A proposal by the Oklahoma Department of Education would have high school history students learn about "discrepancies" in the 2020 presidential election, starting with a series of possibilities that reflect President Trump's debunked claims about the vote. Students would be instructed to identify factors including "the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states" and "the security risks of mail-in balloting," the New York Times reports. "We want students to think for themselves, not be spoon-fed left wing propaganda," said education Superintendent Ryan Walters, per the Washington Post.
The first version of the policy limited its instructions to students to examining issues related to the election, per KWTV. A new version, reported by the nonprofit NonDoc, tells students to "identify discrepancies in 2020 election results." The change was made after the public comment period had ended. The proposal goes next to the state legislature, which is controlled by Republicans. Democratic Rep. John Waldron, a former social studies teacher, said he's a no vote. "The state superintendent campaigned to end indoctrination in our schools, but what he is doing instead with these new standards is promoting his own brand of indoctrination," Waldron told the Times.
The GOP governor's office called the proposal a distraction, and it's not clear that Gov. Kevin Stitt will back it. Walters, a Trump ally, gained national attention for trying to place Trump-endorsed Bibles in classrooms and create a publicly funded Catholic charter school; both plans have resulted in court battles. Stitt and Walters once were allies, but they've fought over the superintendent's plan to compile the citizenship status of public school children, and Stitt has suggested a focus on education. Oklahoma ranks near the bottom among states in new reading and math tests. Stitt replaced half of the Board of Education last month. Superintendent is an elected post. (More Election 2020 stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
