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Oklahoma’s far-right schools chief, Ryan Walters, has officially rolled out an Orwellian obstacle for teachers who come to his state from California and New York.
Oklahoma is now requiring teacher applicants from those two blue states — and apparently no one else, for now — to prove they are worthy by passing what Walters has described as an “America First” test in order to receive a teaching certificate. Conservative media company PragerU, which is not an actual university and whose founder has openly said he wants to “indoctrinate” children, reportedly helped develop the multiple-choice test.
Walters has said the policy is meant to root out “woke indoctrinators” and suggested that teachers from New York and California may fail to adequately teach the role that Christianity played in the nation’s development.
“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.”
Sample questions provided to the Post include “Which chromosome pair indicates a woman?” and “Why is freedom of religion important to America’s identity?”
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, told USA Today the test is going to be a “huge turnoff” for teachers and railed against Walters’ ploy:
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.
Walters has tried to usher in an era of far-right and religious indoctrination for Oklahoma’s public schools by doing things like promoting Bible-infused learning plans and leaning on schools to air a video of him praying for Donald Trump and attacking liberals. Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s public education system for K-12 students ranks last among all states, according to a study by WalletHub. The state is also experiencing a teacher shortage.
Given this reality, one might expect the state’s schools chief to prioritize bringing in as many qualified teachers as possible. But Walters has other ideas — deeply political ones that seem likely to deter some quality teachers from even attempting to work in Oklahoma.