• The Oklahoma Senate likely won't reject controversial social studies standards containing election-denial language.
• The standards were approved by the Oklahoma State Board of Education, but new board members allege Superintendent Ryan Walters used deceptive tactics.
• Gov. Kevin Stitt and some board members want the standards reconsidered, but the Senate GOP caucus appears to support Walters.
• Democrats protested the standards, but Republican leadership did not act on a resolution to reject them.

The Oklahoma Senate appeared poised to not act on a resolution that would reject controversial social studies standards infused with election-denial language, a move that could effectively allow the standards to soon take effect.

Senate Joint Resolution 20, authored by that body’s Education Committee chair, Sen. Adam Pugh, was not listed among 41 bills and resolutions to be taken up April 29 by the Senate. Despite protests from Democrats – which included stalling tactics in the Senate chamber on other bills – Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, appeared unswayed.

Pugh, R-Edmond spent a good portion of the morning session in Paxton’s office, periodically popping onto the Senate floor to cast votes on other bills.

Alex Gerszewski, Paxton’s communications director, indicated in a statement that the resolution did not have enough Republican support to move forward.

“Following a lengthy conversation Monday, the caucus was not on board with rejecting the standards based on the process in which they were presented to the board of education," Gerszewski said. "The standards are not a legislative obligation, and the curriculum is developed by the State Department of Education.”

More: Walters' office slips 2020 presidential election dispute into Oklahoma social studies standards

In letter, Moms for Liberty threatened to challenge GOP lawmakers who voted to reject social studies standards

The lack of action followed lobbying by state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters and a letter from far-right political lobbying group Moms For Liberty, which threatened to challenge any GOP legislator who voted for Pugh’s resolution.

Pugh had filed SJR 20 on April 24, as questions persisted about the process through which the resolutions were approved by the Oklahoma State Board of Education.

Three new board members have said state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters deceived them, both in making last-minute additions to the standards without notifying them or the public and by telling them the standards had to be approved during a late February meeting, when in reality they could have been presented to the Legislature for approval as late as this week.

Pugh’s resolution notes "questions exist regarding the transparency of the subject matter standard adoption process.”

New board member Michael Tinney told The Oklahoman earlier in April that he’d compared the standards he’d downloaded from the Oklahoma State Department of Education website to what Walters sent him and there were definite differences.

Social studies standards require high school students to examine 2020 election 'discrepancies'

Among the changes, the new version of one section of the standards says high school students should “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.”

Chris Van Denhende, another new Education Board member, asked Walters during an April 24 board meeting to produce “change documents,” showing the changes he’d made to the final version of the standards. Walters scoffed at that suggestion. “That’s completely irrelevant,” he said.

More: Gov. Stitt adds another new member to Ryan Walters-led education board

Gov. Kevin Stitt said April 23 that the Legislature should send the standards back to the state board for reconsideration, echoing the calls of two of the new board members, whom Stitt appointed in early February. A message left with two of his spokespeople on April 29 wasn’t immediately returned.

Walters said during the April 24 meeting that what went into the standards was his decision alone to make, with the new board members pushing back, but unable to stop him because Walters has sole authority to determine items that appear on the board’s meeting agendas.

Walters spoke to the 39-member Senate GOP caucus on April 28, lobbying them to not vote to reject the standards. It appears the majority of those senators believed Walters was telling the truth about the standards moreso than the three board members or Stitt.

A spokeswoman for Walters didn’t immediately return a request for comment on April 29 after the Senate had not acted on the standards.

Moms For Liberty opposed the push to reject the standards in an April 28 letter, posted on X. The letter called the standards “truth-filled, anti-woke, and unapologetically conservative.”

“This is not about flawed standards; it is about political interference and media manipulation,” the letter read. “Oklahoma’s adoption process for academic standards has been consistent, legal, and transparent.”

In the Senate chamber, as they did last week, Democrats protested the inaction by taking turns asking multiple questions, extending debate and asking for procedural votes on many bills. It took the Senate 50 minutes to approve the first item on its April 29 agenda – House Bill 1017, a bill that would establish a commission to explore the creation of a new NCAA Division II athletic conference – a process that required three separate votes. During more than 2½ hours of the morning session, the Senate approved only three bills and had started discussing a fourth.

But the stalling didn’t change Paxton’s mind. Constitutionally mandated legislative deadlines meant the Senate had to take action on April 29 to allow time for the House to do so by May 1, the deadline for the Legislature to formally approve or reject the standards. If the Legislature does not vote on them, the standards are deemed to be approved.

Democrats had, earlier in April, also filed resolutions in both the Senate and House to reject the standards.

“The Senate had an opportunity to check Superintendent Ryan Walters’ power, and our Republican colleagues would not step up to put our kids first,” said Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City. “Parents, teachers and bipartisan community members throughout Oklahoma have reached out to us, calling on the Senate to reject teaching children these politically divisive, inaccurate, and age-inappropriate topics. Senate Democrats will continue to stand with Oklahomans and put people over politics.”

Kirt’s counterpart in the House, state Rep. Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City, echoed Kirt’s comments, saying that because Republicans took no action, “the voices of Oklahomans—across the state and party lines—who have been urging us to disapprove these problematic, and costly, social studies standards have gone unheard.

“These standards insert an extremist political agenda into our public education system that will only cost Oklahomans more taxpayer money. It is clear that the political pressure put forth by the state superintendent on House and Senate leaders matters more than the needs and desires of Oklahoma educators, parents, and students. I am disappointed in the lack of action and deeply concerned for the future of public education for our teachers and students.”

Erika Buzzard Wright, the director of the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition, a grassroots lobbying group, expressed “deep disappointment in the Senate’s refusal” to reject Walters’ standards.

“These standards, as written, do not reflect the input of educators, historians, and community members across Oklahoma who have raised serious concerns about their content and development process,” Wright said. “At a time when our children’s education should be the highest priority, the Senate’s inaction demonstrates a troubling lack of political courage. Rather than standing up for what is right for Oklahoma students, lawmakers chose expediency over transparency, ignoring the call for an open and honest process rooted in public accountability.”