Board clashes with Supt. Walters over social studies standards
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Thursday's Board of Education meeting was a back-and-forth between Superintendent Ryan Walters and three of the state school board members over the proposed social studies standards.
"There may have been some comments that weren't 100% accurate, but I wouldn't say that's new to the Department of Education," said Board Member Ryan Deatherage.
The proposed standards were posted online and included the ones submitted for public comment. But board members said that 12 hours before the February board meeting, changes were made.
It now directs teachers and students toward debunked theories of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and to Old Testament Bible stories and how they influenced American colonists. It was changed last minute, and the board members said they were not made aware.
The members called it a "bait-and-switch."
"That's simply not true. And so that is a lie. Now that has been pushed to the governor. It has been pushed out of the people of Oklahoma," said Supt. Walters to the board members on Thursday.
Walters also claimed that the changes were made based on public comment. News 4 got an open records request back for the public comments but none of them mentioned what was changed in the standards.
When asked about that, Supt. Walters said, "I stand by the decision we made, and I told the board members that it was up to me to make the final decision of what are we going to put in and what are we going to take out."
There were also several discrepancies with the minutes that were posted after the February board meeting. In the minutes, it said that member Deatherage was the one to make a motion to approve the social studies standards. That wasn't the case according to Deatherage.
Also, what wasn't in the minutes was the fact that Deatherage put it up to a vote to give the members more time to look over the standards. That vote failed to pass in February, but it wasn't listed in the minutes.
Deatherage asked to have that changed.
Also, the video from the broadcast for the February meeting was deleted almost a month ago.
News 4 reached out to the OSDE spokesperson, who said that Facebook is deleting broadcast videos after 30 days.
Walters continued to claim that what the governor said and what the board members said was a lie about the standards having two sets.
Ultimately, the minutes for both January and February were tabled by the board members to be discussed at a future board meeting.