Governor Fallin has vetoed a Senate bill that would have removed United States History from a list of required end-of-instruction tests for Oklahoma students.
In her veto message, Fallin wrote that Senate Bill 2 would have moved Oklahoma backward.
"United States History is a vital component of a student's academic coursework," she wrote. "It grounds students in our nation's founding principles and our Constitution, and teaches that American exceptionalism led the world to unite behind the concepts that liberty and freedom are fundamental human rights."
Fallin wrote that Oklahoma students "need to be grounded in our history and equipped to meet our nation's future challenges."
In her veto message, the governor wrote that only 62 percent of Oklahoma's students were proficient or advanced in U.S. History on the End of Instruction exam in 2016, adding if U.S. History "is not measured through a test, its importance in school will be lessened."
"We stand at a critical juncture as a country...we need students who have the patriotic values our state and nation instilled in them," she wrote.