Republican lawmakers mull proposal to reject new Oklahoma academic standards

OKLAHOMA CITY — After a private meeting with state Superintendent Ryan Walters, Republican lawmakers made no promises that a leading state senator’s resolution would succeed in rejecting new academic standards proposed for social studies and science education.

Senate Education Committee chairperson Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, filed the resolution Thursday afternoon after half of the Oklahoma State Board of Education said they weren’t aware of changes made to the social studies standards before they approved them in February. Pugh declined to comment while exiting a closed-door Senate Republican Caucus meeting Monday.

Walters joined the caucus meeting midway through. Afterward, he declined to share details of what he discussed but said he had a “great conversation” and “appreciated the invite.”

Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, said after the meeting the GOP majority is still discussing whether it will put Pugh’s resolution up for a vote by the full Senate. In previous weeks, he said there hadn’t been “a whole lot of movement to reject those standards” among the caucus.

Both the Senate and the House must agree on a resolution by Thursday to take any action on the standards. State law gives lawmakers 30 legislative days after receiving academic standards to consider them and vote. If the Legislature doesn’t pass a resolution, the standards will take effect as written. 

Academic standards dictate the topics that public schools must teach to students. They are reviewed and updated every six years.

Five House members signed on as co-authors of Pugh’s resolution on Monday, including the chamber’s No. 2 Republican leader, Speaker Pro Tem Anthony Moore, R-Clinton. 

The group of co-authors also includes Common Education Committee Chairperson Dick Lowe, R-Amber; the committee’s Vice Chairperson Danny Sterling, R-Tecumseh; Rep. Tammy West, R-Oklahoma City; and Rep. Mike Osburn, R-Edmond, who is listed as the principal House author.

Lowe said lawmakers are troubled by the review and approval process that took place with the state Board of Education, rather than about the contents of the standards. Many of the constituents living in their House districts are concerned, as well, he said.

“We see the process was probably not as transparent as we’d like to see in state government,” Lowe said.

Pugh’s resolution similarly notes that “questions exist regarding the transparency of the subject matter standard adoption process.”

Whether the House has the chance to vote on the resolution depends on the Senate passing it first. Lowe said it then would be “a leadership decision” whether the resolution would get a hearing in the House.

House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, will comment on the resolution if it passes the Senate and comes over to his chamber, his spokesperson said.

Gov. Kevin Stitt and one of his recent state Board of Education appointees, Ryan Deatherage, said they would like the Legislature to send the social studies standards back to the board for another vote. Stitt raised doubts about whether Walters’ administration handled the process with the proper integrity.

Walters denied the governor’s claims that the Oklahoma State Department of Education emailed board members a different version of the proposed standards from what they ultimately approved. 

The Education Department provided email records indicating board members received a copy of the final draft at 4 p.m. the day before they met the following morning of Feb. 27 to vote on the standards. The board voted 5-1 to approve the standards and send them to the Legislature for final review.

The only board member who voted against them, Deatherage, said he hadn’t had enough time to read through the lengthy document. 

He and two other board members, Chris Van Denhende and Mike Tinney, said Thursday they weren’t aware at the time of the vote of changes made from the original draft of the standards, which were posted publicly in December.

Some of the changes include the addition of language stating 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.”

Walters said he made the final decision to add the new language after his administration received public comment and input from focus groups. National conservative media personalities and Republican policy advocates made up the leading committee that reviewed the social studies standards.

Pugh’s resolution points out the short timeframe that the board had to review the updated version. It also noted that the governor and board members requested the standards be returned to the state Board of Education “for proper review and consideration.”

Given “the magnitude of the decision” and the $33 million cost to implement the new standards, the resolution proposes the Legislature reject them in full for both social studies and science.

House and Senate Democrats filed resolutions last month to reject the social studies standards. Last week, they again urged their Republican colleagues to take action before Walters’ proposal becomes mandatory teaching in all public schools.

Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, thought of how the new language would mix with the social studies homework her eighth grader brings home from public school.

“This week we talked about Brown v. Board of Education,” Kirt said during a news conference Wednesday. “We talked about Plessy v. Ferguson. We’re talking about very important concepts in history and social studies, and thinking about teachers having to try to present some of these (new) standards and my children trying to analyze them and understand the angle of them and to have critical thinking around them really deeply concerns me.”