2 days ago
Oklahoma ads 'America first' teacher test for some new applicants
The U.S. Department of Education Headquarters is seen in Washington, D.C. The Oklahoma superintendent of education has created a test for teachers from New York and California applying to teach in his state. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Oklahoma plans to screen teachers from New York and California applying to work in the state with a new test to determine their views on a range of topics regarding their political ideology.
Teachers from the two Democratic-leaning states will be required to provide approved answers to 50 multiple-choice questions on topics such as the the U.S. government, gender, religion and gender to teach in the state.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, who announced the test requirement said New York and California have teaching standards that are "antithetical" to Oklahoma's.
Teachers from New York or California who want jobs in Oklahoma will now have to take a special test to prove that they are not "woke indoctrinators."
"We're not bringing in woke indoctrinators into the classroom," Walters told The Washington Post on Monday. "It's a very America-first approach."
Walters told the education board that its members won't get to review the test for teacher candidates before it is implemented. Board member Chris Van Denhende asked Walters in July to ensure the policy "passes legal muster."
"It sounds like we're on the edge," Van Denhende said.
PragerU, a conservative non-profit, not a university, helped develop the multiple-choice test.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told USA Today the test is going to be a "huge turnoff" for teachers.
"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," Weingarten 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."
Teachers' unions say it could make the state's teacher shortage worse because it would discourage applicants. And, Oklahoma's public education system for K-12 students ranks last, according to a study by WalletHub.
In October 2024, Walters put out a call to purchase 55,000 Bibles, but they had to be leather-bound and have the U.S. founding documents in them, like the Trump Bible. He forced high-school teachers to teach students that there were "discrepancies" in the 2020 election. He also supported the unsuccessful effort to create the country's first public religious charter school in Oklahoma, but it caused a deadlocked Supreme Court ruling in May.
"You're not gonna lie to kids about the influences Christianity had on American history," he told the New York Post on Friday, adding, "We want you to teach history appropriately." He also told the Post that the test is meant to ensure no one teaches "radical woke gender theory that goes against biology and science."
