(The hill) – Oklahoma State School Superintendent Ryan Walters announced Tuesday the creation of a committee of conservative activists tasked with rewriting social studies standards in his state.
“The new approach to social studies standards will ensure that social studies standards are chronologically sound, reinforced and repeated throughout a student’s elementary and secondary education, will empower schools to teach from primary sources, and will instill in students a love of country and a proper understanding of the American founding. It will also eliminate DEI and indoctrination and return Oklahoma education to basics,” Walters said in the letter.
The decision came after Walters declared that parts of the Bible needed to be taught in schools and emphasized in his memo that the Bible should be used as a teaching tool.
The committee also includes conservative activists such as Kevin Roberts, head of the Heritage Foundation, which led Project 2025, a conservative roadmap for a possible second Trump term.
This includes Dennis Prager, who founded PragerU, an educational group focused on teaching conservative principles. The conservative platform has made its way into Multiple stateswith videos like “Was the Civil War about slavery?” and “The inconvenient truth about the Democratic Party.”
“I am thrilled that we have attracted some of the brightest minds to our Executive Review Committee. Their unparalleled expertise will help develop new academic standards that will serve as a model for the nation and help Oklahoma students for years to come,” Walters said.
“More than 75 Oklahomans, the vast majority of them public school teachers, are involved in updating our academic standards.”
The members of the committee were sharply criticized by Democrats in the Oklahoma House of Representatives as “extremists”.
“His Executive Review Committee is made up of extremist Republicans who want to strip Oklahomans of their right to religious freedom and comprehensive public education,” said House Democratic Leader Cyndi Munson.
