By Linda Murphy

Some parents have a false sense of security that the issue of data collection and sharing was solved when Senate Bill 224 was defeated in the last legislative session. The fact is that student information was already and is still being collected and stored in Oklahoma’s State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS), which has been operating for several years.

How much of that information has been group data, which is acceptable to the public, and how much has been individual student data is not clear. The information can be collected, analyzed, and shared to other state agencies or other entities in and out of state in the SLDS, which is programmed now. The public and educators by a large margin highly oppose individual student data being sent outside of their own school district.

The on-going use of the SLDS means that “the train has already left the station” and we need to do catch-up and clean-up very quickly because government by technology, “Technocracy” is underway. Oklahoma needs legislation to make sure we have privacy laws and legislative processes that stop the “fast tracking” of plans which are often being made behind closed doors. For example, a $33.6 million student testing contract was made with a NDA (non-disclosure agreement). Online state testing is a source for gathering student information, and not only academic, but also behavioral. What information is being collected? Only a handful of state officials know who the vendor is. This is dangerous new territory that we should not have entered.

We must have transparency and manageable systems in place. We need specific, clearly defined, enforceable laws, agency regulations and policies, which keep citizens informed; provide time and opportunity to talk with their legislators and participate in public meetings. The public meetings are subject to open meeting laws and freedom of information requests. Many decisions are being made outside of long-held American government processes, which are necessary to preserve our freedom. Some crucial decisions are made without a vote of our legislators who have the responsibility for oversight.

Republican Officials – Corporations – For-Profit Education “Reform”

The SLDS was built according to plans from President Obama, while Governor Mary Fallin and State Superintendent Janet Barresi were in office in 2011-2014. The SLDS has been operational ever since.

Oklahoma received “stimulus money” from the Obama administration, which required the states to build an SLDS to use as a long term-data collection, storing and sharing system, connecting not only other state agencies but also a variety of outside entities, including the federal government and United Nations (UN) affiliated NGOs (non-governmental organizations), the Organization for Economic Coordination and Development (OECD). It collects education data as part of its global economic development planning. The SLDS mirrors the plans found in the Congressional Record during the Clinton Administration from the Carnegie Foundation’s National Center for Education and the Economy (NCEE). It calls for “cradle to grave” portfolios and tracking of all citizens as designed by Carnegie, Hillary Clinton, and David Rockefeller.

Obama’s SLDS blueprint was designed to provide quick efficient access to student files, which would collect and store data about each student in preschool through high school plus 8 years beyond graduation, called P-20. State Superintendent Barresi hired the expert who built Oklahoma’s SLDS according to Obama’s plan. The expert, John Kraman came to Oklahoma from Washington DC, where he had worked at “Achieve” another NGO, where he had written Common Core State Standards with groups assembled by the National Governors Association, Chamber of Commerce and Chief State School Officers.

Not long before Kraman left Oklahoma, I accompanied State Representative David Brumbaugh to a State Department of Education conference. We sat down at lunch with Kraman and discussed the SLDS and a recent state law that Brumbaugh had authored to put protections in place for student data. Kraman acknowledged that he had not implemented the changes in the system required by the new law. Did he make the changes before he left Oklahoma?

We do know that when we repealed Oklahoma’s Common Core State Standards in 2014, there was a high degree of public awareness about what was happening in education, including the SLDS. Public pressure evidently held back the full development of the plan to feed individual student records into the data system for a while. It was limited to group, “aggregate” data.

In the following years, under Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, the system was changed from collecting group data and programmed to collect individual student data. The IT expert who did the work on State Department of Education’s SLDS reported his work on the transition on an Interoperability Hub website. “An interoperability hub acts as a central point for enabling seamless data exchange and communication between different systems, applications, or organizations. It facilitates the integration of diverse IT environments, allowing for the smooth flow of information and functionality across previously isolated systems,” according to AI Overview.

Following the elections of Governor Kevin Stitt and Superintendent Ryan Walters to office, there have been many rapid advancements in the use of technology. Oklahomans are increasingly aware and concerned about many issues including: strengthening centralized government power and control; growing corporate power and influence over policies; increasing cost to taxpayers.

The most important concern is the loss of our quality of life due to decisions being made. Our children, the quality of their education, their right to privacy and freedom to make their own decisions about work. Workforce development plans controlled by corporate interests and “For-profit” education “stakeholders” are a very powerful force driving the use of the SLDS to control, sort and label students for personal gain.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already in use. State Superintendent Walters announced on April 28th, on a national news broadcast, that Oklahoma is using AI to teach children. He posted on Facebook and tweeted to Elon Musk “Oklahoma is leading with AI in education! @elonmusk @ grok Oklahoma – could we be onto something game-changing?”

That announcement by Walters followed the Executive Order for AI use in K-12 schools signed on April 23 by President Trump. Who voted on these plans for Oklahoma? When and where was the process for representative government and local control of education defined in the constitution?

In March, Bill Gates said that AI will replace doctors, teachers within 10 years. He claims humans will not be needed “for most things,” Another factor involved with AI technology is that usage has driven the expansion of data centers, which are being planned and implemented across the state with tax incentives borne by the public.

Oklahomans are increasingly concerned about data centers, the usage of land and water and many other issues which impact our lives. Where is the legislative oversight of this multi-layered technocracy system being pushed and implemented? Has anyone considered what effect Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies contract to collect data on Americans will have? Read more below. (1)

Transformation of OEQA by Non-Elected Officials

Oklahoma’s Office of Education Quality and Accountability (OEQA) has become the hub center for control of education data and the SLDS. The Executive Director, who came from META and RAND, is highly specialized in technology. She is working in tandem with a NGO, Oklahoma Public School Resource Center, transforming OEQA. Robert Sommers, Governor Fallin’s former Secretary of Education and Workforce, who held a dual position as head of Oklahoma’s Career Tech System, produced a report on the transformation plan, which was ordered by the Oklahoma Public School Resource Center. Sommers, from Ohio, has experience with a full technology delivered education system, Carpe Diem, as was widely reported in the press. (2)

From the OEQA website: “In 2022, the Oklahoma Public School Resource Center commissioned a proposal to transform OEQA into a state agency driven by student success and focused on process quality. The Transformation Proposal provides four recommendations:

1. Focus on what Oklahomans want.

2. Provide impactful P-20 information.

3. Lead a quality initiative in education.

4. Accelerate innovation.

We invite you to read the Transformation Proposal and refer to upcoming OEQA Annual Reports to see our progress in transforming OEQA into a data hub centered on its mission to inform, improve, and innovate.”

Obama & Hofmeister Plans in Oklahoma State Department of Education

A “State Support Team” from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is assigned to the Oklahoma State Department of Education. This federal government team under Biden directed the Department of Education staff under Joy Hofmeister and has continued to direct it under Ryan Walters.

This should give us a good start at bringing the relevant information to the table at the Oklahoma Legislature. We must get control over student data and dismantle the SLDS programmed for individual student data files. This is an urgent need!

The legislature must study and with careful consideration develop processes for oversight by elected officials accountable to the people. Legislators must be willing and able to understand the many factors involved in using technology and how to preserve our freedom! Our children and their future are at stake.

(1) Trump Picks Peter Thiels Palantir to Hoover Up Data on Americans:

https://www.technocracy.news/trump-picks-peter-thiels-palantir-to-hoover-up-data-on-americans/

(2) Carpe’ Diem – Technology driven education – “Students sat in cubicles using computers. It wasn’t popular.”:

https://hechingerreport.org/students-sat-cubicles-using-computers-wasnt-popular/

(3) Transformation of OEQA:

https://oklahoma.gov/oeqa/about-oeqa/reports.html

Linda Murphy was Oklahoma Governor Keating’s Education Advisor, Deputy Commissioner of Labor for Workforce Education and Training, Administrator of the Eastern Oklahoma Department of Labor, Member of the State Job Training Coordinating Council, and the Governor’s School-to-Work Council. She was a candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1994, 1998 and 2018. Murphy was appointed by Governor Keating as Secretary of Education but was denied confirmation by the majority Democrat Education Committee, following her 49.5% statewide vote in 1994. She also served on the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women. More recently, she has served as chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party’s Committee on Education. She is chairman of the OK Educators Network. You may contact Linda at: lindalearn1@yahoo.com