April 10th 2018 Special Edition Newsletter
OEA's Agenda and
How to Force the Teachers
Back to Class in 24 Hours
People are getting frustrated and angry. Child care costs are adding up, as much as $300.00 per week per child, with no end to the strike in sight. Parents are reporting that calls to school administrators are met with claims that they are polling the teachers and not enough teachers are willing to come back to work to reopen the school.
One viewpoint is that the teacher union wants this year's standardize tests to hit rock bottom, if for no other reason as to have a bargaining chip for the next budget year. Another excuse for raising taxes to pump into the public school system. Last year's scores just came out and Oklahoma is #8 from the bottom.
What better way than to take children that are normally prepared for the standardize testing with weeks of preparation and family support, yank them out of school, disrupt their schedules, distract them with politics, then push them back into schools in unfamiliar rooms to be given tests proctored by unfamiliar school staff instead of their home room teacher.
So the resulting scores hit rock bottom and who gets blamed? The legislature..... Taxes are too low..... Solution? Raise taxes.
But disrupting their plans and forcingthe teachers to return to class is really, really simple. Have the parents opt out of standardized testing until the school reopens with a full complement of teachers, the students' actual teachers, present.
Refuse to send your child to take a test when they are set up to fail. And the repercussions to you and your child? Nothing... except for third graders where the reading proficiency tests are actually required.
Yes, only the third grade tests are required. All other tests are not only optional, there is nothing a school can do to punish a parent or a student that opts out of the testing. Indeed students will be allowed to make up the tests as long as the makeup test is taken before the testing window closes.
And the leverage? Federal funding, despite the test participation being optional, the schools MUST test 95% of the students in order to receive full federal funding. Mandatory for the schools, optional for the students, and that is the massive leverage needed to force the school administrators and school boards to order the teachers back to the classrooms.
So are you sick of the strike, worrying about vacation plans, military committments, or sick of the expense of additional child care? Call your local school and tell them that you will NOT send your child back to school for testing until the school reopens with the home room teacher in attendence.
School boards and superintendents will panic and there is no doubt they will re open the schools and order their employees to return to work or be fired.
Please forward this newsletter to all of your email contacts and post on social media. We don't need to do a counter protest at the Capitol, we just need to say no to testing until the teachers return. The very next day your child's school will reopen.
