Oklahoma governor rejects plan to ask students about immigration status and slams ‘political drama’ at Board of Education

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt rejected a controversial state Board of Education proposal to ask students’ families about their immigration status and criticized the board’s “needless political drama” in a challenge to the state’s increasingly Trumpian educational direction.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt rejected a controversial state Board of Education proposal to ask students’ families about their immigration status and criticized the board’s “needless political drama” in a challenge to the state’s increasingly Trumpian educational direction. The proposal, which requires parents to report their immigration or citizenship status when enrolling their children in school, came as President Donald Trump and Republican leaders pledged to crack down on undocumented immigrants and carry out a mass deportation plan. In just over a month in power, the Trump administration has sent troops to the US-Mexico border, deported migrants to Guantanamo Bay and moved to strip temporary protections for certain migrants. Education and immigration advocates questioned whether the proposal was constitutional and said they believed it will make immigrant families feel afraid and unwelcome at public schools. “After months of headlines followed by disappointing (National Assessment of Educational Progress) scores this month, it’s clear that our education infrastructure has fallen prey to needless political drama,” Stitt, a Republican who endorsed Trump’s presidential bid, said in a statement earlier this month. The results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a national exam known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” showed Oklahoma students scored below average on math and reading assessments.