Oklahoma is making waves in the education sector with its new mandate for public high school history teachers to include a controversial and widely debunked conspiracy theory. According to the revised curriculum, students will be required to learn about the unsubstantiated claim that the Democratic Party stole the 2020 presidential election from former President Donald Trump.

The Republican-majority state has decided that high schoolers must not only study the results of the 2020 election but also examine alleged issues such as mail-in voter fraud, a supposed unprecedented number of voters, and the “security risks” linked to mail-in ballots. The new guidelines promote the false narrative that these factors contributed to the election being “stolen.”
This initiative is part of a broader series of controversial changes pushed by Ryan Walters, the state’s Republican Superintendent of Education. Walters, a former history teacher, believes that his reforms, including the requirement for Bibles in every classroom, will purge “liberal indoctrination” from Oklahoma schools. In addition to pushing these ideas, the new curriculum removes earlier proposals on topics like George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter movement, while presenting as fact the still-debated theory that COVID-19 originated from a lab leak.
“These reforms will reset our classrooms back to educating our children without liberal indoctrination,” Walters wrote on social media in April, emphasizing his belief that the new curriculum will protect “pro-America” education. The curriculum overhaul was developed by a review committee led by conservative figures such as Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, and Dennis Prager, a conservative radio host.
The changes, however, have sparked fierce opposition. Parents, teachers, and even members of the GOP have voiced concerns, arguing that the new standards present historically inaccurate content that doesn’t align with evidence-based education. Heather Goodenough, president of the Council for Social Studies, expressed disappointment in a public statement, criticizing the revisions for being inconsistent with quality social studies instruction.
What does this new curriculum entail?
Starting in the 2025-2026 school year, Oklahoma’s history standards will require students to analyze perceived discrepancies in the 2020 election results. The curriculum encourages students to study claims such as the halting of ballot counting in certain battleground states, sudden “batch dumps” of votes, and the supposed contradiction in voting trends in so-called “bellwether counties.”
Why is this controversial?
The allegations that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, often referred to as the “Big Lie,” have been thoroughly debunked. President Joe Biden won the election with 306 electoral votes and a seven million-vote margin in the popular vote. Multiple recounts, court cases, and forensic audits have found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed that the 2020 election was the most secure in U.S. history, stating there was no evidence of compromised voting systems.

Despite these findings, Trump continued to make baseless claims of fraud, contributing to the January 6 Capitol insurrection. His claims have been rejected by numerous Republican legal experts, but have nonetheless gained widespread acceptance among his supporters. A 2023 survey found that about one-third of Americans, particularly Republicans, still believed the election was stolen.
What are people saying about it?
Some conservatives, such as Sarah Parshall Perry from the Defending Education nonprofit, support the new standards, applauding Walters for encouraging critical thinking. Perry emphasized that teaching students to scrutinize election results can empower them to think critically about political events.
However, not all Republicans support the change. Mike Hunter, a former attorney general for Oklahoma, filed a lawsuit against Walters and the State Department of Education, arguing that the new curriculum violates protocol and doesn’t align with national educational standards. The lawsuit claims the revisions harm students by introducing content that is incompatible with modern educational best practices, and it asserts that the new curriculum places an undue burden on teachers who must teach content not aligned with their current knowledge or textbooks.
State Democrats have also opposed the new curriculum, with Cyndi Munson, the Democratic House Minority Leader, criticizing Walters for focusing on political agendas rather than improving education. Munson has called on lawmakers to reject the new standards, arguing that they prioritize partisan interests over the academic needs of students.
Oklahoma’s political climate
Oklahoma remains a deeply conservative state, with 51.7% of voters registered as Republicans and only 28.4% as Democrats. Trump won approximately 66% of the state’s vote in the 2024 election. The Republican Party dominates the state legislature, and Governor Kevin Stitt, who appointed Walters to his position in 2020, has supported many of his controversial education policies.
In addition to the new social studies standards, Walters has proposed a variety of conservative reforms, such as mandatory Bible lessons and the creation of religious charter schools, which have raised concerns about the separation of church and state. This year, Walters has also called for stricter immigration enforcement in public schools, including requiring proof of citizenship for enrollment.
The debate over Oklahoma’s education standards is far from over, and it seems set to continue stirring controversy as the new curriculum prepares to take effect.