In recent years, Oklahoma education officials have sought to significantly increase the number of counselors employed by state schools.

That push has coincided with a growing left-wing bent among the school-counselor profession, based on the policy positions taken by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA).

Former Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, who was the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in 2022, used $35.7 million in federal COVID bailout funds to hire roughly 300 more school counselors in Oklahoma public schools from 2021 to 2024.

“These grants can bring transformational change to schools, some of which have not had a single school counselor,” Hofmeister declared in a June 30, 2021 press release announcing that the grants had added counselors to 181 Oklahoma school districts.

The head of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA), a lobbyist organization hired by school districts, recently argued that Oklahoma schools need $1 billion to $2 billion more in funding and said the extra money may not go to the classroom.

In a May interview with the Tulsa World, OSSBA Executive Director Shawn Hime said, “What we are hearing from teachers is they want to see investments in student support services—more counselors, assistant principals, etc.—the people who do the support work so teachers can focus on teaching.”

The push for more counselors in Oklahoma public schools comes even as the school-counselor profession has become more political.

In recent years, the American School Counselor Association has taken a stance on many issues, including a full-fledged embrace of transgender causes, gun control and illegal immigration.

The American School Counselor Association’s stances can have nationwide impact, including in Oklahoma schools. The Oklahoma School Counselor Association (OSCA) is a chartered state division of the American School Counselor Association.

School counselors embrace transgender causes

On May 15, 2023, the ASCA signed onto a letter urging the Biden administration to interpret federal Title IX law to mandate that boys must be allowed to participate in girls’ athletic events as “transgender women.”

“We believe that transgender, nonbinary, and intersex youth in schools should have equal opportunity to participate in school sports consistent with their gender identity and that restrictions that target transgender, nonbinary, and intersex youth should not be permissible,” the ASCA letter stated.

Had the ASCA’s position prevailed, federal law could have negated Oklahoma law that bans males from competing in girls’ athletic events.

The ASCA letter claimed that discussion of “‘prevention of sports-related injury’ and ‘fairness in competition’ can be construed as giving credence to transphobic myths.”

“Transgender, nonbinary, and intersex young people face substantial barriers to equal opportunity in school sports, including being prevented or discouraged from playing sports by school staff or coaches and being forced to use locker rooms that do not correspond with their gender identity (which has been found to be associated with a decreased likelihood of participation in school sports),” the ASCA letter stated. “Recently, these barriers have taken the form of outright bans on transgender students playing school sports on separate-sex teams consistent with gender identity, denying them the opportunity to play alongside their cisgender peers. This type of categorical ban has been enacted in 21 states to date.”

An associated footnote explicitly referenced Oklahoma as one of the 21 states.

The letter also claimed that state bans on males participating in girls’ athletics could disproportionately lead to minority females facing greater scrutiny because of “racist and sexist stereotypes that have tended to link ‘femininity’ with whiteness.”

The letter also claimed that allowing boys to participate in girls’ sports leads to increased female interest in sports, writing that “early evidence from California and Connecticut suggests that trans-inclusive policies are correlated with increased participation of girls in school sports.”

The National Education Association, a teachers’ union, was also a major co-signer of that letter, alongside the American School Counselor Association.

On March 28, 2023, the ASCA signed a letter urging members of Congress to pass the “Rise Up for LGBTQI+ Youth in Schools” resolution.

“Today LGBTQI+ youth in schools across the country are under attack by lawmakers who seek to exclude and erase communities through transgender athletic bans, curriculum censorship laws, and other discriminatory legislation,” the ASCA letter stated.

The ASCA and other signers declared that they “hear directly from students, their teachers, and families about the impacts of transphobia, homophobia, racism, sexism, and ableism that create toxic and harmful school environments.”

On Feb. 15, 2022, the ASCA signed a letter opposing state efforts to prevent children from being subjected to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or sex-change surgeries as a supposed treatment for gender dysphoria.

“Since state legislatures began meeting this year, we have already seen more than 90 bills introduced seeking to deny transgender youths access to gender-affirming medical treatment, preventing them from participating in sports teams consistent with their gender identity and denying access to sex-segregated spaces that include restrooms and locker rooms,” the letter stated.

Oklahoma law prohibits the performance of sex-change surgeries on minors or providing children with cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers as a treatment for gender dysphoria. Oklahoma’s law was recently upheld by a federal court, and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar law in Tennessee.

On Feb. 11, 2022, the ASCA signed a letter urging Congress to “strongly support” the Biden administration’s efforts to add “a nonbinary measure for student enrollment records.”

On June 21, 2023, the American School Counselor Association was among the groups signing a letter urging members of Congress to pass the “LGBTQI+ and Women’s History Education Act of 2023,” saying the proposed law would “develop content and programming to support educators providing history instruction that is inclusive of LGBTQI+ people and women and uses an intersectional educational approach.”

The ASCA and other signers argued that passage of the Women’s History Education Act was especially important to support men who identify as women.

“Book bans, curriculum censorship, and other legislative attacks on the LGBTQI+ community, especially transgender women and girls, make it more important than ever that we show strong support for evidence-based educational programming to protect the wellbeing and educational success of marginalized students and foster positive school climates,” the letter stated.

School counselors promote gun control

On Nov. 27, 2023, the American School Counselor Association was among the groups signing a letter urging Congress to advance gun-control legislation.

“As the leading national education organizations committed to building safe learning environments and ensuring that every child can grow and reach their full potential, we strongly urge Congress to reinstate a strengthened federal assault weapons ban as quickly as possible,” the letter stated.

The letter waived off the fact that many of the targeted rifles are used for self-protection.

“Make no mistake, assault weapons serve no purpose of sport or personal protection,” the ASCA letter stated. “These weapons of war were specially designed for military use to inflict extreme widespread damage, and they do not belong in the hands of civilians.”

Between 1994 and 2004, the federal government banned the manufacture, sale, or transfer of certain, so-called “assault weapon” rifles. A 2004 study conducted for the U.S. Department of Justice found the ban did little to reduce gun crimes, largely because so-called “assault” weapons were rarely used in crimes.

“Should it be renewed, the ban’s effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement,” the U.S. Department of Justice report stated.

On June 8, 2022, the American School Counselor Association was one of 17 groups signing a letter that urged Congress to “swiftly pass legislation that will address the senseless epidemic of gun violence in this country.”

“The answer to stopping gun violence in our schools is not to arm our educators or to focus solely on better addressing the mental health crisis,” the letter stated.

On June 6, 2022, the ASCA was among the groups issuing a statement to “express our deep concerns about false and harmful attempts to link mental illness and gun violence.”

The groups issued that statement despite estimates indicating that approximately 70 percent of mass shooters have some mental health history. A 2020 study published by a researcher at Walden University found that the proportion of mass shooters with mental illness “was significantly greater than the proportion of the general population” with mental illness. The Walden study also found that mass shooters with mental illness “have caused a significantly higher number of fatalities than those without” mental illness.

School counselors support illegal immigration

On Dec. 12, 2022, the ASCA was among the groups signing a letter that urged Congress to provide a path to citizenship for certain illegal immigrants who were younger than 18 when they first illegally entered the United States.

The letter stated that 20,000 individuals who illegally entered the United States are currently working as educators in U.S. schools and that approximately 100,000 illegal immigrants are graduating from U.S. high schools each year.

“We urge Congress to prioritize passing legislation that provides permanent protections and a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers before the 117th Congress adjourns,” the letter stated.