In an effort to undermine the cause of educational freedom, Uniparty RINOs and teachers’ unions in Oklahoma have devised a novel strategy that involves stifling the state Department of Education.
You might easily wind up on a political “wanted” poster by opposing the education cartel and advocating for parents, kids, and educational independence.
I’m not exaggerating, even though I wish I was. Recently, RINO Republicans in the Oklahoma legislature reached an agreement with the union to silence my department. “The Dept. of Education shall not be encumbered or extended for the purpose of getting public relations, media interviews, or other public promotional reasons,” according to the budget bill’s language.
Because some Republicans are against wokeness in Oklahoma’s public schools, it would have been necessary for Republican offices to remove communications staffers and prohibit leaders from sending an official email.
All of this occurred as a result of the teachers’ union cartel’s decision to give up on us successfully implementing its agenda. Union lobbyists advocated for the repeal of our efforts by any means possible, successfully persuading a sufficient number of lawmakers to agree. After they lost the information war over our education system, they placed a political bounty on my head and my department, leading to the enactment of the legislative gag order.
The GOP wants to change Oklahoma’s educational system, and part of that involves advocating for educational independence and bringing attention to the actual conditions in our classrooms. We got under the union lobbyists’ skin because local teams have been extraordinarily effective at doing this.
Parental dissatisfaction with the state of our public schools was palpable under Dems. They had had enough of union bosses, politicians, and bureaucrats prioritizing “diversity, equity, and inclusion” over substantive education. They had had enough of learning about the presence of pornographic materials in school libraries. They were tired of radical progressive ideologies, such as critical race theory, undermining the values and foundations of the great country they love by dominating the curriculum.
Because of this, the GOP had a clear mandate from the electorate and set out to highlight the issues and increase educational independence through K-12 scholarships and charter schools growth. Indeed, we had no qualms about sharing these accomplishments with the general public.
It also turns out that becoming a political “wanted” poster is a terrific opportunity to stand up to the education cartel and defend parents, children, and educational independence.
Using his line-item veto, Governor Kevin Stitt (R) removed the budget bill’s targeted language on Friday. However, had he signed it into law, the voters who provided me with this position would not have had a voice for students and parents, and Republicans would have lost their jobs right away. That, in fact, is the primary issue at hand.
At least in a genuine and functional representative democracy that gets its mandate from the consent of the governed, speech is an essential component of the system. The peculiarity of a republic is that, by virtue of its creation, all citizens are equal. Without permission, no one has the right to force his will on another. As a result, we speak with each other. We speak and run for office. We write op-eds and do media interviews to spread our message. In this way, we convince our fellow citizens that our position advances the public interest.
Although some may disregard this aspect of the job as purely “political,” it is crucial to preserving a constructive public discourse and the relationship between hardworking residents and the public servants they entrust with managing the government. Therefore, it stands to reason that preventing lawfully elected public officials from carrying out that aspect of their duties would significantly diminish their influence over the process.
This attempt to silence parents can occur anywhere, even in one of the most conservative states in the US. People will turn you into a target when you refuse to accept the status quo and the dreadful “this is how we always have done it” mentality.
