August 19, 2025
While Oklahoma is dealing with a teacher shortage, the new test will only apply to teachers from California and New York since they specifically teach lessons that are “antithetical.”
If there are teachers from California or New York who want to teach in Oklahoma public schools, they will first have to pass a certification test to prove where they stand on the state’s conservative political values, USA Today reports.
Under the leadership of Oklahoma schools MAGA Superintendent Ryan Walters — who pushed for President Donald Trump’s Bible to be present in all classrooms — the test from the state’s Department of Education targets teachers from the two largest Democrat-led states in effort to guarantee the teachers are not “teaching things that are antithetical to our standards.” Walters says the move is to make sure outsiders aren’t “coming into our classrooms and indoctrinating kids.”
To pay homage to one of President Donald Trump’s signature terms, the certification has been named as the “America First” test, requiring educators to show their knowledge in knowing “the biological differences between females and males,” how they agree with the state’s American history standards, including parts of a “conspiracy theory” that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from Trump – regardless of what grade the educators are teaching.
Walters said the test will only apply to teachers from the Golden State and the Empire State since they specifically teach lessons that are antithetical to those taught in the Sooner State. And he says this is all Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fault.
He accused the California state governor of pushing lessons on “gender theory” that won’t hold weight in Oklahoma school. Walters is referring to The California Healthy Youth Act that requires public school lessons throughout the state to be inclusive of LGBTQ students, same-sex relationships, in addition to teaching students about “gender, gender expression, gender identity, and explore the harm of negative gender stereotypes.”
The test is being curated with the assistance of conservative media company PragerU. The same nonprofit helped develop the state’s latest high school history curriculum standards, including lessons on how to dissect the results of the 2020 election and learning about alleged dangers of mail-in voter fraud, the theory of the COVID-19 pandemic started with a lab leak and removal of a proposal to include lessons surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and George Floyd’s murder.
Despite the new rules, Walters claims there has been “a dramatic increase in teachers wanting to come to Oklahoma” as the state has offered a bonus of up to $50,000 to attract teachers from outside states. Most would be attracted to that amount since the state is experiencing a massive teacher shortage. While U.S. based teachers from Democrat-led states are subject to additional testing, Oklahoma has opted to recruit educators from Mexico with a new program called The Oklahoma Teacher Pathway Program, according to KOCO News 5.
Launched by FUEL OKC, CEO Brent Bushey said a university in Puebla, Mexico, reached out with interest in having graduates teach in the states. So far, three teachers have signed up. “We know here in Oklahoma City we need more teachers, we hear that from school leaders from across the city,” Bushey said.
“They struggle to attract just candidates and then to attract top-quality candidates is a whole other bar.”
RELATED CONTENT: Did An Oklahoma Restaurant Serve ‘Fake Steak’? Here’s What To Look Out For
