The “Spirit” of House Bill 1775

Laws best serve the public interest when the literal reading of the words of any particular piece of legislation accurately reflect the intent behind the authoring of that legislation. The literal reading of the law is sometimes referred to as the “letter” of the law. The intent of the law is sometimes referred to as …

I Was the Ideal Beneficiary of School Choice Policies

I grew up poor and white in the American South in the 1980’s. My dad pastored numerous small rural churches in southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana. We moved on average every 3-4 years throughout my childhood. In December of 1991, we moved from Star City, Arkansas, population 2,000, to Nashville, Tennessee, where I began the …

MAPS 4 Curriculum

Spoon Vision is proud to announce the release of a three-day comprehensive curriculum covering local government issues specifically related to the upcoming vote on MAPS 4 on December 10, 2019, in Oklahoma City! This mini unit is aligned with Oklahoma Academic Standards for both 9th Grade Oklahoma History and 12th Grade U.S. Government. The "MAPS …

Guess Who? – Oklahoma Legislative Edition

Spoon Vision Industries (not a real company) is proud to present "Guess Who? - Oklahoma Legislative Edition," the board game that helps you know the difference between a Dustin Roberts and a Ron Sharp! Whether played with a friend or used as interactive flash cards, "Guess Who? - Oklahoma Legislative Edition" will prepare you to …

White Privilege and School Choice Critique

The School Choice Movement undeniably forms the centerpiece legacy of the program of “massive resistance” to school desegregation in the United States in the late 1950s. Any white person advocating for school choice policies today is 1.) ignorant of this history, 2.) acting on implicit and explicit racial bias, 3.) openly taking advantage of the …

U.S. Public School Policies and Practices Support Open Borders

Arguably the most valuable words in the U.S. Constitution are found in the Fourteenth Amendment, often referred to collectively as the “Equal Protection Clause.” No state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Since the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868, the Equal Protection Clause has been invoked …

No, Gerry Brooks, It’s Not Funny When Educators Ridicule Parents

Gerry Brooks (pronounced like “Gary”) is an elementary school principal at Fayette County Public Schools in Lexington, Kentucky. Almost three years ago, Mr. Brooks uploaded his first YouTube video, and subsequently has added over 180 videos to his channel and has amassed over 102,500 subscribers. His most popular video to date, “First week of school …

A New Day (poem for #oklaed)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFuzic841mU&feature=youtu.be Do you want to know what it’s like to be a teacher? It's like any other desk job really, minus the actual sitting at a desk. Seven hours of daily meetings arranged the previous evening You want to know what it’s like to be a teacher in Oklahoma? It’s the hardest job with (almost) …

The Schemers, Accomplices, and Pawns of Every Charter School

Charter schools are destined to be viewed by future generations as having been on “the wrong side of history.” But like other current education reforms, on the surface at least, charter schools seem like a good idea to a variety of people. Proponents of charter schools range from conservatives to progressives and from corporations to …

Public Schools Are Not ‘Government Schools,’ Not Yet

A favorite talking point of school privatizers and education reformers is to refer to public schools as “government schools.” When free market ideologues and politicians do this, they are primarily appealing to the libertarian tendencies of middle and upper class white evangelicals and Catholics. Right wing politicians rarely use the word “government” positively as an …