Author Archives: Admin

Guest Op-Ed: Entrepreneurial spirit and a mother’s love

Four decades of involvement in education — as a volunteer, writer, and sometime teacher — have blessed me with riches that cannot be measured in normal ways.

I have read stories to children at east Oklahoma City schools, then walked to lunch with a dozen giggling children clinging to hands, fingers, and suspenders. I taught elementary, middle, and secondary students at an alternative school for troubled and "at-risk" youth. I substituted at public, charter, and private schools, meeting dreams and despair, trial and triumph.

I’ve lectured to sometimes idealistic and hopeful, sometimes skeptical and bored, college students about history or drama, about writing or romance, or about a call of the heart found in that tender tug from the squeeze of a child’s hand to "read just one more."

Frustrated with bureaucratic lethargy and angry with those who have surrendered to the despair of inner-city poverty and family collapse, I’ve found and then reported, sometimes in the most unexpected circumstances, examples of heroic service to children who lack stable living environments.

In the Deborah Brown Community School in Tulsa and at public and private schools in Oklahoma City, I have witnessed the miracle of learning in defiance of life’s greatest obstacles. I have seen the future, or part of it, at St. John Christian Heritage Academy, then dreamed of justice for hopeful and productive people.

But for all our problems, nothing I have encountered in American ghetto schools or in the lives of our nation’s urban poor can compare with the squalor found in descriptions given by James Tooley in his new book “The Beautiful Tree,” excerpted in the August issue of Perspective, published by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (ocpathink.org).

Tooley describes a remarkable odyssey uncovering productive but unregistered private schools all over the world, places where the children of desperately poor parents make lives better through mathematics and composition, English and French, science and hope, while preparing for success in work and life.

Tooley crossed stinking ditches, passed open sewers, encountered reeking slaughterhouses, and circled putrid fish boats all over the world, only to find enclaves of excellence guided by great minds the equal of Marva Collins of Chicago and Tracy McDaniel of Oklahoma City. The schools Tooley visited were islands of calm in the midst of turmoil, "areas that lacked decent sanitation and clean water supply, adequate roads, electricity."

Some he met were Muslim, some secular, some Christian or Christian-influenced, some libertarians longing for freedom from government dictates and irrational cultural norms.

All seemed to share the perspective of one headmaster, a man named Wajid at "Peace High School" in India, who told Tooley he became a private school educator because, well, "Sometimes, government is the obstacle to the people." Tooley took the name for his book from a figure of speech Mahatma Gandhi used in 1931 to describe ancient Indian traditions of learning and erudition.

This year, members of the British Conservative Party, transformed in their worldview by Tooley’s book and related studies, wrote with wonder in a recent manifesto: "In the poor urban and semi-urban areas of Lagos State, Nigeria, 75 percent of school children attend budget private schools. In the slums of Hyderabad, India, 65 percent of schoolchildren are in private unaided schools. These schools charge very low fees, affordable to parents on low wages. … These schools are run for poor people, by poor people."

And what are the results coming from these schools serving the poorest of the poor?

Analysis of testing of 24,000 children in five countries found that even after adjusting for background, "results achieved in private schools were significantly higher, in every country studied and on every measure used, than in public schools." Problems in their peer public schools were low motivation, lack of accountability, and high rates of teacher absenteeism. Competition among the "budget private schools" provided "an incentive to keep standards high, in order to retain their pupils."

It should surprise no one that, as Tooley’s book jacket reports: "Both the entrepreneurial spirit and the love of parents for their children can be found in every corner of the globe."

Tooley found that spirit and love in Hyderabad, in Lagos, in Ghana, and in China. I found that spirit and love in north Tulsa and in east Oklahoma City.

Let’s unleash that spirit and that love. Now. It’s a small world, after all.

Patrick B. McGuigan is the author of two books and the editor of seven. A state-certified teacher, for two years he taught middle-school and high-school students at a public charter alternative

Illinois man will serve 15 Years for bank robberies in Oklahoma City and Tulsa

OKLAHOMA CITY, Aug. 20 – David Louis Siany, 52, was sentenced to 15 years for bank robberies committed in Tulsa and Oklahoma City earlier this year, according to John C. Richter, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

On Jan. 27, Siany robbed the BancFirst, 809 Cornell Parkway,  in Oklahoma City. On Jan. 22, Siany robbed the Bank of America, 5101 South Sheridan Road, Tulsa.

Siany pled guilty to both bank robberies on April 3. At the time of the January bank robberies, Siany was on supervised release following a federal sentence for three prior bank robberies in 2000.

He had been released from a halfway house in Illinois in November 2008 after serving federal imprisonment from his earlier bank robberies.

United States District Judge Stephen P. Friot sentenced Siany to 156 months of imprisonment for the Oklahoma City and Tulsa bank robberies.

In addition, Judge Friot sentenced Siany to serve an additional 24 months of imprisonment for violating the conditions of his supervised release from his 2000 convictions.

In addition to a prison term of 180 months, Siany was ordered to serve three years of supervised release following his release from prison and pay restitution to the banks in the amount of $7,297.00.

Last Updated ( Friday, 21 August 2009 )

Texas man sentenced for robbing multiple Oklahoma banks

Wednesday, 19 August 2009
OKLAHOMA CITY–The U.S. Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Investigation Oklahoma City Field Office has issued the following news release:

John C. Richter, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, announced today that RYAN CHRISTOPHER HITCHINS, 30, of Texas, was sentenced by United States District Judge Stephen P. Friot to serve 180 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for robbing three banks and a credit union in Oklahoma and Texas during June and July of 2008.

In February of this year, Hitchins pled guilty to robbing the following institutions on the following dates: Bank of America, 3501 N. MacArthur, Warr Acres, Oklahoma, on July 7, 2008

Texans Credit Union, 3131 Custer Road, Plano, Texas, on June 30, 2008

Wachovia Bank, 15216 Montfort Drive, Dallas, Texas, on June 24, 2008

Bank of America, 10815 Webb Chapel Road, Dallas, Texas, on July 2, 2008

At sentencing today, the Court also took into consideration Hitchins role in robbing two additional banks in Texas on June 26 and 28, 2008.

In addition to the 180-month prison term, Judge Friot ordered Hitchins to pay $20,734.63 in restitution to the banks.

The case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Borden.
Last Updated ( Friday, 21 August 2009 )

Kirby Attends Signing Expanding Liability Exemptions

Wednesday, 19 August 2009
State Rep. Dan Kirby attended the ceremonial signing of his legislation expanding the Volunteer Medical Professional Services Emergency Act to include groups who volunteer employees in response to natural disasters and other emergencies.

Kirby, R-Tulsa, carried the legislation at the request of the Tulsa Health Department.

While individual volunteers have been protected from frivolous lawsuits, organizations like the Oklahoma Blood Bank and Oklahoma Medical Association do not enjoy those same protections, Kirby said.

"My legislation corrects this problem, extending the same benefits to non-profit and corporate entities when they take part in a response to a natural disaster," he said.

An example of a crisis in which many groups might be organized would be a response to the swine flu.

If the swine flu hit Tulsa and as part of the response a local business volunteers employees to help, this legislation would limit their liability and protect them from frivolous lawsuits in that situation, Kirby said. By limiting their liability and the liability of companies who want to help out in emergency situations, the legislation encourages that aid.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 19 August 2009 )

Tulsa Lawmakers To Study Helping “Healthy” Grocers

Wednesday, 19 August 2009
State Reps. Seneca Scott and Jabar Shumate will conduct an interim study this fall to determine how best to create incentives for rural and urban grocers that offer healthy, affordable, locally-grown produce and products.

 “Oklahoma ranks poorly when it comes to healthy eating,” Scott, D-Tulsa, said in a prepared statement. “Though I don’t believe lawmakers can force people to become healthy overnight, I think we can make it easier for them, while helping to support our local farmers and producers.”

Incentivizing healthy grocers helps the economy, lowers health care costs and, most importantly, means Oklahomans won’t have to choose between convenience and health, Scott added.

“Providing healthy food options is solid policy,” Scott said. “The only question, which is what we will be looking into, is how to encourage those options in the state.”

The press release said the Oklahoma Grocers Association, Oklahoma Food Policy Council, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, the Oklahoma Dietetic Association and the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce will take part.

The Oklahoma Healthy Corner Stores Initiative is the proposed title of the legislation Scott hopes to carry in the next legislative session. Reports have shown Oklahomans rank in 50th in the nation in nutrition and are the most likely of all Americans to suffer heart disease, the release said.

“One of the primary reasons for this is that in too many areas of the state we lack access to affordable, high quality, fresh foods,” Scott said. “The Oklahoma Legislature needs to help these working families and at the same time help local growers and small businesses, making it a win-win for all Oklahomans.”

 
Last Updated ( Monday, 24 August 2009 )