The waivers were released by We're Oklahoma Education, or "WOKE." It addresses opting out of material such as PragerU, lessons on the Bible, new social studies standards that include 2020 election denialism rhetoric and any recording of Walters.
Recently, Walters has championed new social studies standards requiring students to identify "discrepancies in 2020 election results." The standards are currently being challenged in a lawsuit brought by former Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter.
WOKE Director Erica Watkins said the waivers are to help parents have more control over their children's education.
"I know one thing that Walters and that camp likes to say a lot is that, you know, parents have the right to choose. It's parents' rights," Watkins said. "So we like to use that and say that we do have the right to choose that we don't want our kids to be taught standards that are religious in nature, ideologically driven or straight-up false."
Walters' office responded in a statement that the waiver is not enforceable because there already is an opt-out process between the school and the parent, not an "outside, politically motivated organization."
"A waiver like this is absolutely not enforceable — especially from a hyper-partisan organization like this," Walters said. "This group, and other radicalized groups like them, will never have the opportunity to indoctrinate Oklahoma students with a woke, divisive and radicalized agenda. There is a specific process in place for parents to opt their child out."
Oklahoma law requires school districts to adopt procedures by which parents who object to any material or activity over religious or moral concerns may withdraw their children from the activity or class.
Watkins said students would still be able to obtain class credit by doing alternate assignments and potentially remove students from the classroom.
"Which is unfortunate, because we don't want to put more work on educators," Watkins said. "... It's not fair to remove children from a classroom because the curriculum that's being taught is something that is ideologically driven, but unfortunately, that's where we're at."
Macomb Public Schools Superintendent Matt Riggs said his district would have no problem accommodating students who were opted-out by their parents. He said he thinks most schools are going to avoid diving deeply into the controversial material.
"It was done so that the state superintendent can go on Fox News or whatever news outlet will have him. It keeps him in the headlines and all that, just like a lot of the other stuff that he's pulled," Riggs said. "And I say all that to say that, I don't know that many schools are going to really worry about meeting these particular standards, just to be honest with you."
Walters has maintained that schools and teachers choosing not to teach the standards will be subject to accreditation downgrades and teaching certificate revocations.
Walters has spent much of his tenure as state superintendent overhauling Oklahoma classrooms with conservative initiatives.
In September of 2023, Walters announced a partnership with conservative nonprofit media group, PragerU.
In June of 2024, Walters announced a plan to place Bibles in Oklahoma classrooms. He has distributed 500 Trump-endorsed Bibles in Advanced Placement U.S. Government classes and plans to seek donations to purchase the Bibles for other classrooms.
In November of 2024, Walters also mandated schools show a video of a prayer for President Donald Trump.
In addition to the new social studies standards' election denial, they also feature a significant increase in content on the Bible and Christianity, upping the mentions of the Bible from two in the previous standards to more than 40.
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