Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment

Whitney Mullica is with a group called PikeOffOTA - a nonpartisan, non-profit group dedicated to protecting property rights and government expansion. The group was formed after the announcement of the Access Oklahoma program by Governor Stitt and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority. Pike Off OTA’s focus originated in an effort to prevent the development of two proposed turnpikes, the East-West Connector and the South Extension, and reduce the overreaching impact of the Oklahoma Transportation Authority. Recently, head of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, Tim Gatz, was removed as Secretary of Transportation and the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority - all three positions which he simultaneously held - after an opinion by AG Drummond said that no individual can simultaneously hold three positions within transportation. Join Michael and Jenni as they talk to Whitney about PIKEOFFOTA, its mission and its concerns!

This Friday, we're going to have Mic Rosado of the Conservative Continuum talk with us about something that is near and dear to her heart as a former nurse - healthcare. Specifically, the rally for medical freedom that was held at the capitol on February 10th. Should Oklahomans be concerned about our medical freedoms even without a looming pandemic? If so, why? We'll ask Mic!

Recently, the Oklahoma State Board of Education adopted new rules (which still have to be approved by the OK Legislature) that would downgrade the accreditation of schools for having "Pornographic material or Sexualized content" available to minors on campus (https://sde.ok.gov/sites/default/files/FINAL%20210.35-3-121%20Prohibiting%20Pornographic%20Materials.pdf). While many parents applauded this rule, Superintendent of Edmond Public Schools, Angela Grunwald says that her school's accreditation should not be downgraded due to 'curriculum' choices. Apparently, the books Glass Castle and Kite Runner, which have been used in the EPS high school English curriculum for many years, were reported to the Oklahoma State Department of Education through the Awarity system - an online program which accepts complaints about Oklahoma public schools originally set up to report bullying incidents. Once the books were reported, OSDE told EPS that they must remove the books according to the new rule, or have their accreditation downgraded. Instead of removing the books from the curriculum and EPS' library system, Grunwald is electing to use taxpayer funds to pay attorneys to thwart taxpayers by taking their case to the Oklahoma Supreme Court to STOP the OSDE from downgrading the school while keeping books that parents have objected to since 2016 (https://thefederalist.com/2016/03/15/parents-shouldnt-let-schools-force-kids-to-read-smut/). A formal complaint was field with EPS in 2017 regarding both books. We'll be showing evidence of the complaints and pointing out various inconsistencies in Grunwald's video 'explainer' to parents of why they're using taxpayer dollars to stop taxpayer complaints.

Our ROPE Regular substack blogger V1SUT was live with Jenni and Michael (2.21.24 - this video has been edited to remove photos) to talk about two pieces of her latest research - the story of Swadley's barbeque restaurant who was accused by the state of fraudulent business practices and the story of several Oklahoma high school sports coaches who, witnesses say, raped (or had inappropriate relationships with) players while they were employed by the district. During the late 1990's and early 2000's, a group of Oklahoma Public School coaches from the Little Axe Public School district, had inappropriate sexual relationships with students. Recently, a brave young woman has come forward to our blogger to reveal that she was raped by her high school softball coach while on spring break in Padre Island, Texas during that time. Despite being told by the Oklahoma State Department of Education that she should collect her own evidence and THEN maybe the OSDE could help her, she began contacting former teammates and others only to find out that this didn't happen just to her. Sadly, these coaches have never had charges brought against them - or been fired from their teaching/coaching positions. Instead, they have simply moved to another school where they were often covered for by district administration.

This Friday, we've rescheduled Julianne to pick up where she left off in her last video with us. In this podcast, she'll talk more about the concept of "Workforce Development". You frequently hear our governor and elected officials use this term - especially when talking about k-12 public education. Why? What is this about? Are we really only educating our children for jobs? We shouldn't be...so tune in and find out!

On Friday, Karmin will continue discussing the features of her website, KarminGrider.com, where she is compiling amazing amounts of data about our elected public servants. Last month we discussed Oklahoma's Supreme Court Justices. This month we'll talk more about Oklahoma's judicial system and why it's ALWAYS important to know who you're voting for!

Julianne Romanello wasn't able to make it on the show with us this morning due to illness, so Michael and Jenni covered Jenni's appearance on the KOKH-FOX/Sterling Communications special Crisis In The Classroom with Armstrong Williams and then launched into a discussion of what it would take to make education actually educate kids in Oklahoma and then on to the news. Julianne will be with us on the 23rd instead.

Unfortunately, due to a miscommunication, our ROPE Report Regular, Representative Sherrie Conley, was unable to be with us to discuss the opening of the 2024 legislative session. Instead, Michael and Jenni pivoted to discuss the proposed new rules to be voted on by the Oklahoma State Board of Education THIS THURSDAY and FRIDAY and next week. Please watch, but also read the blog post we made on the website that discusses each rule in detail. You can find that here: https://rope2.org/2024/01/22/a-list-with-commentary-of-the-newest-rules-added-to-the-oklahoma-state-department-of-education-website-for-review/ Then, send an email to rules@sde.ok.gov telling them what you think.

In the first part of the hour, Jenni and Michael will talk to Carrie Bertrand and Jana Belcher of Constitutional Home Educators Alliance about a few of the bills that have been filed this year. The legislative session started Monday (2.5.24), so it's important to watch whether or not bills are making their way into committees. In fact, we'll talk briefly about how to track bills through the legislature to help people navigate the process. Later in the hour, we'll talk to Wendi Dial about some of the bills she's following that have to do with election integrity. You won't want to miss!

Wendi and Michael will talk about what happened at the State Election Board meeting called for January 29th. Jenni was appointed by Oklahoma County GOP Chair, Ken Warner as alternate to the Oklahoma COUNTY Election Board, to fill in for Cheryl Williams, the appointed member. Wendi, Michael and Jenni will also talk with Charity Linch about a system she has created to make sure that people can go to as many public meetings in their towns as possible. She'll talk with them about the system and about how it works.

(Pre-recorded) Amber and Terry Evans move to Oklahoma in 2018 after Terry's retirement from 22 years in the Army. The Evans have been married 25 years and have lived all over the United States and the world, but were not very political until they saw the trainwreck of 2020. Naturally inquisitive people, conversations between them led to more questions, which led them to start connecting with other people in Oklahoma and across the country. They were curious to know if Oklahoma had similar election process shortcomings they ad seen in different parts of the country. Through open source documents, data and various other lawful means, they gathered puzzle pieces to help peel back some layers and found that most of their concerns lie with the Oklahoma voter roles and procedures.

Michael and Jenni are always excited to have Karmin Grider back on the show to talk with us about the information she's collecting on her website – a website that provides information on Oklahoma candidates and elected officials. This week, Karmin will talk to us about Judges – how does our judicial system work? How can Oklahoma voters help choose the judges best equipped to ensure our freedoms? You won’t want to miss this! https://www.karmingrider.com/

Wendi will talk with us about HAVA funds. Why is Oklahoma taking federal funds for our elections? "HAVA Election Security grants are formula grants that were first appropriated in 2018 (Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018). Authorized under Title I Section 101 of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), the Election Security grant program marked the first new HAVA appropriation since 2010. Election Security funding provides states with additional resources to improve the administration of elections for federal office, including to enhance technology and make certain election security improvements. HAVA Election Security funding is available to states and U.S. territories as defined by HAVA and the Consolidated Appropriations Acts of 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023." ATTENTION: The portion about the online voter portal is WRONG. Representative Eric Roberts ran - and passed - a bill last year to make sure that all that information was password protected. We didn't go far enough through the portal on the livestream. To change any information there, you must have a social security number and/or password. Thank you Rep. Roberts!

Michael and Jenni will will talk to our friend Linda Murphy. This will be an especially interesting podcast as we're going to cover the often-contentious subject of Church and State. Is there a separation? Should we have prayer in public schools? Should we send public tax dollars to ANY private organization or school? You won't want to miss this!

Get ready for another great report from our Substack blogger, V1SUT. She'll be with us to discuss her newest research, which includes her blog from the first week in January, where she continues to dig into the 'drag queen' culture that seems to pervade the Western Heights Public School district. Make sure to tune in and see what she has for us on Wednesday!

ROPE Report Regular, Sherrie Conley, will be with us to tell us what she sees on her radar screen for this, her last session as an Oklahoma Representative. We'll talk about the Speaker's race, the legislative process and the legislative calendar - what happens when! Make sure to tune in because if you have any questions about what happens during session, Sherrie will absolutely answer any and all questions she can! If you watch on Facebook or YouTube, type in your questions in the comments and we'll see them. We'll follow along on our Rumble page for any of you wanting to ask questions there!

Mrs. Romanello is a mother of 4 and an independent scholar whose academic research interests include the life and writings of Eric Voegelin, Plato, and Kierkegaard. She has taught at several colleges and universities near her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Recently, her research has focused on the corporate takeover of higher education and the development of the "P20 pipeline" in order to advance the globalist agenda of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. She will be with us to talk about all this and how Oklahoma's private school tax credit is advancing Globalist goals.

Alex Newman has a B.S. degree in journalism from the University of Florida with an emphasis on economics and international relations, as well as an A.A. degree in foreign languages from Miami-Dade College. He also studied international relations and geopolitics at the Institute Français des Alpes in France. He is a prolific writer who has written for many publications, a nationally-known speaker, a book author, a podcaster AND MUCH MORE. He talked with us about a wide range of topics including TAX CREDITS and the ways in which schools INDOCTRINATE children daily.

ROPE has been fighting 'school choice' educational tax credits as long as the powers that be in Oklahoma have been trying to push them (over a decade). Unfortunately, last year's legislature seemed unclear the difference between a tax CREDIT and a voucher and bought the 'voucher disguised as a tax credit' scheme, hook, line and sinker. Now, rumor has it, that the people pushing the tax credit lie have been the sameones at the Oklahoma Tax Commission writing the rules for the tax credit. That seemed odd to us, so more investigation was required. We'll go through the research we have so that everyone can be informed enough to tell the tax credit the rules won't work because the public was sold a bill of goods!

Reed Downey is a long-time education activist in this state who has always had a heart for children and always wanted the best education possible for them. The recent issues with school boards not listening to parents - and the fact that few people vote in School Board Elections - prompted Reed to act. He began an organization called, "School Boards 4 Kids", where members work together to find, train and help members of the community run - and win - their open school board seats. He has also been very involved with the effort to get the legislature to pass legislation allowing school board elections to be held on the same day as general elections. Reed will be with us to talk about his efforts and what we can do to help. Please tune in!

We've had the writer of the Substack, V1SUT, on once already, to talk about drag queen performances in Bartlesville, Oklahoma public spaces and the apparently complicit City Council allowing that to happen. On Friday, we'll talk with her about the story she broke about Shawn Murnan, the Principal in Western Heights PS who is a Principal by day and a drag queen at night. And not only a drag queen - a drag queen arrested for child porn and multiple motor vehicle infractions - including operating a motor vehicle at 3x the legal limit of alcohol in his system. How does this happen and what now? We'll talk with V1SUT and see, but in the meantime, read her Substack! https://v1sut.substack.com/

TS Smith has lived through a nightmare in more ways than one. First, her middle-school-aged child had a mental health crisis. Then, when she attempted to get treatment for her child, the state usurped her parental rights, pulled her child into the state's mental health system and provided gender affirming care for her minor child though TS did not want those 'services' to be a part of her treatment. Fortunately, after good, solid counseling, her daughter is well, however, what TS learned DURING this crisis, she wants to share with other parents so they can know what she didn't know at the time.

Denise is a parent who's children were enrolled in Kansas Public Schools following a move from Oklahoma. Quickly, she found that not only were the schools not caring for her children the way she would as a parent, but were actively hurting her middle child - who Denise found was being called into the school counselor's office to be counseled without her consent. Today, Denise's children no longer attend public school and she has become the parent education advocate/activist most of us can only dream of becoming.

A recent doctoral candidate turned Ph.D., Dr. Harrell talked with us about math education in Oklahoma. What works, what doesn't work - what are we actually expecting our students to do? Are our standards even high enough for what we're expecting students to do? Why so many students in Oklahoma below 30% proficiency in math? What can be done? Sandy answers these questions and even talks briefly about the Oklahoma math standards. This program should be watched if you have any interest in math education at all. Very informative!

One of our most successful ROPE Reports to date (this video was recorded 6/21/23), we took the time to talk to the authors of "Traditional Math; An Effective Strategy That Teachers Feel Guilty Using" about their book - why did they write it? What does that mean; 'traditional math'? Both men were long-time math instructors, with Garelick entering the teaching field after a successful career as an environmental engineer. If you've EVER struggled with math - or has a kid who does - the book is for you and THIS PROGRAM IS A MUST WATCH!