The standards have been a point of contention for months at the capitol and with the State Board of Education. Since the board’s February meeting, the three new board members recently appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt — Mike Tinney, Ryan Deatherage and Chris Van Dehende — have repeatedly raised concerns about what they saw was an unfair process.
New items were added to the standards hours before they were voted on, including one requiring students to recognize “discrepancies in 2020 election results.” Those standards were not posted for public consumption before the vote, nor were they mentioned in the presentation given to the board by OSDE staff at the meeting.
Board members also said they felt “misled” by State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ statements at the February board meeting in which the standards were passed. Walters falsely told members that due to legislative deadlines, the standards would have to be passed that day, despite requests to have additional time for review.
The members have requested the legislature return the standards to the board.
Senate Education Chair Adam Pugh (R-Edmond) filed a Senate Joint Resolution the day of the April board meeting, echoing concerns about transparency in the process. He joined House and Senate Democrats who filed their own resolutions earlier in the month.
But after Walters spoke with GOP leaders Monday in a closed-door caucus meeting, the deadline to hear the resolution came and went Tuesday without a floor hearing.
House Democratic Leader and gubernatorial candidate Cyndi Munson (D-Oklahoma City) said in a statement she was “disappointed in the lack of action.”
“Because no action has been taken by Republican legislative leaders, the voices of Oklahomans — across the state and party lines — who have been urging us to disapprove these problematic, and costly, social studies standards have gone unheard,” Munson said. “... It is clear that the political pressure put forth by the State Superintendent on House and Senate leaders matters more than the needs and desires of Oklahoma educators, parents and students.”
The standards now take effect as written.
This article was corrected to amend the legislative process of standards approval.
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