Target: Ryan Walters, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction
Goal: Amend social studies standards to reflect input from experts and remove conspiracy theories.
Oklahoma’s education leaders gained notoriety when they ordered public schools to incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments into statewide curriculums. Now the state’s legislature has approved another set of controversial measures championed by the Oklahoma education superintendent. Under new social studies standards, schools– under the threat of losing accreditation or teaching credentials – will be required to teach students about supposed “discrepancies” in the 2020 presidential election and about the alleged “source of the COVID-19 pandemic from a Chinese lab.” The “effects of the Trump tax cuts and border enforcement efforts,” along with the supposed “successful avoidance of new wars” during Trump’s term, will also be emphasized. Meanwhile, references to George Floyd’s death and the Black Lives Matter movement that resulted will be deemphasized.
Critics – who have included Senate Republicans and the Oklahoma governor himself – have recommended these standards be returned to the Board of Education. Some board members have also lashed out at the hasty, last-minute inclusion of the standards at a recent meeting and the superintendent’s alleged misleading claims about the urgency of passing the standards. Most fundamental among the criticisms is the seeming weaponization of education – at kids’ expense – to promote political propaganda and conspiracy theories.
Sign the petition below to demand irresponsible leaders stop playing out their political games in America’s classrooms.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Superintendent Walters,
“These new standards will ensure that kids have an accurate and comprehensive view of historical events, while also reinforcing the values that make our country great.” What, precisely, is “accurate” about giving a platform to conspiracies theories that have been widely discredited by professionals across the political spectrum? What is “comprehensive” about omitting recent historical events that the nation saw play out before its very eyes and that had a major impact on American society? And what “values” are being promoted by rejecting recommendations of actual experts and by strong-arming educators into indoctrinating their students to follow a specific political philosophy?
Oklahoma is consistently ranking at the bottom academically in America. If you truly value education, then follow the true conservative mindset and keep your hands off of it. Discard your standards for social studies and actually listen to the educators on the front lines of creating future generations of learners and critical thinkers.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Max Fischer
Chilling, but not surprising.