“Get Students to Think for Themselves”: Oklahoma Adopts New Curriculum Pushing 2020 Election Fraud Claims

The Oklahoma Board of Education has approved controversial new curriculum standards that promote false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election—claims that were widely pushed by former President Donald Trump and his allies but have been repeatedly disproven in court.

The new guidelines require students to be taught that the 2020 election was riddled with “discrepancies,” despite clear evidence and multiple legal rulings affirming the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s win. These lessons are not being taught as part of a course on conspiracy theories, but rather as part of Oklahoma’s official social studies curriculum, told The Independent.

The standards were developed under the direction of Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction and a staunch Trump supporter. Walters introduced the revisions shortly before the board voted earlier this month. In March, he defended the changes by saying they are intended to help “students to think for themselves” and “not be spoon-fed left-wing propaganda.”

One section of the updated curriculum instructs students to “analyze contemporary turning points of 21st-century American society,” including claims surrounding the 2020 election. It calls for examining topics such as the temporary halting of ballot counts in certain cities, mail-in voting security, “sudden batch dumps,” unexpectedly high voter turnout, and the failure of “bellwether counties” to predict the outcome.

According to Walters, these are “legitimate concerns” that were “raised by millions of Americans in 2020.” However, numerous courts, election officials, and independent audits have found no evidence of widespread voter fraud or any issues that could have affected the outcome of the election.

Despite this, the Oklahoma Board of Education voted 5–1 in favor of adopting the new standards. The lone dissenting vote came from board member Ryan Deatherage, who criticized Walters for rushing the process and not allowing time to fully evaluate the proposed changes.

In addition to the election fraud claims, the new curriculum also promotes other right-wing narratives, including the unverified theory that COVID-19 originated from a Chinese laboratory and an emphasis on Christian values throughout the material. These efforts reflect Walters’s broader Christian nationalist agenda, which includes a recent directive—now facing legal challenges—requiring Bibles to be displayed in every public school classroom.

Critics argue these curriculum changes erode educational integrity and promote misinformation under the guise of critical thinking.