Oklahoma Senate has no plans to reject proposed social studies standards, leader says

OKLAHOMA CITY — Academic standards that have been proposed for Oklahoma social studies education, which would include biblical content and suggestions of “discrepancies” in the 2020 presidential election, have a clearer path toward passage with one Republican leader saying his chamber isn’t preparing to reject them.

The standards, if passed, would mandate the topics public schools must teach to students in social studies classes.

Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, said April 10 he wouldn’t vote against the proposal. Among the Republican supermajority in the state Senate, there isn’t “a whole lot of movement to reject those standards,” Paxton said during a weekly briefing with news reporters.

“I have not read all 400 pages (of the standards),” Paxton said. “What I have read through I do not have objections to. We can always go through there and find little things here and there. But what I’ve read through so far, I have not had enough objections that I would try to undo what the (state) school board approved.”

The Oklahoma State Board of Education, including three recently appointed members, approved the proposed standards on Feb. 27, sending them to the state Legislature for review. Only one state board member voted against the standards, saying he didn’t have enough time since his recent appointment to properly review them all.

It came to light after the board vote that the Oklahoma State Department of Education quietly made changes to the original draft of the proposal without acknowledging it.

Among the changes was the addition of language suggesting there were “discrepancies” in 2020 election results, including “sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellwether county’ trends.”

State Superintendent Ryan Walters later said the standards weren’t written to support or deny the 2020 presidential election outcome but to challenge students to make their own conclusions.

Both the House and Senate would have to agree on a resolution to revise or reject the standards. Lawmakers have until May 1 to pass a joint resolution or the standards will take effect as written, the House Speaker’s Office has said.

House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, said the Republicans in his chamber haven’t decided yet whether to take any action.

“If we were to do something, it would need to be collaboratively with the Senate, and I’m not sure where the Senate is on that issue,” Hilbert said while speaking with reporters on Wednesday. “But I do know we have some members digging into it to potentially come up with some proposals of if we would accept, reject or revise.”

House and Senate Democrats filed resolutions on March 31 to reject the standards and send them back to the state Board of Education for revisions. A majority of lawmakers in both Republican-dominated chambers would have to agree to rejection.

House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City, said she’s heard nothing from the majority caucus about her resolution.

Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, said the pro tem has been “open to the conversation” but Republican senators are split on the issue.

“I don’t think they have full caucus support to move (a resolution to reject) forward,” Kirt said of the GOP majority. “I think it’s a very divisive issue, which is I think what Superintendent Walters chooses to do, which is bring up things that divide us instead of things we can work on together.”

Both Democratic leaders said Oklahomans have contacted them with concerns about Walters’ social studies standards taking effect. They said they encouraged residents to share their objections with their state lawmakers.

Although House Republicans haven’t made a decision on the standards, Hilbert said Walters did “a good job” pitching his proposal to their caucus during a private meeting last week.

The House speaker said Walters’ experience as a former high school history teacher shone through during the presentation.

“You saw the AP history (teacher) in Ryan Walters come out when he was going through the social studies standards, and he did a really good job of explaining them,” Hilbert said. “I think that that had a good impression on folks. And it’s always good, again, to hear from his side of the explanation and those potential standards put into context.”

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