By Linda Murphy

It is highly unlikely that Governor Fallin has changed her mind on any of the Common Core "reforms."

By Linda Murphy

In the last four years, the power of the Governor over education in Oklahoma has increased tremendously through expansions and consolidations of power given to education officials and government agencies under her authority including:

- State School Board, which is now appointed entirely by the Governor.

- Secretary of Education who has new far reaching authority through the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability.*

- Director and Secretary of Finance, Administration and Information Technology, overseeing the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) which determines the contracts for testing and other services to be "recommended" for approval to the State Board of Education.

- Secretary of Commerce, who will oversee the student data for Workforce Development that is of interest to the Commerce community.

- State Longitudinal Data System, which is equipped to share up to 400 points of individual student information that the federal Department of Education recommends.

When our Constitution was written the State School Board members were made up of elected officials so they were responsible directly to the people. Now the Governor has a board entirely appointed by her, except the elected State Superintendent. Governor Fallin urged legislation which was passed transferring more authority to her to remove the members who did not cooperate with her education agenda. Her board members, of course, far outnumber the elected superintendent, who also was a board member appointed by the Governor until she resigned to run for the office.

In addition, Governor Fallin expanded the office of her appointed Secretary of Education to include the Workforce. Legislation was urged by the Governor and passed making this office potentially the most powerful position in Oklahoma education and over-riding, once again, the elected State Superintendent.

The Governor's Secretary of Education, Dr. Robert Sommers, resigned his position the same day and just before the announcement came in July 2014 that the State Supreme Court denied the lawsuit attempted by members of the State School Board. The board members wanted to stop HB 3399 which repeals Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Math along with Common Core Testing from state law.

Sommers was also the state director over the entire Career-Technology System in Oklahoma and has a background in technology delivered Charter Schools. He was the CEO of Carpe Diem Charter Schools. Governor Fallin appointed him to Career Tech. in the spring of 2013 and in the summer of 2013 appointed him to her Cabinet as Secretary of Education and Workforce. His apparent hopes and plans for his role in Oklahoma evidently changed with the loss of the law requiring all schools to totally align and comply with Common Core Standards and Tests when HB 3399 was upheld. The one size fits all Common Core Standards, increased technology and centralized control through collection of student data would have been ideal for increasing profit in a corporate owned Charter School.

The Governor has not appointed a new Secretary of Education to replace him yet. Prior to Sommers, Fallin had appointed Phyllis Hudecki who returned to OBEC (Oklahoma Business and Education Coalition) where she worked hand in hand with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to usher in the Common Core Standards through President Obama's Race to the Top grant under Democrat Governor Brad Henry. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce congratulated Hudecki's early success along with the Oklahoma Chamber, former Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor and Obama fund raiser George Kaiser of Tulsa. The Chamber's newsletter explained that Kaiser funded Taylor's expenses in getting Common Core Standards into law through compliance with the grant application.

Governor Fallin, from July 2013- 2014, chaired the bipartisan, global-corporate and U.S. Chamber of Commerce funded, National Governor's Association (NGA). Fallin led the country in the NGA's highly controversial Common Core State Standards and America Works programs. These NGA programs are the revamped Clinton Administration's education agenda, which was rejected in the 90's, called Goals 2000, Outcomes Based Education and School-to-Work. Fallin opposed these plans while Lt. Governor of Oklahoma in1995, but embraced them as Governor.

Governor Fallin has invited former Governor Jeb Bush, now candidate for President in 2016, to Oklahoma several times where he has appeared with her at press conferences to promote Common Core and his Foundation for Education Excellence. Bush is now finding strong resistance nationwide to his continued support of Common Core while Oklahoma and other states are overturning it. Standing in opposition to Common Core and it's connected Federal Testing requirements are several other potential GOP candidates including: Bobby Jindel, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and even Mitt Romney, who has recently joined those against Common Core. This is a good indicator of just how doomed Common Core is in the long run.

Yet Governor Fallin has her education agenda in hand and now has unprecedented power over education, leaving little room for the voice of the people. This has completely upended the balance of power which the Oklahoma Constitution prescribed for public education that was clearly intended to be accountable to the people.

We must correct this imbalance of power and continue to set education on the right track as we did with the passage of HB 3399, which repealed the Common Core State Standards for ELA and Math from state law which passed in 2010.

These remaining tentacles of Common Core must be stopped:

- There are other Common Core Standards, which were passed by the Governor's Board, but renamed Oklahoma Academic Standards (OAS ), that need to be replaced. They include rewritten History and anti-American Civics instruction.

- The new Teacher Leader Effectiveness (TLE) teacher evaluations are aligned with Common Core and are time-consuming unnecessary processes. The TLE-VAM or Value Added Measures are giving teachers ratings based on students' test scores, which is a very misguided idea destroying teaching and learning.

- Student testing following HB 3399 is required to be non-Common Core, but the state Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) has chosen to approve the previously contracted Common Core aligned "Measured Progress" testing.

- The Director of Student Information, John Kraman, at the State Department of Education has been moved to the OMES where he can retain his position with the Governor's approval. Kraman acknowledged that he did not fulfill the compliance with law passed to create "fire walls" of protection for student information. He advocates student information should be shared with other state and federal agencies. Kraman was hired by Superintendent Barresi from ACHIEVE the non-profit organization which wrote the Common Core Standards for the NGA. Kraman served on both committees for ELA and Math Standards.

- Common Core is not aimed at higher academics, but social change. One committee member said his decision to help write the standards was because of his "white guilt." The Common Core standards, testing and the integrated student information system were established on the principle of redistributing student success to "bring up" the lower performing minority groups. The stated goal is to create "equal" results for all students. There is no sound education research to back up these radical ideas, yet they are driving the change upending our current traditional education.

It is highly unlikely that Governor Fallin has changed her mind on any of the Common Core "reforms." They are still embraced by Jeb Bush who has stated his determination to push through the resistance in his party against Common Core to win the nomination.

Oklahoma's 2015 legislative session will begin February 3rd. Governor Fallin has made education her top priority, as she stated in her inaugural speech, ensuring we will stay focused on education issues.

It is sure to be another battle for our legislators who are listening to the teachers, parents and students across the state and writing legislation to make the bold changes needed to remove Common Core's many tentacles and other unproductive "reforms" from our schools. We have volumes of research proving methods that work in the classroom which can replace the experimental reforms.

Federal testing required by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was put into law by President George W. Bush and expanded to a more ominous level by President Obama. NCLB waivers are the door being used to push Common Core so we have a major problem with this illegal interference in our schools. Unfortunately Governor Fallin has chosen to follow the same agenda as President Obama while she speaks against federal control, so that has created some confusion. But many Oklahomans are seeing and are continuing to stay engaged with education issues.

Oklahomans must continue to voice their opinions and support our federal and state officials who are standing and fighting to put education on the right track. U.S. Representative Bridenstine, Representative Russell, Senator Lankford and Senator Inhofe are all supporting and/or authoring legislation to stop the Federal Control over Common Core testing and its funding. Several education bills have been filed in the State Capitol to address problems in education and further amendments to improve the bills will be filed as they proceed through the legislative process.

Our children need our help or they will not have the opportunity to learn with unlimited possibilities as we have all enjoyed and expect in America!! Unlimited opportunity to learn and advance is essential to our freedom and it is in danger with the track Oklahoma Education is on right now. The Obama administration, the NGA, Governor Fallin and others are in agreement with an agenda that will track and control who gets opportunity according to a rigid compliance system using measurements and the data it generates. In the name of "social justice" and "equality" student data is set to be shared with Commerce and other agencies. The data will be used to determine education opportunities and workforce opportunities. We must keep the door to unlimited possibilities open for all our children and provide them with an academically focused education. To be successful our classrooms must have teachers who are free to teach and care for the students while they perform those unmeasurable duties to meet the needs of children every day!!

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Office_of_Educational_Quality_and_Accountability