As was evident during a discussion about a civics curriculum Monday, fears of violating House Bill 1775 still hang over the Tulsa Public Schools board.
Oklahoma House Bill 1775 bans public schools from teaching anything intended to make a person uncomfortable based on race or sex. The law was used in 2022 to lower TPS’ accreditation level to “accredited with warning,” although the material cited didn’t explicitly state this was its intention.
At the board’s meeting Monday night, District 7 board member Jerry Griffin said the district would get a HB 1775 violation “in about two seconds” if the board voted to implement the curriculum from Generation Citizen.
The board voted 3-3 over the curriculum, thus keeping it from being adopted in the district.
According to its website, Generation Citizen “is working to transform civics education so that young people are equipped and inspired to exercise their civic power.”
Superintendent Deborah Gist told Griffin the curriculum is nonpartisan, and that’s she’s had experience using the curriculum. She said it teaches students “how to think, not what to think,” and claimed 84% of students who used it reported considering other students’ viewpoints.
On a practical level, Gist said the curriculum helps students better understand the functions of different levels of government.
“If it’s a city council, for example, then those are elected folks, and they’re finding out who their city councilor is, and they’re sharing that information,” she said.
But Griffin argued it was “fairly clear” that Generation Citizen has a political leaning to him. He quoted a testimonial on the website, which read, “informing kids just like me about injustice will inspire them to be change agents.”
“In theory, I think it’s a wonderful program. In practice, it’s not the program or curriculum. It’s the teachers that are teaching the curriculum,” Griffin said. “Let’s see you have a right-wing crazy Republican out there. They’re going to push their point of view though that curriculum. Let’s say you have a socialist teaching it. They’re going to push that,” said Griffin.
Before the vote, Griffin suggested TPS prepare a document outlining HB 1775 that vendors like Generation Citizen would have to sign if they wish to partner with the district.
“They acknowledge that if there’s a violation, they will accept any liability, and the liability doesn’t pass to us,” Griffin said.
The board considered the curriculum as part of the state requirement to graduate starting this school year. It’s the same test administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Considering this requirement, District 4 board member E’Lena Ashley asked if there were any statistics that showed they had academic proficiency in civics. Gist said she doesn’t have these numbers.
“In Oklahoma, we haven’t required a civics assessment before, and I know that while it is done in different parts of the country, I don’t believe it’s done consistently enough to determine that,” Gist said.
Gist did, however, claim that 80% of students who used Generation Citizen increased their knowledge of civics, and that 62% were more motivated to be involved in their communities by the end of the curriculum.
Ashley claimed she did not see the program yield proficiency in civics for eighth graders in her own research. Gist asked Ashley where she got this information.
“I’ll get back to you on that.”
“So you don’t have a source? Because you’re saying something that’s pretty strong.”
“You were saying something very strong as well, when you said that students were saying that they’re doing very well, 80% here and there, you know.”
“Yeah, and I can give you the source of that.”
Additionally, Ashley asked who would be funding the program. Gist couldn’t list all the sources offhand at the meeting, but said the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the Schusterman Foundation were two of them.
Gist said the district doesn't have a deadline for adopting a civics curriculum.
