A new academic standards for social studies approved by the Oklahoma state education board last month instructs teachers to teach students that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump, according to The Oklahoman.
The new standards says high school students should “identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellwether county’ trends.”
The standards echoed language used by Trump that was rejected by the courts after his loss in the 2020 election.
Language relating to the big lie was not included in earlier versions of the standards released for public comment between Dec. 19 and Jan. 21. It was apparently slipped in by Trumpian state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters just before a Feb. 27 meeting where the state education board voted 5-1 to approve the standards.
An attempt by new board member, Ryan Deatherage, to delay the vote by a week to give members more time to review the standards was voted down.
Walters was present at the meeting and insisted that the standards must be approved in February because any further delay could hinder the start of the legislature’s review process.
However, state statutes say that the standards must be submitted to legislative leaders “prior to the last 30 days of the legislative session,” The Oklahoman noted. This would mean somewhere between late April and early May.
“I was disappointed that we were misled,” Deatherage, the only member who voted against the standards said. “I’m just going to say that I was disappointed the way that was handled.”
Walters, meanwhile defended the standards in a statement to The Washington Post saying it “empowers students to investigate and understand the electoral process.”
“The purpose of the standard is simple: we want students to think for themselves, not be spoon-fed left wing propaganda,” Walters added. “Students deserve to examine every aspect of our elections, including the legitimate concerns raised by millions of Americans in 2020.”
The standards must now be approved by the Republican-controlled Oklahoma state legislature.
