Okla. State Superintendent To Meet With GOPer Trying To Ban AP History

Republican nominee for the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Joy Hofmeister, answers a question during a debate in Edmond, Okla, Monday, Oct. 20, 2014. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
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The Oklahoma state superintendent plans on meeting with state Rep. Dan Fisher (R), the lawmaker who sponsored a bill that would eliminate funding for AP U.S. History.

Superintendent Joy Hofmeister did not take a stance on the bill, but her spokesman, Phil Bacharach, told Oklahoma Watch that she wants to discuss Fisher’s concerns about the bill.

“I know she is withholding her judgment until she meets with him,” Bacharach said. “Obviously, it’s gotten some attention.”

The bill sponsored by Fisher would keep the state from funding AP U.S. History classes unless the College Board changes the course framework. The legislation also calls for the state’s Department of Education to develop a U.S. History curriculum that would replace the AP course.

Fisher believes that the new course framework released by the College Board in 2012 presents a negative view of American history.

“In essence, we have a new emphasis on what is bad about America,” Fisher said about the AP framework on Tuesday. “(The new framework) trades an emphasis on America’s founding principles of Constitutional government in favor of robust analyses of gender and racial oppression and class ethnicity and the lives of marginalized people, where the emphasis on instruction is of America as a nation of oppressors and exploiters.”

Since the College Board released the new framework, conservatives have decried the course as negative and unpatriotic. The Republican National Committee, as well as numerous states, have condemned the revised course.

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  1. Avatar for jinnj jinnj says:

    Odds are she could ask State Rep. Dan Fisher ® to specify what needed to be changed - and the pandering tool Fisher would be unable to articulate any concrete actions - he would just regurgitate propaganda.

  2. “In essence, we have a new emphasis on what is bad about America,”

    Teatroll Rosetta Stone: “In essence we have a focus on critical thinking and admitting where Amurika has made mistakes we should never repeat, instead of extolling Amurika’s divine right to do whatever it wants, when it wants, how it wants and to kill anyone who stands in the way of our whims, not to mention our manifest destiny as the rightful whiteful Krischun Nashun rulers of the planet.”

  3. I would not be surprised if she’s just looking to have a meeting with him for precisely that purpose: so he can coach her in what to say.

  4. Doesn’t the GOP know that a high skilled workers value education?

    They can try to attract jobs with low taxes, but you aren’t going to attract workers if the schools are terrible.

  5. “(The new framework) trades an emphasis on America’s founding principles of Constitutional government in favor of robust analyses of gender and racial oppression and class ethnicity and the lives of marginalized people, where the emphasis on instruction is of America as a nation of oppressors and exploiters.”

    I think this is where the phrase “If the shoe fits…” would normally be applied.

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