Oklahoma will soon require applicants from California and New York looking for teaching jobs to pass an exam to test their political leanings in a bid to prevent “radical leftist ideology” in schools.
However, opponents call the assessment by the state’s Republican-dominated education officials a “MAGA loyalty test.”
The exam, which is administered by PragerU, an Oklahoma-based conservative nonprofit, was announced by Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s public schools superintendent, on Monday.
“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.
PragerU creates short-form content with a conservative view on politics and economics, promoting itself as “focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media.”
The exams are being finalized and will be released “very soon,” according to Quinton Hitchcock, a spokesperson for the state’s education department.
The assessment has 50 questions in total, with some of the questions asking applicants to write the first three words of the US Constitution, and answer why freedom of religion is “important to America’s identity.”
The Daily Express US reached out to PragerU for more information on the exam; however, PragerU CEO Marissa Streit told CNN that several questions relate to “undoing the damage of gender ideology.”
Jonathan Zimmerman, an education historian who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, said the contract with Prager to test out-of-state teachers “is a watershed moment.”
“Instead of Prager simply being a resource that you can draw on in an optional way, Prager has become institutionalised as part of the state system,” he said. “There’s no other way to describe it.”
According to Zimmerman, the American Historical Association found that a minority of 7th- to 12th-grade teachers were relying on textbooks for everyday learning and are instead using online resources such as PragerU.
“I think what we’re now seeing in Oklahoma is something different, which is actually empowering Prager as a kind of gatekeeper for future teachers,” he said.
The American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers unions in the US, criticized the state’s move. The group has regularly been at odds with the Trump administration and the Republican crackdown on teachers.
“This MAGA loyalty test will be yet another turnoff for teachers in a state already struggling with a huge shortage,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten.
She has been critical of Walters, who previously pushed for a revision of Oklahoma’s curriculum standards to include conspiracy theories of the 2020 presidential election.
Donald Trump and other MAGA politicians to notice him,” said Weingarten.
Tina Ellsworth, president of the National Council for the Social Studies nonprofit, also warned that the test could prevent teachers from applying for jobs.
“State boards of education should stay true to the values and principles of the U.S. Constitution,” said Ellsworth. “Imposing an ideology test to become a teacher in our great democracy is antithetical to those principles.”
In the political world, Oklahoma Representative John Waldron said the exam was “political posturing.”
“If you want to see a textbook definition of indoctrination, how about a loyalty test for teachers,” he said. “It’s a sad echo of a more paranoid past.”
Waldron, the chairman of the Oklahoma Democratic Party and a New Jersey native, said he likely would’ve been the target demographic for this kind of exam when he moved from Washington, DC to Oklahoma to teach social studies in 1999.
He said the test would have made him believe the state “wasn’t serious about attracting quality teachers.”
“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,” said Waldron.
Oklahoma schools rank 50th in the nation, according to a survey by WalletHub, beating only New Mexico. The study included Washington, DC, for a total of 51 locations.
Out of 100 points — 80 for quality education and 20 for school safety — Oklahoma scored 32.62 points.
“The quality of public school systems varies widely from state to state, though, and is often a question of funding,” reported WalletHub financial writer, Adam McCann. “The quality of public school systems varies widely from state to state, though, and is often a question of funding.”
At the time of writing, New York and California were ranked at 10th and 30th place, respectively.
