Oklahoma’s top education official is moving forward with a controversial new academic policy that would insert former President Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election directly into public school classrooms.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters announced Thursday that new social studies standards will require students to study what he describes as “discrepancies” in the 2020 presidential election—allegations that have been widely debunked and rejected by courts, election officials, and Trump’s own former attorney general.
The new standards, set to take effect in the coming school year, include specific guidance instructing students to examine charts and data to explore supposed irregularities in the vote. Among the listed topics are the halting of ballot counting in certain cities, concerns over mail-in voting security, “batch dumps” of ballots, a “record number of voters,” and so-called contradictions in bellwether county outcomes.
All of these claims are part of a broader narrative that Trump and his allies have pushed since losing the election to Joe Biden, despite failing to provide credible evidence and losing dozens of court cases challenging the results.
This development follows the Oklahoma Senate’s decision earlier this week not to take action on a resolution that would have rejected the inclusion of election denial content in the curriculum. Walters personally lobbied against the resolution. His opposition was backed by the far-right group Moms for Liberty, which issued a public warning that any Republican lawmaker supporting the resolution would face political consequences.
Critics say the policy is a blatant attempt to inject partisan misinformation into public education under the guise of patriotism. Statehouse Democrats argue it’s an extreme abuse of power that will not only mislead children but also cost taxpayers more in legal challenges and curriculum revisions.
“We had an opportunity to check Superintendent Ryan Walters’ power, and our Republican colleagues would not step up to put our kids first,” said Senate Democratic Minority Leader Julia Kirt.
Further complicating the issue are growing accusations from within the state’s own education system that Walters altered the standards behind closed doors without informing board members or the public. A resolution introduced earlier this year raised concerns about the lack of transparency in the process, noting that significant changes were made without proper oversight.
Board member Michael Tinney, newly appointed to the Oklahoma State Board of Education, told reporters that there were major discrepancies between the version of the standards he had downloaded from the Department of Education website and the version Walters later distributed. One of the key additions found in the updated version was the controversial section about the 2020 election.
Another board member, Chris VanDenhende, directly asked Walters during an April 24 board meeting to produce documents showing what had changed and when. Walters refused, dismissing the request as “completely irrelevant.” Despite growing pressure, Walters has continued to assert that he alone has the authority to decide what content is placed on board meeting agendas, giving him control over what can or cannot be publicly debated.
His unilateral approach has left other board members with little recourse, even as they question the legality and ethics of how the standards were implemented. During the April meeting, board members pushed back against Walters’ insistence that the standards had to be approved months earlier, when in fact they could have been submitted to the legislature for consideration this week.
Despite these objections, Walters declared victory on social media after the Oklahoma Senate declined to act. “Today is a major victory for Oklahoma families and for the truth,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “After months of Democrats and the teachers unions lying and attacking, the most unapologetically conservative, pro-America social studies standards in the nation are moving forward.”
He added that the new standards would teach “factual history,” including what he called “the realities of the 2020 election, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the threat posed by Communist China.”
The phrase “factual history” has drawn sharp criticism from historians and education advocates who say that Walters is promoting a distorted version of events that reflects the political views of the far-right rather than evidence-based learning.
They argue that the standards are rooted in Trump’s false narrative of a stolen election, and that Oklahoma is now poised to become the first state to formally require teachers to discuss discredited conspiracy theories in the classroom.
Moms for Liberty, which describes itself as a grassroots parental rights organization but is widely viewed as a right-wing political group, praised the standards in a public letter, calling them “truth-filled, anti-woke, and unapologetically conservative.” The group insisted that the process for adopting the standards had been consistent and legal, despite widespread criticism of how the changes were introduced.
“This is not about flawed standards; it is about political interference and media manipulation,” the letter said, defending Walters’ role in shaping the curriculum. The group has increasingly taken on a prominent role in Republican education policy across the country, campaigning for restrictions on how schools teach about race, gender, and now, elections.
The backlash against Oklahoma’s new standards is building beyond the state’s borders, with national civil rights organizations warning that embedding election denialism into public education risks undermining civic literacy and trust in democratic institutions.
Many worry that Oklahoma’s move could embolden other Republican-led states to follow suit, turning public schools into ideological battlegrounds rather than spaces for critical thinking and historical accuracy.
The new curriculum is already drawing comparisons to similar efforts in states like Florida and Texas, where GOP officials have pushed to reshape how schools teach history and civics in line with conservative talking points. In Florida, for example, new standards controversially claimed that enslaved people “benefited” from learning trades during slavery.
Oklahoma’s new standards now join that trend, raising fears that students will be taught misinformation in the name of political loyalty.
Walters has insisted that his goal is to combat what he calls “liberal indoctrination” in schools and return classrooms to “pro-America education.” But opponents say his real aim is to use public education as a tool for partisan propaganda. They argue that Walters is more concerned with scoring political points and appeasing extremist allies than ensuring students learn accurate, evidence-based content.
The tension over Oklahoma’s education policy reflects broader national battles over how American history and current events are taught in schools. With public trust in institutions already strained, injecting conspiracy theories into the classroom may only deepen divides and distort students’ understanding of the democratic process.
As the standards go into effect, educators across Oklahoma are grappling with how to implement them while staying true to professional ethics and factual history. Some teachers have privately expressed concern that the requirements put them in an impossible position, forcing them to present discredited claims as legitimate topics of study. Others worry that the politicization of their curriculum will lead to further censorship and professional retaliation.
It remains to be seen whether legal challenges will emerge to stop the implementation of the standards or whether other state officials will intervene. For now, the standards stand as a stark example of how Trump’s election lies continue to ripple through American institutions—this time through the lesson plans of public school students in Oklahoma.
