Oklahoma Set to Teach Trump’s Election Lies in Public Schools as Parents and Teachers Push Back
Starting this fall, Oklahoma high school students will be expected to study so-called “discrepancies” from the 2020 presidential election — essentially conspiracy theories about a stolen election that have been thoroughly discredited by courts and President Donald Trump’s own Department of Justice.
Under new social studies standards, approved by the Oklahoma State Board of Education in February, teachers will be directed to present these election falsehoods as topics for legitimate debate.
“I am concerned about these election standards, not for my classroom, but for the teachers who will feel pressured to teach them,” Aaron Baker, an Oklahoma City public school teacher, told Democracy Docket. “And teachers already keen on questioning the 2020 election, are now given carte blanche to just move forward with that teaching.”
The standards instruct students to examine “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.”
These claims, drawn directly from Trump’s post-election rhetoric, have been repeatedly disproven. But despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Trump has not let the narrative die.
In recent weeks, he has reignited unsubstantiated claims about the 2020 election and called for a special prosecutor to investigate them.
“The 2020 election was a total fraud. The evidence is massive and overwhelming,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “A special prosecutor must be appointed.”
In Oklahoma, that false narrative is now curriculum — and the man behind it is Trump-aligned State Superintendent Ryan Walters, who has made fighting “woke indoctrination” his brand.
“Our standards are designed to teach students how to investigate and calculate the specific details surrounding that (or any) election,” Walters said in a statement after the standards were approved. “In order to oppose or support the outcome, a well rounded student should be able to make their own conclusions.”
While Walters led the charge to rewrite the state’s social studies standards, which also include expectations to teach the Bible as a primary source and COVID-19 origin conspiracies, he did not act alone.
Walters has relied on an Executive Review Committee stacked with figures from the national far-right education movement, including Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation, a key architect of Project 2025, Dennis Prager of PragerU and David Barton of Wallbuilders, a Christian nationalist organization that rejects the separation of church and state.
It’s not just Oklahoma where these groups have been influential. They have played an increasingly influential role in reshaping how civics is taught across the country, endorsing what they call “patriotic education.”
Still, even with these state-endorsed standards, public school teachers retain some discretion in their classrooms. The standards guide what should be covered, but not necessarily how and to what extent.
That flexibility may protect some classrooms — especially in urban districts — from the most extreme interpretations. But in areas where election denialism already holds sway, the new standards may accelerate its spread, deepening existing political divides in education.
“People shouldn’t worry about my classroom. They need to worry about the suburbs and rural Oklahoma,” Baker added. “We’re going to see more families choosing their schools not based on geography or housing, but for political reasons.”
The legal challenge to these standards was swift.
In March, a coalition of parents, teachers and school board members filed a lawsuit challenging the standards, arguing they were adopted through a misleading and illegal process.
The lawsuit accused Superintendent Walters and the state board of violating the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act and the due process clause of the state constitution.
Plaintiffs pointed out that the final version of the standards was emailed to board members just hours before the vote, with no redline or summary of changes provided.
“The Board approved a version of the standards that was neither publicly posted nor reviewed by the public during the required public comment process,” the complaint states. “Defendants presented the final version to the Board members mere hours before the vote.”
Board members have confirmed they were unaware of the last-minute additions that included the election denial language in the standards.
Even with those concerns, a judge dismissed the case, ruling that curriculum approval falls under the discretionary authority of the state board and is ultimately a political matter beyond judicial review.
The ruling cleared the way for the standards to take effect this fall, leaving some teachers pressured to present election conspiracy theories, and others newly emboldened to teach them.
Despite the lawsuit’s failure, resistance to the standards hasn’t stopped. Now, Oklahoma parents are turning to a different legal tool — the Parent Bill of Rights, a 2014 law championed by conservatives to give families more control over their children’s education.
Erica Watkins, founder and director of the grassroots organization We’re Oklahoma Education (WOKE), has been leading efforts to help families formally opt out of the new standards. Her group has created a streamlined form that invokes the Parent Bill of Rights, allowing parents to excuse their children from lessons that conflict with personal, religious or cultural beliefs.
“We want to make the opt-out process simple and accessible,” Watkins told Democracy Docket. “We champion parents’ rights. Ryan Walters only talks about parents’ rights when they agree with him.”
WOKE is already seeing interest statewide. If the opt-outs become widespread, it could create major logistical problems for school districts, raising questions about how to provide alternative instruction, and whether teachers will be forced to navigate divided classrooms.
“What happens when enough kids in one class can’t participate in the main lesson?,” Watkins remarked. “This isn’t just political. It’s a practical problem.”
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that parents are entitled to opt their children out of certain public school materials on religious grounds. The ruling was explicitly grounded on the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment but the Court emphasized that parents have a constitutional right to guide their children’s moral and religious development.
Watkins said the ruling would likely not impact opt-out efforts as Oklahoma already has a solid opt-out infrastructure.
“Oklahoma basically just had an expanded version of what SCOTUS decided,” Watkins said.