I Know It's Almost February When ...

... my inbox is full of legislative notices! Every year some wayward Oklahoma representative is woefully misguided into introducing bills to stir up homeschoolers.  Currently, we have two ... Senator Mary Easley and Representative Cannady.

Senator Easley's introduced SB 1403 is an "emergent" notification bill.  Here's what my letter in opposition looks like:

I am writing to urge you to support the Oklahoma Constitution and Oklahoma schools rather than Senator Easley’s Senate Bill 1403. This bill not only inappropriately alters our state’s Constitution but creates an undue burden on our overly-taxed public education system. According to the State Department of Education’s own website, we are almost last nationally for per-pupil spending (46th) and teacher salary (42nd), and Senator Easley is proposing to tamper with a freedom granted to parents by our Constitution and to give Oklahoma administrators yet another task unrelated to the education of the children who are already in their purview. Despite the SDE’s report that Oklahoma ranks high in the number of certified educators, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Oklahoma public schools rank below the national average in three out of four subjects! Nationally, children educated by “other means” test higher than their publicly schooled counterparts (approximately 30% higher on standardized tests), so not only does this bill not make sense fiscally, but educationally as well. Please vote against SB 1403. Thank you.