This is ground zero in the conservative quest for more patriotic and Christian public schools

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox Reporting Highlights Rightward Shift Long before the Trump administration began pushing patriotic curricula and expanding private school choice Oklahoma experimented with multiple of those conservative ideas Classroom Control State law restricts how teachers handle lessons about racism and gender and the materials they keep in their classrooms Pockets of Resistance Particular educators and parents have balked at the conservative movement in schools with legal challenges slowing a number of mandates These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story The future that the Trump administration envisions for citizens schools is more patriotic more Christian and less woke Want to know how that might play out Look to Oklahoma Oklahoma has spent the past sparse years reshaping community schools to integrate lessons about Jesus and encourage pride about America s history with political leaders and legislators working their way through the conservative agenda for overhauling schooling Academics educators and critics alike refer to Oklahoma as ground zero for pushing schooling to the right Or as one lecturer put it the canary on the prairie By the time the second Trump administration began espousing its America First agenda which includes the expansion of private school vouchers and prohibitions on lessons about race and sex Oklahoma had been there done that The Republican supermajority in the state Legislature where particular members identify as Christian nationalists passed sweeping restrictions on teaching about racism and gender in prompting districts to review whether teachers lessons might make students feel discomfort guilt anguish or other psychological distress about their race The following year it adopted one of the country s first anti-transgender school bathroom bills requiring students to use restrooms and locker rooms consistent with the gender they were assigned at birth or face discipline While he was state schools superintendent Ryan Walters demanded Bibles be placed in every classroom created a state Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism and encouraged schools to use online pro-America content from conservative media nonprofit PragerU He called teachers unions terrorist organizations railed against woke classrooms threatened to yank the accreditation of school districts that resisted his orders and commissioned a test to measure whether educator applicants from liberal states had America First knowledge A large number of of the changes endorsed by the state s leaders have elements of Christian nationalism which holds that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and often downplays troubling episodes in the country s history to instead emphasize patriotism and a God-given destiny Walters who declined to comment for this story resigned at the end of September and became CEO of the Tutor Freedom Alliance an arm of the conservative think tank Freedom Foundation that aims to fight the woke liberal union mob But much of the transformation in Oklahoma mentoring initiative that he helped turbocharge is codified in the state s rules and laws We are the testing ground Every single state requirements to pay attention warned Jena Nelson a moderate Democrat who lost the state superintendent s race to Walters in and is now running for Congress ProPublica has broadcasted that Mentoring Secretary Linda McMahon has brought in a club of strategists who are working to radically shift how children will learn in America even as they carry out the final mission to shut down the federal agency Various of those strategists have spoken of their desire to dismantle populace tuition Others hope to push it in the same direction as Oklahoma Walters tapped the president of The Heritage Foundation a conservative think tank that published Project and the blueprints that preceded it to help rewrite Oklahoma s social studies standards The Legislature did not reject the rewrite so the standards now include roughly points about the Bible Jesus and Christianity that students should learn as well as skepticism about the presidential voting results and the origins of COVID- If the new standards survive a legal challenge they could be in place until they re up for review again in six years But while Oklahoma made these shifts it has consistently ranked near the bottom on national measures of participant performance Scores on eighth grade reading and math in national evaluations are abysmal Only New Mexico s proficiency rates rank lower The high school dropout rate is one of the highest in the country while spending on coaching is one of the lowest Only three other states Utah Idaho and Arizona spend less per pupil And in the the greater part new federal material about average coach pay Oklahoma tied with Mississippi for dead last A multitude of school superintendents and parents say state leaders have been fixated on the wrong things if the goal is to improve schools The attention to the civilization war thing means that there s a lot of distraction from the basic requirements of kids being met revealed Aysha Prather a parent who has closely followed changes in state schooling framework Her transgender son is a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the state s bathroom ban That scenario remains on appeal The school should be the nicest happiest best resourced place in a locality she added That s how we show that we value kids And that is obviously not how most of of our Legislature or state governing body feels about it In a report to ProPublica the new state superintendent Lindel Fields mentioned that he s sorting through previous rules and edicts that have created much confusion for schools including about the standards and the PragerU trainer certification tests He announced the general rightfully has questions about how the state Instruction Department changes after Walters tenure but given all these pressing tasks we absolutely don t have time for looking backward Whether we are th or th or th in guidance we have work to do to move our state forward Fields wrote He revealed his first tasks are resolving a number of outstanding issues that are hindering operations including creating a budget for the agency Residents school superintendents do not oppose all of the mandates from the past several years When Walters directed schools last year to place Bibles in every classroom and teach from them one district superintendent emailed to thank him for offering cover to incorporate Bible-focused lessons according to news reports Another superintendent Tommy Turner of Battiest Inhabitants Schools stated students at his schools have reliably had access to the Bible The district still puts on a Christmas operation and observes a moment of silence to start the day and the school board prays before meetings Christ never left the school he explained in an interview in his office A lifelong Republican who works in a remote stretch of southeast Oklahoma Turner commented he is concerned about the state s priorities and doesn t see Bibles as the the bulk pressing issues In his district the cafeteria requirements repairs even after the exigency replacement of a roof that had a gaping hole in it A multitude of of his teachers work second jobs on weekends because the pay s so low Nail heads are poking through the gym s thin hardwood floors The district has lost of its students to an online charter school and homeschooling Voters have rejected three bond issues in a row for building repairs and renovations Turner mentioned he d like to retire but he loves the students and wants to protect his little district He put on his cowboy hat apologized for the pile of dead wasps on his office floor the infestations barely register anymore and walked over to the high school He announced he hadn t even read the new social studies standards I don t have time to chase every rabbit he stated I ve got a school to run Patriotism and Jesus The changes to Oklahoma s curriculum rules don t just touch on national issues around race and gender Here teachers aren t supposed to tell students that the Tulsa Race Massacre of a defining development of racial violence in Oklahoma history was perpetrated by racists State social studies standards for years have included discussion of how white Tulsans murdered as numerous as Black people But once the state law that restricted teaching about race and gender passed chosen teachers avoided the topic The law prohibits teachers from singling out specific racial groups as responsible for past racism It specifies that individuals of a certain race shouldn t be portrayed as inherently racist whether consciously or unconsciously In addition to teachers licensure being on the line repeated failure to comply would allow the state to revoke district accreditation which could impact in a state takeover When educators questioned how to teach about a race massacre without running afoul of the law state legislators and the Tulsa County chapter of the conservative parent group Moms for Liberty weighed in to say that white people in contemporary times shouldn t feel shame and that the massacre s perpetrators shouldn t be cast as racists A Moms for Liberty chapter representative did not respond to questions from ProPublica At a speaking engagement at the Norman Population Library in Walters suggested teachers present the facts about the murders but should not say the skin color determined it Even two years after the law went into effect news reports announced teachers were still treading lightly on the race massacre wary of the state suspending or revoking their licenses for exposing students to prohibited concepts Those fears are not hypothetical the state has revoked at least one guide s license and suspended two others Other historic episodes that reveal racism also are getting a new look in Oklahoma through the state s partnership with PragerU Kids which creates short-form videos to counter what its founder believes is left-wing ideology in schools Teachers in the state aren t required to use the videos but certain like them and show them in class The videos align with conservatives push to teach a positive view of America s past and with the state s rules on teaching about race and gender For instance PragerU Kids version of Booker T Washington s story is a cheery lesson in self-sufficiency and acceptance Once freed from slavery Washington toiled in coal mines worked as a janitor in exchange for formal schooling and became a great American orator and leader of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama The video does not linger on his being born into the preponderance miserable desolate and discouraging surroundings or as he wrote in his autobiography that slavery was a sin that at specific time we shall have to pay for America was one of the first places on Earth to outlaw slavery a cartoon version of Washington tells two time-traveling children in the PragerU video so I am proud and thankful The U S did ban importing slaves in but it did not enforce that law and did not outlaw owning people altogether until after Britain Denmark France and Spain had done so The Washington character says in the video that he devoted his life to teaching people the importance of independence and making themselves as valuable as feasible And when one child says she s sorry that he and other Black Americans faced segregation and discrimination Washington thanks her for her sympathy but assures the child who is white that she s done nothing wrong Echoing a conservative talking point the cartoon Washington says Future generations are never responsible for the sins of the past Jermaine Thibodeaux a historian at the University of Oklahoma reported he is familiar with the PragerU videos and considers them an ideological tool of a reeducation project nationwide that can be misleading I don t think that s something Washington necessarily uttered he revealed of the quote about future generations The value Washington placed on independence Thibodeaux added was predicated on the notions of self-sufficiency post-slavery when there was little help coming from the cabinet A spokesperson for PragerU declined to comment for this story Pressure to keep squeezing social justice and LGBTQ issues out of classrooms has been intensifying since when Republican state lawmakers began pushing dirty book law that would censor school libraries One bill which didn t pass called for firing school employees and fining offenders each time they promoted positions in opposition to closely held religious beliefs of the participant That was the backdrop when the state accused Summer Boismier of moral turpitude and then revoked her teaching license last year The English department at Norman High School near Oklahoma City recounted Boismier and her colleagues they needed to pull titles that might be considered racially divisive or contain themes about sex and gender Or they could turn books around on the shelves so students couldn t see the titles I remember just sitting in my seat shaking I had colleagues in the room who were in tears Boismier commented Given the choice to purge books or hide their covers Boismier did neither She wrapped her classroom s bookshelf in red butcher paper and wrote books the state doesn t want you to read on it in black marker She added a QR code linking to the Brooklyn Constituents Library where students could get a library card and virtual access to books considered inappropriate in Oklahoma then posted a photo of it all on social media Boismier who resigned in protest of the law challenged the license revocation in court and the affair is ongoing She declared she does not regret taking a stand against a law she views as unjust The state has argued the revocation is valid I am living every facilitator in Oklahoma s worst nightmare right now she declared I am unemployable In the Battiest district where Turner is superintendent an elementary reading professor stated ProPublica that just to be safe she removed books about diversity and including others who are different She revealed that was uncomfortable half of her students are Native American and so is she Adopted this year the state s new social studies standards provide even more specifics about what should be taught They include the expectation that students know stories from Christianity that influenced the American Founders and tradition including the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth e g the Golden Rule the Sermon on the Mount to second graders A state court last month issued a temporary stay on requiring schools to follow the standards while a lawsuit against them plays out In addition the new standards accept Trump s false indicates about the balloting They dictate that ninth graders learn about discrepancies in electoral process results including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states the guard risks of mail-in balloting sudden batch dumps an unforeseen record number of voters and other unsupported conservative talking points The Trump campaign and supporters filed at least lawsuits covering these points nearly all were dismissed as meritless or were decided against Trump The voting process skepticism standard has left the superintendent of a roughly -student district north of Tulsa confused He explained he and other superintendents are unsure how they would manage those but are hopeful that standards rooted in fact prevail There comes a point where curriculum cannot be opinion disclosed the superintendent who didn t want to be named because he feared retaliation I m not trying to get involved in conspiracy theories Fear and Resistance The push by state leaders to embed more Christian values in schools isn t what keeps a multitude of superintendents in the rural parts of the state up at night They say the Bible has never left their classrooms I am smack-dab right in the middle of the Bible Belt announced the leader of a tiny district on the western side of the state We are small but we have seven churches You re talking Footloose here While she doesn t disagree with everything the Legislature and Walters have done she disclosed she feels like several of their actions undermine populace schools and could shut down rural Oklahoma She and other leaders of society school districts worry that the state s expanded school choice initiative which allows families to get tax credits if they attend private and religious schools will draw away students from their districts and ultimately erode their funding Congress passed the first federal private school tax credit in July It s just the second year of the statewide tax credit initiative approved by the Legislature that allows students to use community funds to attend private and religious schools The credits cost the state nearly million in tax revenue this school year and subsidizes almost students That money superintendents say is desperately needed in their districts The state also has encouraged the improvement of charter schools which are publicly funded but privately run and subject to fewer regulations Last year the state s third-largest district behind the Oklahoma City and Tulsa districts wasn t a traditional one It was EPIC a statewide online charter school Walters and Gov Kevin Stitt supported St Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in its efforts to become the country s first religious charter school The Supreme Court blocked it from opening Even communities with limited private schools feel threatened by the state s push toward privatization At Nashoba Society School in a rural part of southeast Oklahoma where there s little else but timber and twisting roads the roughly kids who make up the elementary and middle grades are taught in split-grade classrooms Like hundreds of other Oklahoma districts more than three-quarters of which are rural it s not just a school it s the school there are no private schools in Pushmataha County When students enroll in charter schools they often take funding with them while districts have to maintain operations as before You starve your community schools to feed your private schools and charter schools disclosed Nashoba Superintendent Charles Caughern Jr Our foundation was set up for a free and appropriate schooling for all kids All kids Caughern fears students with disabilities will suffer as residents schools are weakened Private schools don t have to admit students with disabilities and plenty of won t he reported Erika Wright a parent who leads the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition which advocates for citizens schools disclosed the state s deep-red politics might lead outsiders to think Oklahomans encouragement state leaders pushing development far to the right But that s not the matter Wright disclosed They don t understand what s happening Wright declared They just assume that constituents schools are inevitably going to be there because they ve invariably been there in their lifetime I think the average Oklahoman does not understand the gravity and complexity of what is taking place That s not to say there isn t resistance A group of about parents and community school advocates that Walters derided as the woke peanut gallery goes to State Board of Teaching meetings a visual reminder that people care about instruction protocol and community schools A suburban Oklahoma City district is devising plans to deliver all of the Bible lessons contained in the new social studies standards on the same day giving parents an easy way to have their children opt out Court challenges to particular of the state s right-wing policies are pending A few are hopeful that Oklahoma will recalibrate the more extreme policies that marked Walters tenure The State Board of Coaching last week decided not to revoke the licenses of two teachers who Walters sought punished for their social media posts about Trump The new superintendent reported he would drop Walters plan to distribute Bibles to every classroom But several of the critical changes in classrooms came out of the Legislature which has continued this year to propose bills to rid schools of inappropriate materials and proclaim that in Oklahoma Christ is King A lot of damage already has been done to population schools reported Turner the Battiest superintendent He was only half-joking when he noted selected parents have been brainwashed by right-wing TV news and Oklahoma leaders talk of liberal indoctrination to think the district is teaching kids to be gay or converting Christian kids into atheists A couple of years ago one mom stopped him in the parking lot at school to say she was withdrawing her child from the district because its teaching didn t align with her values The superintendent was floored That s the power of the rhetoric Turner noted He mentioned he used to sit a couple of pews behind that mom in church every Sunday Megan O Matz and Asia Fields contributed reporting The post This is ground zero in the conservative quest for more patriotic and Christian masses schools appeared first on Salon com