By Linda Murphy

While Oklahomans are focused on the statewide race for School Superintendent, Governor Fallin continues moving ahead with her highly controversial agenda for education and she holds the reins of control.

For the first time in Oklahoma history, the state level authority over public education has shifted to the governor in a series of political decisions made since Fallin took office. Oklahoma's state Constitution established the State Superintendent (of Public Instruction) as an elected office and the State School Board composed of elected state officials. The State Superintendent and all of the elected officials were held accountable to the people and any concerns could be addressed in the voting booth. Our Constitution is known as the strongest in the nation in affirming parents' rights to determine the education of their own children. Oklahoma's founding fathers left us a strong system for public education that was truly accountable to the public.

In moves designed to shift control from the people to the Governor, Oklahoma has been undergoing a transformation that few have noticed. While Governor Fallin ran for office promoting local control of education she has since supported legislation giving her control of both the State Department of Education, overseen by her Secretary of Education, as well as control of the State School Board.

Just a few months after taking office in January 2011, a new law enabled Fallin to wipe out the State School Board and appoint an entirely new one and the newly appointed members can be replaced at her will. In 2012 Fallin signed legislation transferring virtually all authority over education in the state to her Secretary of Education. The changes in law greatly increased the power of the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability then combined it with the Commission for Teacher Preparation under the Secretary of Education. The governor's Secretary now has authority over accountability programs and reports for performance of students, teachers and schools. This is occurring at the same time the entire system is being restructured to center on new accountability measures. Here are some descriptions of the duties under the governor's Secretary of Education:

- Monitors the Department of Education's programs to ensure local school districts perform in accordance with State standards.

- Monitors local school districts to insure compliance with the State education standards.

- Identifies local school districts not making satisfactory progress toward compliance with State education standards and recommends appropriate corrective actions to the State Department of Education.

- Develops and implements a standardized performance measure to gauge the performance of local school districts for Oklahoma Educational Indicators Program (OEIP) in cooperation with the Federal Department of Education' National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

- Conducts performance reviews of local school districts to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of their budget and operations, either due to low performance or as requested by the Governor for Oklahoma School Performance Review Program (OSPRP).

- Reviews progress and effectiveness of the Education Reform Act of 1990.

- Analyzes the revenues for all systems of education and the expenditure of common education revenue.

- Implements Oklahoma Teacher Preparation Act.

- Approves and accredits teacher education programs and through the assessment of candidates seeking teacher certification.

- Makes recommendations to the Governor and Legislature on methods to achieve an aligned, seamless system from preschool through post-secondary education.

- Submits recommendations regarding funding for education or statutory changes to the Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, the President Pro Tempore of the Oklahoma Senate, and the Governor of Oklahoma.

In April 2013, Governor Fallin chose Dr. Robert Sommers, from Ohio, who had served under Governor John Kasich, to head Oklahoma's statewide Career-Technology or Vo-Tech System. When he was appointed, Sommers was the CEO of Carpe Deim Corporation, a public financed on-line technology delivered charter school. By July 2013, Fallin appointed him to the additional position of Secretary of Education. Fallin's first appointed Secretary, Phyllis Hudecki resigned to return to her full time position with the Oklahoma Business and Education Coalition.

Sommers came on board with the welcome of State Superintendent Janet Barresi who said "I am pleased that Gov. Fallin has appointed Dr. Bob Sommers as Oklahoma's Secretary of Education and Workforce. Since April, when Dr. Sommers became the state director of the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, there has been a renewed sense of energy in the state's educational partnership between career tech and the PK-12 public education system." Career Tech's partnership with PK -8th grade is included in Barresi's statement, not by accident but is part of the bigger plans Governor Fallin and her assembled team have endorsed including job training skill integrated into Common Core Standards for ELA (English Language Arts) and Math. Dr. Sommer's title was expanded to include not only education but also the workforce.

Barresi went on to say, "Dr. Sommers truly understands the importance of increased student achievement and quality career training as it relates to preparing our children and adults to succeed in the workforce. This appointment confirms and strengthens our work in that direction."

You can see that the workforce is the focus of the plans, not our traditional education goals of providing the best possible unlimited education opportunities to each student so they can succeed to the best of their individual ability and choices.

Barresi concluded her statements, "As I review job growth within the five ecosystems as identified by Gov. Fallin, many of the jobs of the future are in the STEM subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. As a means of assuring Oklahoma continues to enjoy positive economic growth, Dr. Sommers and I are committed to working together to provide opportunities in the STEM subjects to all students."

Some important points here:

- The five ecosytems, which are unfamiliar to most Oklahomans, are in the governor's plans for controlling education, workforce development, job placement and identification of availability of work.

- Success in STEM courses on the 4-year college level will not be attainable with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) according to CCSS developers themselves.

- Student profiles are to be developed from data collected through assessments along with workforce data which will all be fed into an upgraded computer technology system called the State Longitudinal Data System.

In keeping with these plans, Superintendent Barresi hired John Kraman to be in charge of Student Information in Oklahoma's Department of Education. Kraman came from ACHIEVE, a non-profit organization which produced Common Core Standards for the National Governors Association (NGA) and Council of Chief State School Officers. Kraman worked at ACHIEVE for 10 years and was even on the panel which wrote the Common Core standards for both ELA-English Language Arts and Math now used in Oklahoma under the name of OAS-Oklahoma Academic Standards. Kraman is a close ally of Michael Cohen, former staffer from Governor and later President Clinton's administration. Cohen is President of ACHIEVE. He was named by Marc Tucker of Carnegie Foundation's National Center for Education and the Economy, along with Hillary Clinton and David Rockefeller in Tucker's infamous letter to Hillary laying out 18 pages of plans for centralizing the control of education and the economy.

The letter was placed into the Congressional Record in 1995 because of its significance to understanding the plans President Clinton brought forth to the NGA when he became chairman. He later put the ideas into federal legislation in an effort to implement the components of the centralized system. The system included Outcomes Based Education, School-to-Work and Goals 2000.

The entire agenda was not implemented under Clinton but was renamed and revived over several years of work and through the "buy in" of governors and corporations at the NGA. This long running plan came together just as Governor Fallin stepped into office as NGA chairman in July 2013. She now leads the nation in reintroducing School-to-Work as "America Works" while she upholds Common Core State Standards with a nod to renaming them.

In September 2013, Superintendent Barresi spoke to the Republican leaders of 24 counties at the 2nd Congressional District meeting in McAlester, Oklahoma. I spoke first, then she followed and stepped up to defend Governor Fallin's NGA agenda which I had opposed in 1994 and again that day. She said "America Works IS School-to-Work" very proudly, following my assertion that the programs were the same thing. Barresi spoke glowingly of working with the Governor and following her direction. Not a word or a hint of being accountable to the people of the state for the controversial agenda she upholds though some in attendance pleaded with her.

This is the first time in state history we have had an elected State Superintendent who is answering directly to the Governor. She knows the bigger plans being locked into place and is a member of Jeb Bush's School Chiefs. Superintendent Barresi has talked the talk and walked the walk of the "reformers" along with Governor Fallin using dialogue against public schools to:

- Discredit all public education, instead of focusing on problem areas to "fix" them with specific targeted solutions.

- Create distrust of all public education teachers and administrators.

- Turn over control of education to corporations which profit and use taxpayer money to run their business, in the name of "parental choice" while eliminating the local school board.

This same rhetoric and support for these "reform plans" is coming from the Obama Administration, the Fordham Foundation, Jeb Bush's Foundation for Education Excellence, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Carnegie Foundation and Stand for Children. Many of these groups are funded by Bill Gates and others who have wealth and support this agenda.

Governor Fallin continues down the road centralizing control of education in spite of opposition from the Republican National Committee and the Oklahoma Republican State Committee resolutions against Common Core. Oklahoma Republicans Sen. Jim Inhofe, Sen. Tom Coburn, and Congressman Jim Bridenstine have all worked on the federal level to stop the efforts to control public education through Common Core standards and testing which everyone knows will control the curriculum.

Fallin was featured alongside President hopeful Jeb Bush in Oklahoma City on April 9th and in an April 19th New York Times article which pointed out that Bush and Chris Christie are alone in the running for the GOP Presidential nomination and supporting Common Core. The long list of other hopefuls opposing Common Core includes: Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, Bobby Jindel, and Marco Rubio.

Teachers, parents, grandparents and other citizens continue to stand up across Oklahoma to say stop Common Core standards and testing along with America Works and the expansion of Corporate Charters at public expense. They want true local control of education where teachers make education decisions and teach without interference from a top-down compliance system, regardless of who controls it. A group formed in central Oklahoma at the end of January had 3,500 members from all over the state on Facebook two months later. That group, Oklahoma Parents and Educators for Public Education, is working with other groups across the state and all are determined to see Oklahoma education returned to true local control.