{"id":36734,"date":"2025-03-22T14:34:01","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T14:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/22\/red-state-leader-defends-decision-to-include-2020-election-discrepancies-in-high-school-curriculum\/"},"modified":"2025-03-22T14:34:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T14:34:01","slug":"red-state-leader-defends-decision-to-include-2020-election-discrepancies-in-high-school-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/22\/red-state-leader-defends-decision-to-include-2020-election-discrepancies-in-high-school-curriculum\/","title":{"rendered":"Red state leader defends decision to include 2020 election &#8216;discrepancies&#8217; in high school curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Facing criticism from the media and even from his state\u2019s governor, the head of Oklahoma\u2019s education system is defending a recently approved high school history curriculum that teaches about irregularities and &#8220;discrepancies&#8221; in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/elections\/2020\/general-results\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2020 election<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with Fox News Digital, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/southwest\/oklahoma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oklahoma<\/a> Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, a Republican, said that the state is &#8220;in the middle of a dramatic turnaround&#8221; in education, made possible by President Donald Trump\u2019s dismantling of the federal Department of Education.<\/p>\n<p>According to Walters, the changes are being spurred on by Oklahoma parents and grandparents, who he says are demanding the state &#8220;get back to the basics&#8221; of education and eliminate any left-wing or legacy media-driven narratives in school curricula.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We want these parameters around our standards so that we know our kids are going to be taught facts, not have a left-wing agenda pushed on them,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I think that that&#8217;s going to continue to be what parents and grandparents here demand. So, I think that we need to be listening to them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/education-leaders-say-trump-dismantling-key-government-agency-saved-education\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>EDUCATION LEADERS SAY TRUMP DISMANTLING KEY GOVERNMENT AGENCY &#8216;SAVED EDUCATION&#8217;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the most controversial change among the state\u2019s educational reforms is a recently approved set of Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies document that instructs high school teachers to instruct students to &#8220;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 \u2018bellwether county\u2019 trends.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The change has been widely lambasted by the media and by some leaders in the state.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/14\/us\/oklahoma-2020-election-history-standards.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New York Times<\/a> reported state Rep. John Waldron, who is vice-chair of the Oklahoma House <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/democratic-party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Democratic caucus<\/a>, slammed Walters, saying the &#8220;superintendent campaigned to end indoctrination in our schools, but what he is doing instead with these new standards is promoting his own brand of indoctrination.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a representative for Oklahoma Republican Gov. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/person\/s\/j-kevin-stitt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kevin Stitt<\/a> told Fox News Digital that the change is &#8220;just another distraction from making sure kids can read.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/exclusive-red-state-suing-school-district-illegally-teaching-critical-race-theory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>EXCLUSIVE: RED STATE SUING SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR ILLEGALLY TEACHING CRITICAL RACE THEORY<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Walters, however, is refusing to budge. He claimed that by including discussion about the 2020 election, the state is not pushing a particular viewpoint but rather encouraging students to be &#8220;critical thinkers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The left doesn&#8217;t want kids to look at the numbers, look at the data and ask questions about the election. Look, we&#8217;ve never had an election like 2020. I mean, literally all of the processes were changed leading up to it. Our kids need to do a deep dive in that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;re going to make sure when our kids study history, they&#8217;re looking at numbers, are looking at data, they&#8217;re looking at what the historical records show us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Walters believes this is a &#8220;crucial step in ensuring when teachers talk about the 2020 election, [they tell students to] look at the numbers, look at the data.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Let students do that deep dive. I think it makes them better students. I think it makes them more well-rounded people,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I also think it teaches them to think for themselves when you move into the future. Hey, don&#8217;t take anybody&#8217;s word for it. Do your own research. Do your own study. I think that&#8217;s a really important message that we&#8217;ve got to get across to our kids.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/opinion\/linda-mcmahon-my-vision-eliminating-department-education\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>LINDA MCMAHON: MY VISION FOR ELIMINATING THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Though already approved by the state Board of Education, the standards still need approval from the legislature or governor.<\/p>\n<p>While he said he is &#8220;optimistic&#8221; the legislature will approve the curriculum, Walters took aim at Stitt, accusing him of being a &#8220;never Trumper.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s really unfortunate,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If the governor wants to come out and force students and tell them that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and that he doesn&#8217;t want them to look at facts or think about it, that&#8217;s way out of step with Oklahomans.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/scoop-house-republican-moves-codify-trump-order-dismantle-department-education\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>SCOOP: HOUSE REPUBLICAN MOVES TO CODIFY TRUMP ORDER TO DISMANTLE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In response, Abegail Cave, a representative for Stitt, said the governor was more concerned about declining test scores in the state. She accused Walters and some members of the education board of being &#8220;more focused on making headlines and political wins than they were actually making sure Oklahoma kids could read.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cave called the idea that Stitt is a never Trumper &#8220;ridiculous.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He voted for Donald Trump and he&#8217;s not a never Trumper. That&#8217;s again Ryan Walters trying to spin the narrative and muddy the waters for no reason,&#8221; she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cave pointed out Stitt\u2019s recent public appearances praising Trump\u2019s actions against the federal Department of Education, saying &#8220;the\u00a0governor is a firm believer that we should leave education to the states.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Facing criticism from the media and even from his state\u2019s governor, the head of Oklahoma\u2019s education system is defending a recently approved high school history curriculum that teaches about irregularities and &#8220;discrepancies&#8221; in the 2020 election. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, a Republican, said that the &#8230; <a title=\"Red state leader defends decision to include 2020 election &#8216;discrepancies&#8217; in high school curriculum\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/22\/red-state-leader-defends-decision-to-include-2020-election-discrepancies-in-high-school-curriculum\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Red state leader defends decision to include 2020 election &#8216;discrepancies&#8217; in high school curriculum\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}