A debate may determine if the Advanced Placement U. S. History (APUSH) course will continue to be taught in Oklahoma public schools.

Some Oklahoma legislators disagree with the course’s material and believe that it is not pro-America enough. They have suggested material that they believe is crucial to students’ understanding and appreciation of the nation’s history and ridiculed information that is not.

In an interview with CNN, Rep. Dan Fisher, the sponsor of the measure, said, “In essence, we have a new emphasis on what is bad about America. The new framework trades an emphasis on America’s founding principles of Constitutional government in favor of robust analyses of gender and racial oppression and class ethnicity and the lives of marginalized people, where the emphasis on instruction is of America as a nation of oppressors and exploiters.”

The proposed bill would bar state funding of AP U.S. History classes and specify what should be taught in classrooms.

The Republican majority in the state House approved the measure on Feb 17.

This, however, has caused opposition from educators and even students.

Linda Hampton, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, says it is ridiculous to legislate a sunnier version of U.S. history education. “We are a wonderfully diverse state. But the Tulsa race riots, the Trail of Tears—those things happened. We can’t sanitize history,” she said.

The debate has also sparked interest among other states such as Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina and Colorado, leading to similar bills in these states.

Academy AP U.S. History teacher Karl Honma said, “The redesign of APUSH is pretty extensive and is less memorizing facts. The big part of the criticisms is that some things are emphasized and others de-emphasized. Proponents of the new bill say the courses now are de-emphasizing American heroes too much, and that the other part of the redesign does focus on things such as slavery, the treatment of Native Americans, which emphasizes some bad aspects of American history.

“However, it doesn’t emphasize only negative things, but it is different, and some people just get afraid of things they don’t understand.”

Junior and APUSH student Pacharin Cozzo said, “I think it’s bad that anyone would ban the course. Students should see both sides of history, the good and the bad.”