Senator Ron Sharp Caught Red Handed Lying in a Press Release
Oklahoma Charter School opponent Senator Ron Sharp was caught last week lying about the legal advice given by two state agencies. Sharp is a former school teacher with a PhD in education and has been highly critical of charter schools and specifically critical of Epic Charter Schools.
Senator Sharp had given a press conference on August claiming that Epic wasn't following state law on reporting enrollment using Senate staff and taxpayer resources for the media press release. In the press release Senator Sharp claimed that Statewide Virtual Charter Schools Board (SVCSB) confirmed that Epic wasn't following state law on the reporting of enrollment. However SVCSB had reported to Epic that they had made no determination on that matter because they had no jurisdiction over Epic Blended Charter Schools and thus couldn't make that determination. The group also reported that they had not met with Senator Sharp or discussed Sharp's public comments.
Senator Sharp also lied about legal advice and proprietary information he received from the Oklahoma State Department of Education (SDE). Sharp claimed that the SDE said that Epic's Blended Learning Centers were subject to the same attendance requirements as traditional charter schools despite receiving a letter and email from SDE telling him how wrong he was on that issue. SDE was responding to numerous Senator Sharp open records requests and requests for information and in clear and unambiguous terms they told Sharp that he was dead wrong on his ideas and legal theories. Specifically Sharp had claimed that SVCSB had jurisdiction over virtual programs including the attendance policies.
The SDE management must have realized that Senator Sharp is a bit dense given the plain language they used:
“To be clear, while there may currently be confusion that the SVCSB is solely authorized to approve the offering of full-time virtual schools and instruction, the statutes relating to the SVCSB merely provide that only this state agency authorizes statewide virtual schools. In other words, a traditional public school district or a charter school sponsored by an entity other than the Statewide Virtual Board may offer full-time virtual instruction to any of its resident students.”
SDE also pointed out that all schools establish their own attendance policies following state law and that Sharp was completely wrong on his arguments against Epic Charter Schools.
Despite all of this, Senator Sharp does his press release blasting Epic for breaking the law and encouraging the OSBI to investigate wrong doing that never was.
The only way that Epic is ever going to get any peace and be able to settle down and focus on the kids is if they start suing yahoos like Senator Sharp.
