Oklahoma’s top education official is reportedly introducing a new assessment for teachers coming from California and New York that will gauge their alignment with the so-called Sooner state’s conservative values.
Oklahoma’s public education superintendent, Ryan Walters, told USA Today and CNN that the 50-question certification exam – which is reportedly set to roll out in the coming days – will ask about topics such as the “biological differences between males and females”, freedom of religion and US history.
According to USA Today, the test also includes questions related to false claims that electoral fraudsters handed the 2020 presidential race to Joe Biden at the expense of Donald Trump, who returned to the White House in January.
Walters said that the test – which he has dubbed the “America First” certification, invoking a favored slogan of the Republican president – is intended to ensure that teachers from the two largest Democrat-led states “are not coming into our classrooms and indoctrinating kids”.
He told CNN that while the test will apply to teachers coming from California and New York, it could expand in the future to applicants from up to eight states who want to work in public education in Republican-led Oklahoma.
Walters believes that California and New York have required teachers to “do things that are antithetical to our standards and values as a state” and that the assessment will help ensure “that these teachers agree to teach what is required in the state of Oklahoma”.
The conservative media company PragerU reportedly developed the test.
The new test comes as Oklahoma, like many US states, faces a teacher shortage. In an effort to recruit educators from across the country, USA Today reports that Oklahoma is offering bonuses of up to $50,000.
Walters claims that the state has seen “a dramatic increase in teachers wanting to come to Oklahoma”.
However, critics argue that the new certification requirement will deter teachers from wanting to come to Oklahoma.
In an interview with USA Today, Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said that the new certification will be a “huge turn-off” to teachers.
“Teachers in this country are patriotic, and suggesting they’re not is insulting,” she said.
Alluding to Trump’s “Make America great again” slogan, Weingarten added: “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.
“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.”
Cari Elledge, the president of the Oklahoma Education Association, echoed those concerns, calling the test “a political stunt to grab attention” and a “distraction from the real issues” in the state.
Elledge added: “When political ideology plays into whether or not you can teach in any place, that might be a deterrent to quality educators attempting to get a job.”
News about the Oklahoma public education system’s America First certification came after Walters grappled with allegations from colleagues that they saw images of nude women on a television in his office during a closed-door work meeting.
Walters vehemently denied the allegations. The Oklahoma state house speaker, Kyle Hilbert, said that a subsequent preliminary investigation determined that the TV at the time was tuned to a channel that was playing a 1985 Jackie Chan film named The Protector, which does contain scenes with nudity. Hilbert said that finding evidently ruled out intentional display of inappropriate content by Walters as well as false reporting by the colleagues, as the Oklahoma news outlet KOTV reported.
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