Latest news with #RyanWalters
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Does Ryan Walters need a history refresher? Many Oklahomans say yes
For years, Oklahoma state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters has had many missions on reforming the education system. Here's the latest on recent Oklahoma initiatives. WRONG AGENDA: Oklahomans aren't willing to sit idly by while Ryan Walters rides off into the sunset chasing his political dreams at the expense of taxpayers, writes former legislator Mark McBride. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Our kids deserve better than Ryan Walters' disguised political agenda, David L. Myers, of Oklahoma City, writes in a letter to the editor. FORCED UPON: Christian nationalism is being pushed in public schools, guest columnist writes, and secular students made to feel "less American" in violation of church/state separation. MISPLACED PRIORITIES: There's no money in the new state budget for higher teacher pay, but the Legislature may authorize more inexperienced "adjunct" teachers in classrooms. WHAT'S THE PLAN?: A new classroom cell phone ban law will be futile unless Ryan Walters' Oklahoma agency steps up to provide direction. Sign up for the Public Square newsletter here. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Social studies rules show Walters needs history refresher | Cartoon
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
‘I don't want my kids hearing that': Oklahoma parents look to opt out of new social studies content
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. 'It 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.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Wall Street Journal
5 days ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
‘Stop the Steal' in U.S. History Class
President Trump will never recant his baloney about how the 2020 election was stolen, but given his decisive victory in 2024, the GOP could now at least let his falsehoods fade into obscurity. Oklahoma is keeping them alive by echoing Mr. Trump's fantasy in its new standards for high-school social studies classes. Starting with the next academic year, Oklahoma students in U.S. history classes will be asked to 'identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information,' including on 'sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of 'bellwether county' trends.' Ryan Walters, Oklahoma's elected superintendent of public instruction, defended this language recently to the Associated Press. 'The standards,' he argued, 'do not instruct students on what to believe; rather, they encourage critical thinking by inviting students to examine real events, review publicly available information, and come to their own conclusions.' But an earlier version had students examining 'issues related to the election of 2020 and its outcome.' That's a neutral phrasing, unlike the version being implemented, which is obvious in the direction it tries to lead students. The point of discussing 'discrepancies' is to plant the seeds of the idea that Mr. Trump actually won, or at minimum that he had a point on Jan. 6.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After St. Isidore ruling, Walters calls to support other legal fights in favor of state-funded religious schools, with a caveat
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Although the U.S. Supreme Court has shut the door on Oklahoma's plan to launch a taxpayer-funded religious charter school, State Superintendent Ryan Walters says he will spare no expense to keep the legal fight in favor it, and similar fights, going—so long as the religion involved is one that meets certain 'criteria.'A 4-4 deadlock decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday leaves in place a prior Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling, which said launching the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School would violate both the state and federal would have been the first school of its kind in the a special-called news conference on Thursday, Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters said this fight in support of allowing the state to fund a religious school is nowhere close to being over.'Citizens' rights have been trampled,' Walters said. 'The Supreme Court has got it wrong. I believe this decision is antithetical to the religious freedoms in our U.S. Constitution.'Oklahoma's Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond feels just the opposite.'I'm relieved that we continue to have freedom of religion in the United States,' Drummond told News 4 after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Thursday. United States Supreme Court decides St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School case in split 4-4 vote Be his disagreement with the state's top law enforcement officer, as it may, Walters says he's going to keep pushing onward.'We will continue to move forward to find any kind of avenue possible for this school and others like it to exist in Oklahoma,' Walters 4 asked whether he believes the legal fight will be worth the costs to Oklahoma taxpayers, Walters said, 'Oh, absolutely. I don't think you can put a price on religious liberty.'Because the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked, it didn't issue a formal ruling either way on the St. Isidore case. That means, the Oklahoma State Supreme Court's earlier decision, which found the state constitution clearly bans taxpayer funding of religious schools, gets to stay in place. Walters sees a way around that.'We're also looking at a potential amendment to the state constitution,' Walters said. 'We should be crystal clear that funds can be spent for religious purposes.'The only way to amend the state constitution is through a statewide vote. In 2016, nearly 60% of Oklahoma voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed the state to fund religious if voters were to reject the idea again, Walters said he would continue fighting to allow publicly-funded religious schools through other means.'What we've been looking at today are: What are the other ways that we can get this back to the Supreme Court?' Walters deadlock happened because U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney-Barrett recused herself from the St. Isidore case because she is a longtime friend of a lawyer who represented St. Isidore. Heated exchange as SCOTUS hears arguments on nations first religious charter school But if a similar lawsuit, potentially one from a different state, eventually reaches the court, Coney-Barrett could take part in the said he'd be open to supporting other states in such a lawsuit. 'Yes, we would,' Walters said. 'I mean, if it's a similar situation. Again, I'd need to see the specifics.' When News 4 asked Walters whether he would support a similar lawsuit involving an Islamic charter school, Walters did not give a direct yes or no answer. 'You're really wanting to get me on that one, aren't you?' Walters said. 'You're really wanting to get me to answer that one. Look, in our state, it's very clear. In our state, the criteria have to be met for you to be a charter. I'm not going to speak outside of Oklahoma, where, again, I've told you some states have some bizarre rules.'He continued by saying it would depend on the state and whether the school met the kind of criteria Oklahoma looks for in charter applications, such as a track record, community support, and academic 4 pressed Walters again about whether he would support an Islamic charter school in another state. Walters said, 'Well, that wouldn't meet our criteria. So I'm going to support what would meet Oklahoma's criteria. Our criteria has been very, you know, put together in the sense of—if you have that track record, if there's a history there, if you had the community support. And again, we haven't seen that here.'In a statement Thursday, Governor Kevin Stitt echoed Walters' calls to pursue further action and possibly bring a similar case back before the U.S. Supreme Court. 'This 4-4 tie is a non-decision,' Stitt wrote. 'Now we're in overtime. There will be another case just like this one, and Justice Barrett will break the tie. This is far from a settled issue. We are going to keep fighting for parents' rights to instill their values in their children and against religious discrimination.' Attorney General Drummond, who argued the case before the Oklahoma Supreme Court and led the state's fight to stop the plan, has long-warned that allowing Oklahoma to fund one religious school could open a Pandora's box, arguing if the state can fund one religious school, it would have to fund every religious school, including institutions like the Satanic Temple. Drummond celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court's split decision in an interview with News 4 on Thursday. 'I think it's remarkable. It's a great win for Oklahoma,' Drummond said. 'Every family can choose when to worship, with whom to worship and how to worship, and the state will not be involved in creating religion.' News 4 will continue to monitor whether any new cases are filed. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Religious charter schools not dead after high court tie: Official
(NewsNation) — An Oklahoma state official vowed Thursday to revive plans for a publicly assisted religious charter school after the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked on the issue. With their 4-4 tie vote and Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing, the federal justices upheld an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision barring state support for a Catholic online charter school that would include teaching of religious doctrine. The Oklahoma attorney general had sued to stop the plan, while Ryan Walters, the state's superintendent of public instruction, supported the charter as a way to offer parents more choices. Divided Supreme Court rejects public religious charter school in Oklahoma 'I think it would be a tremendous school. We're going to continue to look at every avenue to get this case back to the Supreme Court,' Walters told 'The Hill' on Thursday. 'We could be looking at a constitutional amendment in our state to help our state bolster its argument moving forward.' Thursday's decision sets no national precedent — meaning, observers say, the question of whether states can sponsor and finance religious schools is unsettled. Charter schools, which are independently run and publicly assisted, are allowed in most states. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
