Oklahoma is ranked 48th out of 51 states for the quality of its public schools. This means that, along with New Mexico, Alabama, and Arizona, it’s one of the worst states to send your child to school in. But new Trump-era education guidance may mean it’ll sink yet further, as its unfortunate kids are about to spend four years being taught absolute nonsense.
Oklahoma Education Commissar Ryan Walters – a die-hard MAGA devotee – has just announced the academic standards for the coming year. He was assisted in concocting these by the far-right group The Heritage Foundation and, if you wanted a program to force kids to become obedient little Trumpy robots, this social studies program does the job!
As per module USH 9.3 “Analyze the significant events during the first Donald J. Trump istration”, kids will be taught to “Identify the source of the COVID-19 pandemic from a Chinese lab”, “explain the effects of the Trump tax cuts”, and praise Trump’s “successful avoidance of new wars”.
But the real cherry on top is the requirement that all Oklahoma public school students: “Identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, 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.”
This has been succinctly described as “truly unhinged, North Korean-style nonsense”. It’s hard to imagine better phrasing. Even in our worst nightmares, we didn’t think Trump’s ludicrous and repeatedly disproved lies about election interference in 2020 would actually make it onto a state curriculum and be taught to kids as fact.
Incidentally, horrified of the Oklahoma Senate tried to put forward a resolution to reject this curriculum, but failed:
Good morning, early birds! The Senate did not take up a resolution Tuesday to reject the social studies standards approved by the State Board of Education. That means they will take effect.
— Shawn Ashley (@QuorumCallShawn) April 30, 2025
Oklahoma kids are the victims here, but spare a thought for the teachers now legally required to vomit Trump’s lies into the mouths of their students, likely with severe professional repercussions if they dare to present them in a critical light. So, what’s next for Oklahoma kids: maybe modules on “Why the Jan. 6 rioters are heroes”, “How is Donald Trump so right about everything all the time?” or “Why everything bad is always the Democrats fault?”.
Published: May 2, 2025 05:58 am