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State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters announced Tuesday what he called a complete overhaul of Oklahoma’s social studies standards for students. In a news release, Walters, a Republican, said he wanted to empower schools to “teach from primary sources,” , and that his new standards would “inspire in students a love of country and a proper understanding of the American founding.” The new standards, Walters said, would be developed by a new "Executive Review Committee" to ensure “that social studies reflect accuracy and not political slanted viewpoints.

”He said members of that committee would include the co-founder of the , a representative from the conservative American Enterprise Institute and the president of another conservative group, the Heritage Foundation. No Oklahoma public-school teacher or administrator was listed as being on the committee. Democrats in the Oklahoma House of Representatives immediately pounced on Walters' proposal.



“The latest atrocity from OSDE is an affront to the Oklahoma educators who have always developed and refined our social studies standards,” said Rep. John Waldron, of Tulsa, who serves on the House Education Committee. “This ‘carpetbagger curriculum’ would be made up from whole cloth by a panel of out-of-state so-called experts, and would represent a dangerous politicization of our academic process.

Simply put, this is un-American and un-Oklahoman.” Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, of Norman, a former educator, said Walt.

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