I was among many happy in our country this week. We were dancing on the tables to see that a bipartisan group had finally passed a Stop Common Core bill in Oklahoma!
But then I learned there is more to the story; the struggle isn’t over there yet. It hangs on one thread called Governor Fallin.
If Oklahoma’s Governor does not sign the bill by June 2nd, it will die.
Common Core would then retain its stranglehold on the students and teachers in that state.
And the situation’s sticky because Governor Fallin happens to be a leading player in that NGA club –the group of (some, not all) governors that co-created and co-copyrighted Common Core in the first place.
If Fallin signs it, she makes enemies at the National Governors’ Association. Can she stand up to that pressure?
That’s why I’m posting the contents of email (below) which I had forwarded to me today. Please put some pressure on Governor Fallin. An email or a phone call can be short but she needs to hear from hundreds of thousands of us before June 2nd.
Her email and her office’s phone number, 405-521-2342 are here. Please influence her to sign the Stop Common Core bill and restore local control to Oklahoma. Thank you.
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May 27, 2014
 Common Core is on the defensive across the country, but Oklahoma has an opportunity to score the biggest victory against it yet! HB3399 would immediately repeal Common Core and return control of education standards to the state. It has been vetted by opponents of Common Core to ensure that it is a genuine repeal and not a political stunt.
Although this bill passed the state legislature overwhelmingly, Gov. Mary Fallin has not announced her intentions. If she takes no action by June 2, the bill dies. If she signs it, Common Core disappears from Oklahoma.
Gov. Fallin needs to hear from concerned citizens everywhere. Oklahoma students will benefit immediately, but other states will see that repealing Common Core is achievable and will be inspired to follow suit.
Since Gov. Fallin is the chair of the National Governors Association, which is a key supporter of Common Core, her repudiation would seriously damage Common Core’s credibility. This is a matter of national importance, so Gov. Fallin needs to hear from you. Contact her today and urge her to sign HB3399.
Take Action
Please contact Gov. Fallin by email or by her office’s phone number, 405-521-2342. Tell her to sign HR3399 and end Common Core in Oklahoma. Also, if you have not already done so, sign the petition to Gov. Fallin asking her to oppose Common Core at http://ngaendcommoncore.com/.
Suggested message:
Dear Governor Fallin:We urge you to sign HB3399, the bill to repeal Common Core, and replace it with state-based standards. This measure would be a victory for educational quality and accountability all across the nation.
Although I am not an Oklahoma resident, I share the concerns of many Oklahomans that the federal government and private interest groups have taken control of our education system. Their voices are drowning out those of parents and teachers, who are the most invested in the success of our children.
Because HB3399 gives control of education back to the state and communities, we urge you to sign this bill because it has national implications in placing our education system back on the right track.
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COMMON CORE 
This situation is a picture perfect example of what’s wrong with associations of government officials such as the NGA. Those elected officials are supposed to represent the people who elect them, not the associations to which they belong as a result of being elected by their people. But in so many cases, they end up representing the position of the organization in the face of opposition from their own constituents.
The question here is, which group will Gov. Fallin choose to represent: the other governors in the country, or the people of Oklahoma? To which does she consider herself more accountable?
I think we already know what she will do….She will put her career first before what is best for our children.
Dear Christel,
Please, do not keep repeating the canard that the NGA is the source of the CCS. It’s not! There is a difference between the NGA and the NGA Center. It’s full name is the NGA Center for Best Practices, it is the “staff” of the NGA, about 100 people, 8 of those one hundred make up the NGA Center Division of Education. The NGA meets twice a year, The NGA Center is there all year long. It is the NGA Center that owns the copyright along with the Council of Chief State School Officers, both are little lobbying groups, funded by federal grants and corporations. To say that the NGA created and copyrighted the Standards give people the impression of 55 Governors of the states and territories, sitting together in a room, their sleeves rolled up, sweating over creating standards. First of all, none of them is qualified. The last meeting of the NGA only 25 governors even bothered to show. There are hundreds of these little “helpful groups” for just about every elected office. For Attorneys General, for Secretaries of State, for legislators, for the secretaries and clerks hired by state legislative bodies to handle the paper work. The NGA Center will not only advise the governor, but his chief of staff, his key advisors, they will even hire their key advisors for them. set up their offices, their IT and communications systems, the basic premise is you got elected but you need our help to do your job. The dues paid by the tax payers to these organizations, councils, associations are in the 6 figures.
Please, the “developers” and copyright holders are members of these little lobbying groups whose main function, in the case of the NGA Center (there is also a Division of Health) is to tell the governors they can balance the budget using federal funds all they gotta do is implement these programs. The greedy governors want the money. So they implement BOCare and BOCore. The NGA Center also kinda sorta hints to them that successful implementation may lead to lucrative appointments when they are no longer governors. It worked for our governor. Days after he was no longer governor, he was appointed to the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Health Project. Now he has all kinds of D.C. support for his U.S. Senate campaign and he goes around campaigning that he opposed ObamaCare, and we can prove that, when legislation didn’t pass, he used a “task force,” Executive orders, Departmental Policy, and Agency regulations. Tricks learned at from the NGA Center.
Do you know about Dr. Duke Pesta? One of the best explanation of how the CCS (I omit the first S, because they are not state standards, another canard.) Dr. Pesta did a webinar with us in Rapid City. It is long, about 2 hours, but it will set you straight. At minute 0:16:20 you can read the copyright for yourself. And the insistence by these two little groups on no one else taking credit. You will here how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation selected, hired, and funded a very small group, Roger Coleman, Sue Pimentel, Jacob Zimba, and I just learned another one yesterday, Dr. David Pook.
There are three federal laws that prohibit the feds from being involved in education. This is their way around it.
In BOCore’s case, implementation happened without benefit of legislation at either Congressional level and state. In SD we can’t repeal it. It isn’t in our codified law. It came into being via the executive department. Executive Orders, Departmental policies, and Agency regulations.
Here in Rapid City, we have formed a group called Citizens for Academic Transparency (C.A.T. or just CAT). Our City School Administrator, put a gag order on teachers and principles that they were not to talk to the media without going through him. But no one will talk to anyone. Parents aren’t media, but the teachers feel so threatened the won’t talk to them. At present our big push is to acquaint the school board, who had nothing to do with its implementation of CCS, with the grooming of children to be sexual at a very young and inappropriate age, the outright pornographic nature of the Bluest Eye told from the perpetrators point of view, and the graphic violence in the “exemplar texts.” My Brother Sam is Dead, is used in the U.S. military to desensitize troops to the horrors of war. They want to do it with 5th graders. The superintendent spews the same stuff the state Secy of Education and the Governor, nearly verbatim and have been feeding the school board all the nonsense about it being “state” standards, and internationally benchmarked and yada yada.
Neely Margaitis