Oklahoma cuts APUSH funding, against focus of the curriculum

by Vineet Kosaraju, Aquila Assistant Tech Editor|March 19, 2015

Oklahoma+cuts+APUSH+funding%2C+against+focus+of+the+curriculum

Ria Gandhi

Oklahoma’s legislative committee for education in an 11-4 vote decided to pass a bill that cuts funding for Advanced Placement U.S. History (APUSH) classes due to arguments that the current curriculum has an overly heavy focus on America’s shortcomings.

Introduced by Republican Representative Dan Fisher, the bill singles out specific primary sources as part of the new curriculum in an effort to draw less attention to America’s “blemishes.”

“[It] trades an emphasis on America’s founding principles of Constitutional government in favor of […] where the emphasis on instruction is of America as a nation of oppressors and exploiters,” Fisher said at a legislative committee hearing last Tuesday. “In essence, we have a new emphasis on what is bad about America.”

The bill, called HB 1380, is currently being revised after heavy criticism from teachers and students alike. Currently, it states that funding will not be revoked if the state uses the old AP curriculum, and Rep. Fisher said that he will be making the bill less “ambiguous.”

APUSH teacher Damon Halback believes that the bill ultimately will harm students in Oklahoma.

“

I think the main issue for this bill is of course the people who would be most hurt by it would be the students of Oklahoma. They would not be able to take a test and prepare for a test that is a nationwide assessment tool and that is not what the politicians I think are endeavoring to do.

— Damon Halback

He added that the curriculum is less strict about the specific material taught, and that it gives teachers the opportunity to focus on specific aspects of American history.

“The bill in Oklahoma is a political representation of the feelings of the people in Oklahoma that American history should promote a positive and an exceptionalist view of US history,” he said. “What [the APUSH] curriculum does is it enables schools to do that, while [allowing] teachers to be able to focus on some of the challenges that many populations in the US have experienced.”

Junior Johnny Trinh who is currently taking APUSH believes that there is no reason to cut funding from the current framework and course material.

“

I think the bill is pretty silly. It’s better that way to focus on the bad. We can’t necessarily always paint the U.S. in a good light.

— Johnny Trinh (11)

Naman Jindal (11) agrees, and believes that America’s blemishes and positives should be covered by the curriculum equally.

“Well I don’t think that APUSH needs to be patriotic,” he said. “The class shouldn’t just be ‘go America’, but rather a more objective view of our history. If they want to cut funding, they should find a better reason than it not being patriotic enough.”

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on March 13, 2015.