Oklahoma public schools are implementing new curriculum standards, which include changes to how schools teach students about the 2020 election. The new high school social studies curriculum consists of a standard that requires students to “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.” The curriculum previously asked students to examine issues connected to the 2020 election.
This curriculum, per Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent, is intended as a rebuttal against “left-wing, elitist” education bureaucrats who are “radicalizing” K-12 students. Walters also suggested removing topics centered around the Black Lives Matter movement, including George Floyd’s murder, while advocating for Trump-endorsed Bibles to be taught in classrooms and for the establishment of a new religious charter school in Oklahoma.
This change in education policy is not unique to Oklahoma. In Louisiana, HB71 bill requires all public schools to display the Ten Commandments while including a context statement that describes the historical significance of the Commandments within public educational settings. HB71 indicates a regression of the core American principle of separating church and state, and a reassertion of Christian values within public school settings.
These new standards are reflective of a broader national shift in education policy. President Donald Trump’s executive order on January 29, 2025, aimed to end the indoctrination of American children “in radical, anti-American ideologies…innocent children are compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color and other immutable characteristics. In other instances, young men and women are made to question whether they were born in the wrong body and whether to view their parents and their reality as enemies to be blamed.”
This executive order invokes emotional language to frame educators as manipulators who are attempting to brainwash American children. It also politicizes anti-racism and gender inclusivity in the classroom. The Trump administration’s attempts to politicize education are manufacturing neutral settings, such as public schools and figures like young children, into sites for culture wars between the political left and right. The administration is undermining educational autonomy to further their agenda of narrowing social discourse, even in school environments, where discourse is meant to occur.
However, this shift in Oklahoma’s curriculum is not without backlash. A group of parents, grandparents, and educators, represented by Oklahoma’s former Attorney General Mike Hunter, have sued the Oklahoma State Board of Education for their failure to provide adequate notice of the curriculum changes and the opportunity for the public to challenge the curriculum. Half of the Oklahoma State Board of Education said they were not made aware of the changes between the draft version (December 2024) and the final version of the standards (May 2025).
Additionally, the Supreme Court struck down a bid for the religious charter school in Oklahoma. Although the court was split 4-4 on the ruling (Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself), its decision upheld an earlier ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which argued that the establishment of the school violated the Constitution and state law. The ruling from the nation’s highest court indicates a rejection of the increasing relationship between church and state in the country and the Trump administration’s growing intervention in state and local policy.
These incidents are not scattered changes within the discourse and policies surrounding American public schools. They are part of a coordinated strategy by the current administration and its allies to censor and change the education narrative. Far-right lawmakers are attempting to minimize students’ critical thinking and shape their views into ones that align with conspiracy theories. Educated youth are viewed as a threat to unchecked authority and the status quo, so, unsurprisingly, the new policy changes are attempting to make children more docile and less resistant to ideological control.
