‘I don't want my kids hearing that': Oklahoma parents look to opt out of new social studies content

Yahoo

6 days ago

Erica Watkins, center left, joins members of Defense of Democracy Oklahoma, now called We're Oklahoma Education, and LGBTQ+ advocates holding signs opposing state Superintendent Ryan Walters outside the Oklahoma State Department of Education building in Oklahoma City on April 25, 2024. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY — Frustrated with religious content and polarizing language added to Oklahoma academic standards, some parents say they plan to opt their children out of 'ideologically charged' social studies lessons in public schools.
Families and liberal advocates across the state, relying on parental rights laws that Republicans championed, are drafting letters to exempt their children from new social studies content that conservative leaders enacted this year.
'Now that it's being codified and now that it's being brought more into the public eye, the liberals have realized that those are our rights too,' Tulsa parent Lauren Parker said.
The 'biggest glaring red flag' in the new social studies standards, Parker said, is language that casts doubt on the integrity of the 2020 presidential election. President Donald Trump has refused to concede defeat to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 race, despite courts across the country dismissing Trump's lawsuits claiming election fraud.
Under the new standards, Oklahoma high school U.S. history classes will be required to have students 'identify discrepancies' in the 2020 election results, 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.'
State Superintendent Ryan Walters quietly added these claims without acknowledging them until after the standards passed a vote by the Oklahoma State Board of Education. Half of the board later said they were unaware of the new content when they voted on it.
A lawsuit in Oklahoma County District Court is challenging whether the Education Department and the board followed proper procedures when approving the standards.
Parker said she contacted her home district, Tulsa Public Schools, to opt her children out of being taught about 'election fraud that never happened.'
She also objected to Walters' new requirements that Oklahoma schools incorporate Bible stories and Jesus' teachings into their curriculum — an effort she views as Christian nationalism and religious indoctrination.
'I​t literally was one of the most painful experiences of my life growing up in Christianity, and so it's the last thing that I want my daughters to learn about in school,' Parker said. 'Of course, we discuss things, but it's just that this isn't about history and facts. It's about pushing their faith on us, and that's unacceptable. It's un-American.'
Walters said he implemented the biblical content not to convert students to Christianity, but to ensure they understand the beliefs that inspired America's core principles and that influenced the country's founding fathers.
It's 'concerning that parents would opt their kids out of understanding American history,' Walters said Thursday, but it's a choice they have a right to make.
'We want parents to have opt-outs,' Walters said. 'We want parents to be able to make those decisions. I think that's a bad decision on their part.'
Local organization We're Oklahoma Education, or WOKE, is distributing sample opt-out letters through social media. Members of the group are known for regularly attending state Board of Education meetings and protesting Walters.
The organization has about 200 active volunteers in Oklahoma and 1,000 followers on its social media and email lists, director Erica Watkins said.
Many of them are parents frustrated with Walters' far-right brand of politics and the 'ideologically charged' content he inserted into Oklahoma's academic standards, said Watkins, a mother of two students in Jenks Public Schools.
WOKE, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the label Republicans apply to left-leaning opponents, formed as a liberal counter to Moms for Liberty, a conservative national group also focused on education policy.
'If you believe parents know best, then that applies to all parents,' Watkins said. 'And so that's why we went ahead and used the channels that they put in place to push back against some of their more indoctrinating things that they're putting into our schools.'
Watkins said her family isn't religious, so she intends to exempt her children from new standards teaching the Bible.
She said the 2020 election language is also out of the question.
'I don't want my kids hearing that,' Watkins said. 'That's propaganda, and I don't think it's appropriate to be taught in school.'
Stillwater Public Schools parent Saralynn Boren, a WOKE member, said the group first started drafting opt-out letters after Walters invited public schools to use 'pro-America kids content' from the conservative media entity PragerU.
The letters also invite parents to opt out of conservative content from Hillsdale College, Turning Point USA and even from 'any interaction' with Walters himself.
The group extended the letter template to add social studies standards on Judeo-Christian values, God, the Bible, the 2020 election and other topics. Watkins said they did so after the Republican majority in the state Legislature declined to take action on the academic standards.
A GOP-led attempt to disapprove the standards emerged in the state Senate, but the chamber's Republican caucus decided to allow the new content to pass after having a closed-door meeting with Walters.
The Senate's leader, President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, said he is supportive of parents who are now choosing to opt out of the standards.
'I think we give parents the ability to opt out of lots of things,' Paxton said. 'If that's what they want to opt out of, I would certainly support them being able to do that.'
Oklahoma law guarantees parents the right to direct their minor children's education and moral or religious training. Parents are allowed to withdraw their children from any learning material or activity on moral or religious grounds.
Boren, of Stillwater, said her past opt-out requests over PragerU were 'well received' by her children's district.
Stillwater district spokesperson Barry Fuxa said families always have had the right to choose an alternative assignment or learning material. He told Oklahoma Voice the district has not yet received any opt-out requests over new social studies standards.
'At this time, our response to families with concerns would be to ask them to give us time to learn more about the standards and to allow our admin and teacher teams time to develop plans of how the standards will be implemented in our curriculum,' he said.
Tulsa Public Schools also upholds parents' rights to review instructional materials, both under state law and school board policy, the district said in a statement through its spokesperson, Luke Chitwood.
Tulsa will spend the 2025-26 school year selecting instructional materials that align with the new social studies standards and will implement the new content in 2026-27, Chitwood said. That selection process will involve teachers, parents and community members, he said.
More parental engagement in education is a positive thing, said Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City.
But Kirt said she's concerned political divisions are becoming wider. The new academic standards, as well as other efforts supporting state-funded religious education, could be a wedge driving Oklahomans further apart.
'If we have separate schools for everybody who has different beliefs, we're going to have some real challenges about living together and working together and having an economy together,' Kirt said. 'So, I'm worried about how that's going to turn out. But do I want my child learning inaccurate information in their classroom? No, I don't.'
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