1. Speaker Oct. 5: Trevor Loudon
2. Crooked Education Waste
3. OCPAC at High Noon
4. Upcoming Programs
1. Speaker Oct. 5: Trevor Loudon. This Wednesday at noon at
Mama Roja, our featured speaker will be nationally recognized researcher and documentary producer
Trevor Loudon. In his new political documentary,
The Enemies Within, Loudon asks, “Could Hillary Clinton pass an FBI security check?” The film warns American voters about the ways neo-communism works to undermine the national security of the United States from within. The movie will be shown later the same night at 6:30 p.m. at H&H Gun Range in OKC. Q&A with Trevor Loudon will follow.
2. Crooked Education Waste. The Oklahoman reported on the
wasteful expenses uncovered in the Crooked Oak School District by a recent audit, which found fraudulently paid employees, falsified time sheets, illegal hiring practices, financial favors, extravagant personal expenses, and on and on.
We should not conclude from this story that one school district is full of corruption. Instead, we should be considering the sheer number of school districts in the state. We should reflect that every government agency, bureau, and commission is subject to the same dynamics which bring about waste in schools. Mismanagement, theft, and incompetence routinely plague government monopolies.
Would a private school which has to account for every dollar and make every dollar go farther have missed these types of abuses and waste? Not likely, and if they had, they would suffer the free market consequences—loss of trust, loss of students, and loss of revenue. Private schools have an incentive to perform, but government schools do not. When it comes to government, everybody’s problem is nobody’s problem. Because politicians want to keep the status quo in education, it looks like everybody’s lost money is not lost money at all—it is simply “investment in our future.”
Besides the corruption and waste, consider the prevalent worldview of education in state schools. Government schools routinely teach that macro human evolution is a fact, that man-made global climate change is a fact, that homosexuality is normal, that God interacting with his creation is a myth, and that humans choose their gender identity and can therefore shower wherever they like. Those schools may be all right for some, but others want out. Legislators, take off the education shackles and set us free!
This last legislative session, a plan was proposed that would have increased per pupil funding, improved student-teacher ratios, and given parents some choice about how and where to educate their children. It was a win-win proposal, yet Republican political leadership refused to let your elected representatives and senators even discuss it, much less vote on it.
We hope all the candidates and soon-to-be freshman legislators are paying attention to stories like these and will commit themselves to implementing real solutions in 2017. Let us start by allowing parents to choose where to spend their education dollars. They might choose to entrust it to a responsible school that will do a better job of educating their kids.
The Oklahoman story was about wasteful expenses in Crooked Oak School District, but we need to understand that it is revealing fundamental flaws in all the “Crooked School Districts” of the state.
3. OCPAC at High Noon. John Michener, President of OCPAC, will speak at the High Noon Club on Monday, October 3 at
H&H Gun Range, 400 Vermont Ave. #110, OKC. The title of the presentation is “Why Religion and Politics Trump Sports and the Weather.” State Question 777 will also be discussed.
4. Upcoming Programs. OCPAC weekly “church services” are held on Wednesdays at noon at
Mama Roja Mexican Kitchen on the east side of Lake Hefner where Britton Road runs into the lake. Here is the upcoming schedule:
October 12: OCPAC will host a debate on the controversial
State Question 777, the “Oklahoma Right to Farm” Amendment.
Roy Lee Lindsey, Executive Director for the Oklahoma Pork Council, will speak in favor of the amendment. Speaking against the amendment will be former
Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson.
Audience members will be allowed to submit questions on note cards to the moderator. Questions should either ask for more information to aid in making a decision or challenge the arguments of one side. Questions should be addressed to one side or the other. We anticipate a huge crowd on this date, so come early to get a seat and a plate for the chicken fajita buffet.
October 19: Trent England, from the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, will explain the nuances and implications of State Questions 780 and 781, “Criminal Justice Reform.”
October 26: Is the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority a crooked hotbed of crony capitalism, accountable to no one? How was OTA originally structured and designed to function by legislative statute? What ought to be done with OTA in a perfect world from a moral perspective? We will attempt to answer these questions when Tom Elmore, Executive Director of the
North American Transportation Institute, presents an explanation and exposé of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority.
November 9: Join us for
The Day After to gawk and comment on the disaster. P. Andrew Sandlin, from the
Center for Cultural Leadership, will join us for election analysis.
Additional Notes
- Join our Facebook group.
- Become an OCPAC member with this form.
- We currently meet on Wednesdays at noon at Mama Roja.
- The views expressed in this email are the personal opinion of John Michener and do not necessarily reflect the views of OCPAC, its leadership team, or its members.
