child’ to move on to fourth grade, and Governor Fallin VETOED it – because what do parents know about standards and accountability and children?

The veto was overridden, but at the cost of a ‘sunset provision’ on parental involvement – meaning the same people crying for ‘parent choice’ for their chosen sliver of the population are still itching to eliminate it for the rest.

My son would have benefited greatly from getting out of the six-hour day, the old-school academic core-you-to-death structure in which he was bound, but state law said no. Every child, regardless of ability, interest, background, or potential, has to have X-number of required butt-in-seat hours and be crammed full of the same tired basics that state leadership has mandated as sacred and holy for all kids, for all time.

I wanted desperately to give him something more practical, outdoors, or vo-tech heavy MUCH earlier in his schooling, but I didn’t have that choice. NO parent has that choice. The state knows what’s best, and we don’t – that’s why they make the laws and set the harsh penalties if I don’t force my kid through them, no matter how bad for him or her it might be.

The anti-vaxxers have gained a little leeway in Oklahoma, but by and large have very little choice whether or not their child will be immunized before heading off to school. Why don’t we give these parents choice? Freedom to do what’s best for their kids, who might have different needs?

Seat-belt laws are about as anti-choice as it gets. They are the ultimate statement of belief that too many parents don’t have the first god-given CLUE what’s best for their kids. They’re too stupid to even buckle them in without the threat of fiscal penalty. Parent choice? Are you kidding?

I hesitate to even bring up the demonization of smokers – tell THOSE parents they have the right to decide what’s best for their kids or their community when they light up. You’ll get either a sardonic chuckle or a pop in the nose for being a smart-ass. (Sorry to blur that there issue, Jay.)

Nor do they have much real choice what their kids are allowed to eat at school. The state mandates the most awful fat-free gluten-free flavor-free color-free slop, boosting the sales of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos far above anything legislation could have mandated had they so desired. Sure, you can send lunch with them, as long as you have the sort of lifestyle allowing you to pack it each morning, and as long as it doesn’t have to be hot, or cold, or mixed, or preserved in any way throughout the day.

Even PTSA Pizza Day now means special everything-free crust and no toppings of any kind because Michelle Obama and Jason Nelson think kids are fat. None of this screams parent choice (although it’s a wonderful example of unintended consequences – the kids eat far worse than they did before because we’ve made the standard options so unpalatable).

Spanking my child is only a choice if I keep it a dirty little secret.

Deciding that my 8-year old or sleeping infant is fine in the car for five minutes on a nice day with the doors locked but windows cracked while I run into CVS to grab their prescription isn’t parent choice anymore – it’s a call to the police and DHS.

Same for sending them to play in the park across the street without Zuckerberg-level security. I know it’s safe, the neighborhood knows it’s safe, all available statistics say it’s safe, but the need for us to remain in perpetual panic and fear so as to be more easily controlled says parents simply don’t GET that kind of CHOICE.

What’s left?

Oh, yes – the vouchers.

IF I’m an involved enough parent to understand the process and go through the paperwork, and IF I can afford the thousands of extra out-of-pocket dollars required to actually GO to a private school, vouchers or no, and IF my child can meet the requirements of the institutions at which these ESA Gift-Cards are useable, and IF I have the time and fiscal resources to get them there and back every day, and IF I can pay for any necessary materials, supplies, instruments, uniforms, or whatever else may be required, and IF my child is a perfect fit academically and, er… “culturally” with the school, THEN I have CHOICE.

Equity and access on paper while upper class white folks are the only ones with real options in practice? Shocking. What a strange new problem to encounter.

As a bonus, the more times “choice” is bandied about in the rhetoric, the easier it is to “blame the victim” when they don’t qualify to be “choosers.”

Once again we have edu-slation claiming to serve all the little children, when the only thing it’s really designed to serve is more state-sanctioned ‘white flight’. That sort of misdirection and shameless hypocrisy is why so many of us seem to be in a perpetual snit. We’re trying to wake up Citizen Doe before the fire reaches her bedroom, but she’s fast asleep dreaming of the Gay Muslims trying to take her guns from the bathroom stall next door.

If common education weren’t being methodically dismantled to begin with, I wouldn’t personally be fussing nearly as much as my smarter, better-looking peers in #OklaEd. You wanna cull the supposed cream and hide them away at Word of Faith of Hope of Grace until they’re old enough to join Hydra leadership? Live it up. It’s still wrong, and it’s not good for either group of children, but whatever.

I don’t mind choice as such. But if we feel the slightest obligation to mean anything we say in the political realm anymore, and choice is your thing, then let’s provide choices – lots of them – to ALL parents, and ALL kids, in both public and private scenarios. Let’s set loose that “free market of ideas” of which conservatives used to be so proud, and support it until the playing field at least looks level – even if it means risking possible success by a few kids NOT on our ‘chosen’ list.

RELATED POSTS: The Voucher Opportunity / Hair of the Blog (OKEducationTruths)

RELATED POSTS: #OklaEd Legislators are Sweet on ESA’s / Who’s Standing In The Dark? (A View From The Edge)

RELATED POSTS: 10th Amendment & #OklaEd / Do ESAs Pass the Lemon Test? (Idealistically Realistic)