Oklahoma to screen would-be teachers from N.Y., Calif. to keep 'leftist propaganda' out of schools

For now, Pennsylvanians looking to land a teaching job in Oklahoma won’t have to take a test designed to weed out “woke indoctrinators” seeking classroom work in the conservative Sooner State.

Oklahoma soon will begin administering what Ryan Walters, the state’s elected superintendent of public instruction, calls the “America First” assessment test to teaching applicants only from New York and California. Walters said the program is in line with President Donald Trump’s broader America First agenda.

“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 to TribLive.

He added: “Any teacher coming from these states will be required to pass our new PragerU assessment before receiving certification, because we refuse to let Gavin Newsom’s woke, Marxist agenda turn Oklahoma into the same dumpster fire California has become.”

The conservative media organization PragerU is partnering with the Oklahoma Department of Education to develop the assessment.

Walters said the 50-question test will evaluate prospective teachers on their knowledge of the U.S. Constitution, understanding of “American exceptionalism” and grasp of biological differences between boys and girls.

“If you want to teach here, you’d better know the Constitution, respect what makes America great and understand basic biology,” Walters said. “We’re raising a generation of patriots, not activists, and I’ll fight tooth and nail to keep leftist propaganda out of our classrooms.”

When asked whether it was a priority to keep all propaganda out of classroom instruction, Oklahoma Department of Education spokesman Quinton Hitchcock said, “This (assessment) should not be controversial. Every teacher should fully know this material before we entrust them with our children. It’s just common sense.”

Hitchcock provided a sample of five of the test’s 50 multiple-choice questions, none of them controversial:

• What are the first three words of the Constitution? (Answer: We the People).

• Why is freedom of religion important to America’s identity? (Answer: It protects religious choice from government control).

• What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress? (Answer: Senate and House of Representatives).

• How many U.S. senators are there? (Answer: 100).

• Why do some states have more representatives than others? (Answer: Representation is determined by population size).

He did not release the other questions.

Jonathan Zimmerman, who teaches history of education at the University of Pennsylvania, said Oklahoma’s contract with PragerU to test out-of-state, would-be teachers “is a watershed moment.”

“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,” he said. “There’s no other way to describe it.”

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten described the assessment as a “MAGA loyalty test.”

“(Walters’) priority should be educating students, but instead, it’s getting Donald Trump and other MAGA politicians to notice him,” Weingarten said.

Oklahoma’s program could be expanded to include eight other Democrat-led states.

Hitchcock said Pennsylvania isn’t currently in that group, though it has a Democratic voter registration advantage and is led by a Democratic governor.

Hitchcock didn’t provide a list of the eight states that are on the possible expansion list.

The Associated Press contributed.