OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A small political battle has developed between some House Democrats and the State Department of Education over Oklahoma's academic standards.
Representative Jerry McPeak and three other representatives said at a news conference Wednesday that the department is trying to throw the legislature out of the process of reviewing and approving changes to standards for history, math and other subjects.
Department spokeswoman Sherry Fair calls it a misunderstanding. She says the department simply wants to take those academic standards out of the lengthy list of department rules because any rule changes must be sent the Legislature.
Fair says without the proposal, routine academic adjustments must go through an unnecessarily long process every time there is an adjustment.