Oklahoma will require applicants for teacher jobs coming from California and New York to pass an exam that the state's top education official said is designed to safeguard against "radical leftist ideology."
Republican Ryan Walters, superintendent of Oklahoma's public schools, said Monday that any teacher coming from the two blue states will be required to pass an assessment exam administered by PragerU, an Oklahoma-based conservative nonprofit, before getting a state certification.
"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, short for Prager University, distributes short videos with a conservative perspective on politics and economics. It promotes itself as "focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media."
Quinton Hitchcock, a spokesperson for the state's education department, said the Prager test for teacher applicants has been completed and will be rolling out "very soon."
The state did not release the entire 50-question test to The Associated Press but did provide the first five questions, which include asking what the first three words of the U.S. Constitution are and why freedom of religion is "important to America's identity."
Prager didn't immediately respond to a phone message or email seeking comment. But Marissa Streit, CEO of PragerU, told CNN that several questions on the assessment relate to "undoing the damage of gender ideology."
One of the nation's largest teachers' unions, the American Federation of Teachers, has often been at odds with the Trump administration and the crackdown on teacher autonomy in the classroom.
"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.
State Rep. John Waldron, the Oklahoma Democratic Party chairman, decried the test as "political posturing."
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