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By Charles M. Phipps on October 7th, 2021 
State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister has announced that she is switching parties from Republican to Democrat in order to run for Oklahoma Governor in 2022, hoping to oust incumbent Governor Kevin Stitt in the November general election. First, she will have to get past former State Senator Connie Johnson in the Democratic primary.
Hofmeister had a difference of opinion with Governor Stitt about a new state law that prohibits local school boards from mandating face masks for students. She also expressed anger at Stitt in September when he announced a full audit of the State Department of Education for the first time ever after evidence was uncovered of misuse of funds in an audit of EPIC Charter Schools. Hofmeister called the audit an “attack on public education.” Her defensive response to the audit is political posturing to distract the public from the lack of fiscal accountability in her department. With her alleged felonious activity with regard to campaign finances, it is […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on May 22nd, 2019 
Democrats are salivating at the potential votes they could get from people with student debt. The declared candidates for the 2020 Democrat nomination for president are already falling all over each other trying to stake out the most advantageous position to address what they call the ‘student debt crisis.’ It’s actually anything but a crisis since voluntarily assumed debt is not a crisis.
The latest figures for student loan debt in the U.S. make it easy to see why the Democrats are seeing votes in the issue. According to an article on Forbes, “borrowers in the Class of 2017, on average, owe $28,650, according to the Institute for College Access and Success.”
Forbes: Student Loan Statistics: Overview
Total Student Loan Debt: $1.56 trillion
Total U.S. Borrowers With Student Loan Debt: 44.7 million
Student Loan Delinquency Or Default Rate: 11.4% (90+ days delinquent)
Direct Loans – Cumulative in Default (360+ days delinquent):$101.4 billion (5.1 million borrowers)
Direct Loan In Forbearance: $111.1 […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on October 25th, 2018 
Oklahomans will be voting on five state questions in a couple of weeks. Here are the questions and my take on each.
State Question 793 – Right of Optometrists and Opticians to Practice in Retail Establishments Initiative
This measure adds a new Section 3 to Article 20 of the Oklahoma Constitution. Under the new Section, no law shall infringe on optometrists’ or opticians’ ability to practice within a retail mercantile establishment, discriminate against optometrists or opticians based on the location of their practice, or require external entrances for optometric offices within retail mercantile establishments. No law shall infringe on retail mercantile establishments’ ability to sell prescription optical goods and services. The Section allows the Legislature to restrict optometrists from performing surgeries within retail mercantile establishments, limit the number of locations at which an optometrist may practice, maintain optometric licensing requirements, require optometric offices to be in a separate room of a retail mercantile establishment, and impose health and safety standards. […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on December 7th, 2017 
A few decades ago when I was at the University of Oklahoma, there weren’t a bunch of snowflakes on campus demanding a ‘safe space,’ nobody was protesting anything and campus politics were pretty benign. Probably the most important concern shared among the students was if the Sooners football team could win another national title. Fast forward to 2017 and while the football team is still contending for another title, it appears campus politics are now anything but benign.
The OU Gender + Equality Center, which did not exist when I was there, has an ‘Ally’ program which is “an LGBTQ cultural and awareness training that allows participants to focus on understanding LGBTQ concepts and issues, developing an awareness of biases and recognizing heterosexual and cisgender privilege, and exploring their own all journey and ways to become an advocate to create an LGBTQ-affirming campus.”
This Ally program has a 40-page resource guide that includes a ‘Gender-Neutral Pronouns Chart’ for students to […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on October 27th, 2016
Here is a summary of the State Questions on the Oklahoma ballot and my brief take on each.
BALLOT TITLE FOR STATE QUESTION NO. 776
This measure adds a new section to the Oklahoma Constitution, Section 9A of Article 2. The new Section deals with the death penalty. The Section establishes State constitutional mandates relating to the death penalty and methods of execution. Under these constitutional requirements:
The Legislature is expressly empowered to designate any method of execution not prohibited by the United States Constitution. Death sentences shall not be reduced because a method of execution is ruled to be invalid. When an execution method is declared invalid, the death penalty imposed shall remain in force until it can be carried out using any valid execution method, and The imposition of a death penalty under Oklahoma law —as distinguished from a method of execution—shall not be deemed to be or constitute the infliction of cruel or unusual punishment […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on February 16th, 2016 
One of the more contentious issues in Oklahoma politics has always been funding for education and this year is certainly no exception. And by ‘funding’ I do mean teacher salaries. There seems to be more of a clamor this year for teachers to get raises and even some Republicans have introduced legislation aimed at providing salary increases to teachers without raising taxes. It’s too early in the legislative session to know how those proposals will turn out, but even if they are passed and succeed, it won’t be enough to satisfy those in the education field and their friends in the legislature, the Democrats.
Education funding seems to be a continual battle between the liberals and the conservatives in the legislature, with the liberals always wanting more and more money to go to education and the conservatives knowing that the state can’t afford the level of funding that the liberals want. Back in 2010, the teachers union was successful in […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on June 4th, 2015 
For as long as I can remember, the public has always been told by those in the education field that all our problems could be solved if only there was more funding allocated for schools. Class size is made an issue, more teachers are needed, better textbooks, more technology, school building renovations. More money. Always more money.
Here in Oklahoma, the teacher’s union and the Democrats sound like broken records when it comes to the state budget every year. Always wanting more money, but never explaining why past initiatives that were sold to the public under the guise of solving our education problems never seemed to produce the promised results. If you’ve been around Oklahoma long enough you might remember House Bill 1017 back in 1990. It was described as ‘landmark legislation’ by the Democrats, who controlled both houses of the state legislature, and it provided increased funding to schools, reduced class sizes, provided minimum teacher salaries, early childhood programs […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on March 16th, 2015 
There have always been racists in our country and there always will be. Since before the founding of our country, through the days leading to the Civil War, the Jim Crow laws and the civil rights marches of the previous generation, racism has been front and center at times. Although our society as a whole abhors racism, there are still those who are openly racist and those who have learned to be more subtle about it, keeping their true feelings hidden, lest they face ridicule from the enlightened who know that skin color is irrelevant.
With the public reaction over the video showing their racist chants, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oklahoma has now learned that racism is unacceptable. Their fraternity has been disbanded by the fraternity’s national organization and banned by the University. University President David Boren has also elected to expel two students who were identified as leaders of the chant. The public […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on April 3rd, 2014 
Oklahoma State Senator Clark Jolley has done an about-face and voted in support of HB 3399, which removes the legislative mandate requiring adoption of Common Core State Standards. The measure calls for the State Board of Education to develop Oklahoma standards. Jolley’s reversal comes after public backlash against Common Core led the House to pass the measure removing the mandate. The Senate Education Committee had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the table, but approved it for consideration by the Senate, which passed it 37-10.
Senator Jolley was a driving force behind bringing Common Core to Oklahoma, authoring the legislation in 2010 that implemented it. I have read numerous complaints from parents and others that Jolley and other legislators completely ignored their concerns about Common Core. Jolley and Senate Education Committee Chairman John Ford, also a Common Core supporter, killed bills that would have examined the cost of Common Core before they could even have a hearing before the […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on September 22nd, 2013 
In Kenya there are currently 68 dead and 175 injured. In Pakistan there are 78 dead and scores injured. In Iraq there are 65 dead and at least 120 injured. ‘Radical’ Islamists have killed at least 211 people this weekend with car bombs and attacks on a church and a mall. The ‘religion of peace’ has reared its ugly head again, demonstrating for the millionth time that the so-called religion of peace is, in reality, a cult of evil and death. To be sure, there are some Muslims who are peaceful and it is the militants who are labeled as ‘radical.’ But, as pointed out in a comment on Political Realities, since the Koran does call for the killing of ‘infidels’, the true radicals are the ones who are peaceful. The cult of Islam calls for the butchering of all non-believers. Truly, a ‘religion’ to be despised and reviled.
But, here in the United States, it is Christianity that is […] → Keep reading
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