Oklahoma in the southern United States is embroiled in controversy for requiring applicants from certain progressive areas to pass an 'ideological verification' exam before granting them teaching credentials.
According to local media including the Washington Post (WP) on the 19th (local time), Oklahoma has announced it will administer a test devised by the conservative nonprofit organization PragerU to teacher applicants from California and New York. The test consists of 50 questions related to the U.S. government, religion, and gender.
Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma superintendent, stated, 'As long as I am the superintendent, Oklahoma classrooms will be protected from the radical leftist ideologies promoted in places like California and New York.' This indicates an intention to completely block the influx of progressive teachers.
This policy appears to stem from a backlash against educational methods with a strong progressive influence. In the United States, the direction of education has changed significantly depending on the political regime in power. In 2016, during the Barack Obama administration, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidelines that required schools to allow the use of bathrooms and changing rooms based on individual gender identity rather than biological sex. Subsequently, President Donald Trump rescinded this after his first inauguration, while President Joe Biden restored it after taking office.
Walters' comment that he would not allow 'Gavin Newsom's woke Marxist agenda' to transform Oklahoma into California starkly reveals dissatisfaction with progressive educational policies. In fact, Governor Newsom signed a bill in 2023 mandating the installation of gender-neutral bathrooms in all California schools, leading the 'woke' educational policy.
The currently disclosed test items include not only basic knowledge questions such as 'What are the first three words of the Constitution?' and 'How many U.S. senators are there?' but also questions that seem to verify the ideology of teacher applicants, such as 'Why is religious freedom important to American identity?' Walters stated that the test for teachers from California and New York would also focus on 'biological differences between the sexes.'
CNN reported that 'one of the questions related to gender requires teachers to solve a multiple-choice problem selecting the pair of chromosomes that determine biological sex.' This is interpreted as an intention to gauge the beliefs of applicants regarding LGBTQ.
Following the disclosure of this content, criticism poured in, describing it as a 'MAGA loyalty test.' Randy Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), one of the largest teacher unions in the United States, pointed out, 'This MAGA loyalty test will add another frustration for teachers in Oklahoma, which is already suffering from a severe shortage of teachers.'
Oklahoma, with strong Republican support, has previously pushed for conservative educational policies that have sparked controversy. At the end of last year, Superintendent Walters issued an executive order at the state Department of Education Board requiring the placement of Bibles in all public school classrooms and mandating the teaching of the Bible to students.
WP assessed the policy as an 'attempt by Oklahoma authorities to shift the state educational system to the right.' CNN reported that 'the decision to implement this test developed by the conservative organization PragerU opened a new chapter in the educational culture wars just days before the start of the new school year.'