Oklahoma Requires Teachers To Prove They Back ‘America 1st’
Oklahoma Requires Teachers From Democratic-Led States To Prove They Back ‘America 1st’
Oklahoma, a state ranked dead last in education, has unveiled a new mandate that requires teachers from California and New York to prove their political loyalty before they can step foot in a classroom.
According to USA Today, under a directive from Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, teachers relocating from the two Democratic strongholds must pass what he calls an “America First” certification, a test designed not to measure teaching skill or classroom management, but to ensure ideological conformity.
Walters, an avid and staunch supporter of Donald Trump’s policies and rhetoric, has pushed to convert Oklahoma’s public schools into hubs of right-wing religious indoctrination, through controversies such as his promotion of Bible-infused lesson plans and his attempt to require that schools show students a propaganda video of him praying for Donald Trump and attacking liberals; said the move was necessary to protect Oklahoma students from “radical leftist ideology.”
“As long as I am superintendent, Oklahoma classrooms will be safeguarded from the radical leftist ideology fostered in places like California and New York,” Walters said in a statement.
The test, created in partnership with ultra-conservative media organization PragerU, will reportedly require teachers to affirm “biological differences between males and females,” accept Oklahoma’s revisionist American history standards, and agree with lessons that include debunked claims about the 2020 presidential election.
“These reforms will reset our classrooms back to educating our children without liberal indoctrination,” Walters wrote in a post on X on April 29. “We’re proud to defend these standards, and we will continue to stand up for honest, pro-America education in every classroom.”
The state superintendent said that the PragerU-developed exam contains questions on basic civics, but also ventures into political territory, including questions about gender identity and “undoing the damage of gender ideology.”
Sample questions shared with USA Today by Walter’s office include the following:
- What are the first three words of the Constitution?
- A. In God We Trust
- B. Life, Liberty, Happiness
- C. The United States
- D. We the People
2. Why is freedom of religion important to America’s identity?
- A. It makes Christianity the national religion
- B. It bans all forms of public worship
- C. It limits religious teaching in public life
- D. It protects religious choice from government control
3. What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?
- A. House of Lords and Commons
- B. Courts and Senate
- C. Executive and Legislative
- D. Senate and House of Representatives
4. How many U.S. Senators are there?
- A. 435
- B. 110
- C. 50
- D. 100
5. Why do some states have more Representatives than others?
- A. They cover a larger geographic area.
- B. They have held statehood for a longer period.
- C. The number is determined by military presence.
- D. Representation is determined by population size.
The certification test, effectively functioning as a partisan filter, is given to all teaching applicants regardless of their area of focus, which signals that in order to qualify, they must align themselves with Oklahoma’s conservative agenda.
Quinton Hitchcock, a spokesperson for the state’s education department, said the Prager test for teacher applicants has been finalized and will be rolling out “very soon.”
Critics argue that Walters is more concerned with national political optics than student outcomes, with Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, dismissing the initiative as a “MAGA loyalty test” before blasting Walters for prioritizing culture wars over education.
“Ryan Walters appears to be trying out for MAGA in chief, not educator in chief, because everything that he’s doing is about the culture wars, not about the reading, writing, and arithmetic,” she said. “If he wants to be MAGA in chief then go be MAGA in chief. But let someone else be educator in chief and focus on other things people deserve, which is reading, literacy, and wraparound services – and actual teachers who want to be in Oklahoma.”
As many educators point out, Oklahoma’s decision to use PragerU, which promotes itself as “focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media”, as its gatekeeper for incoming teachers is unprecedented. Jonathan Zimmerman, a University of Pennsylvania professor specializing in the history of education, called it “a watershed moment,” warning that the state has effectively institutionalized political ideology into teacher certification.
Even more concerning, the “America First” curriculum includes modules on alleged mail-in voter fraud, debunked theories regarding the certification of the 2020 election, theories about COVID-19 emerging from a lab leak, and has eliminated prior proposals for teaching about George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter movement. Walters has also mandated Bible instruction in public schools, though those lessons won’t appear on the certification test.
“Instead of Prager simply being a resource that you can draw in an optional way, Prager has become institutionalized as part of the state system,” Zimmerman said. “There’s no other way to describe it.”
For educators and parents alike, the hypocrisy is glaring. The very state that trails all others in education rankings is more interested in testing political loyalty than in addressing teacher shortages, literacy gaps, or underfunded classrooms.
The new requirement comes at a time when Oklahoma is struggling to recruit and retain educators. The state has offered bonuses of up to $50,000 to lure teachers from across the nation, but union leaders warn that the ideological vetting will deter quality candidates.
“This MAGA loyalty test will be yet another turnoff for teachers in a state already struggling with a huge shortage. His priority should be educating students, but instead, it’s getting Donald Trump and other MAGA politicians to notice him,” Weingarten said in a statement.
Even the demographics make the policy questionable. Few teachers from California or New York move to Oklahoma to begin with, given political and cultural differences. State Rep. John Waldron, chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party and a former teacher himself, called the test “political posturing.”
“If you want to see a textbook definition of indoctrination, how about a loyalty test for teachers,” said Waldron. “It’s a sad echo of a more paranoid past.”
He noted that requiring ideological allegiance would have discouraged him from teaching when he relocated to Oklahoma decades ago.
“Teachers are not rushing here from other states to teach. We’ve got an enormous teacher shortage and it’s not like we have a giant supply of teachers coming in from blue states anyway,” Waldron added.
In the end, the state ranked 50th in education is signaling to the nation that it values political alignment over professional expertise. And while Walters may succeed in currying favor with MAGA loyalists, Oklahoma’s students, the ones who need innovation, creativity, and intellectual honesty the most, are the ones who will pay the price.
SEE ALSO:
OK Education Head Ryan Walters Investigated For Lewd Images On Work TV
Oklahoma Mandates Teaching 2020 Election Conspiracy Theories
Oklahoma Requires Teachers From Democratic-Led States To Prove They Back ‘America 1st’ was originally published on newsone.com
