Oklahoma State Department of Education Social Studies standards: House & Senate Dems weigh in

Oklahoma House and Senate Democrats held a press conference Monday to discuss the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s revised social studies standards.

Legislative leaders, including House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson and Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, along with Rep. Melissa Provenzano (D-Tulsa) and Sen. Carri Hicks (D-Oklahoma City) were present.

Related Coverage: Oklahoma social studies standards call for review of 2020 election

1. "We've never seen the level of politics injected into public education than we've seen in the last two years."
2. In the opening remarks, the idea of "slowing down" the process of standards was mentioned several times.

Q: What are the standards that you object to?

A: Rep. Provenzano: "I think ultimately our focus today is on the process, that the school board has asked for more time to review. That the public is asking to allow more time for public comments [...] that is what we want to focus on. Getting into the 'nitty-gritty' details is not where we want to live."

Rep. Provenzano: "If we want to go there, we can talk about the 1st and 2nd grade standards that are age developmentally inappropriate. There are concerns that the curriculum that is available to deliver these standards is far too narrow [...].

Sen. Carri Hicks: "From the Senate perspective, we have the confirmation of the folks that get to serve on the Standards Review Committee. The Senate confirmed 75 folks to review and spend over a year drafting those standards. And what happened, is that all that hard work got cast aside as the State Superintendent brought in his Executive Review Commitee -- which is national groups, I guess three out of ten of those folks have ever lived in Oklahoma-- So it begs the question, 'Do these people have the people of Oklahoma's best interest at mind?"

Q: Is there anything in there that sticks out to you, as a former teacher? Is it the language used involving the 2020 election or references to the Bible?

A: Hicks: "Looking at the high level, [politics is being injected in even reviewing these standards]. We want to be sure that Oklahomans are at the table when these decisions are being made."

Q: Are any Republicans in the state House or Senate on the same page about this?

A: Hicks: "We haven't seen action, and that's our concern. We don't exactly know when the deadline is because it's 30 legislative days from when it is received by the legislature. We still need to figure out when they arrived or when that deadline will be [...] I hope that the Senate Republicans will take action, but having not seen anything yet, we felt like it was time to go."

Q: What would have to happen for the resolutions to be approved?

A: Kirt: "These would function like any other bill. So either the Senate joint resolution or the House joint resolution would have to make it through the process. That's the only way to reject. Otherwise, it goes straight to the governor, and it's entirely the governor's choice. In the past [...] our inaction has led things to move forward that shouldn't have. That's the big worry, is we have to agree for something to go through. And it has to be the same on both sides."

Q: Some people said that there were close to 100 changes made in the revisions. Do you know what those were?

A: Kirt: "That's a deep concern. Something like that, that's potentially an open meetings violation, isn't something that we have the authority to deal with [...] there's very few direct authority lines that we have as legislators to reign in Ryan Walters, and this is one of them, that we need to take."