Parents Use Republican’s Own Law Against Them To Keep Their Kids From Being Subjected To Election Conspiracy Theories

This is delicious. Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma have tried to bend the education system to their will. And now they're finding out it won't be bent quite as easy as they thought.

First, let's take a look at the backstory here, which is steeped in the sort of stupidity we've come to expect from the performative mooks currently serving terms as Republican politicians. Here's what the state's Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters (R) mandated for the 2025-26 school year:

Thenew curriculumincludes a section that requires students to analyze contemporary turning points of 21st-century American society." That requirement includes the following:

Identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including 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.

According to Walters, it's essential to dump Republican conspiracy theories into students' heads because doing otherwise would force them to be spoon-fed left-wing propaganda." Walters' proposal goes the other way, dumping right-wing propaganda into students by the shovelful to ensure they are properly instructed about legitimate concerns" raised during the 2020 election.

The problem, of course, is that there are no legitimate concerns," which means students will purposefully be made stupider by idiots who are heavily reliant on an ignorant voter base to remain in office. $33 million is being spent to indoctrinate students, which is apparently fine with state Republicans who don't mind indoctrination, so long as it's their indoctrination.

Here's what makes this new development really fun. The Republicans pushed through a bill that allows parents to opt their kids out of any learning material or activity" a parent felt was harmful" to their children. That law went into effect this year, and was crafted specifically to allow parents to prevent their kids from being subjected to anything they considered to be woke."

In a truly hilarious twist, parents who don't want their kids to be subjected to pro-Trump propaganda are using the Republican's anti-woke law to opt out of the newly mandated conspiracy theory instruction." Here's Judd Legum, reporting for Popular Information:

A group called We're Oklahoma Education," or WOKE, is distributing aform letterthatallows parents to opt-outof aspects of the new curriculum, including lessons on discrepancies in 2020 elections results" and Judeo-Christian concepts of ethics and government as the basis for American civilization." The letter also allows parents to opt their children out of instruction created by right-wing groups, such as PragerU and Hillsdale College. Parents can also request that their child not have [a]ny interaction with State Superintendent Ryan Walters in any capacity, including viewing any video or audio recording of Mr. Walters."

WOKE Director Erica Watkins says the group created the opt-out form because they consider some lessons in the new curriculum propaganda" that is not appropriate to be taught in school."

Love it. Lawmakers who engage in performative legislating always forget the laws they enact to give them ways to do the stupid stuff they want to do can be utilized by their political opponents. Expanding power just because you're currently in power seems like a great idea right up until the other party has the majority. Crafting laws designed to be abused by people with certain conservative beliefs" can prove to be just as useful to people opposed to these beliefs.

That's how it's going here: the state superintendent is watching two mandates he supported being utilized to prevent students from being subjected to debunked conspiracy theories and judeo-christian ethics" that are seemingly present in the people seeking to shove these particular ethics down other people's throats.

Don't put in the papers that Superintendent Walters is mad.

In response, Walters said that it was concerning that parents would opt their kids out of understanding American history." Walters also said that the waiver created by WOKE was absolutely not enforceable" in part because it was created by a hyper-partisan organization." Walters claimed that a parent would need to provide his or her own form, or, in some cases, the individual school district might have a form that they use."

Hmm. Seems like there are several ways to get around these restrictions on opt-out forms. Not that you'll need them because...

Nothing in the law prevents parents from using a form created by a third party.

Suck it up, Superintendent. You've been beaten at your own game by people who aren't so blinded by their partisan hackery that they're incapable of seeing the bigger picture. Take the loss like a big boy and get back to your day-to-day business of proving you're unworthy of the public's trust or respect. I look forward to further reporting during the upcoming school year, hopefully detailing the dispensing of state-mandated conspiracy theory propaganda to room after room of empty desks.