Oklahoma’s ‘America First’ Teacher Screening Test Spotlights Partisanship Debate

Oklahoma’s recent “America First” initiative for K–12 education has renewed debate on partisanship in public education.

Teacher candidates from outside the Sooner State are now screened for progressive ideologies such as transgenderism or critical race theory.

Oklahoma Education Superintendent Ryan Walters said the measure was to root out “woke politics” and protect parents, individual rights, and religious freedom.

Critics have characterized the assessment as a political loyalty test that won’t help improve outcomes in schools.

But some education policy watchdogs say that other states have pushed politically biased directives for years in more subtle ways, such as through mandatory diversity oaths and equity commitments.

Oklahoma’s countermeasure is seen as a backlash that could result in scrutiny of subjective, not objective, classroom instruction across the country, including university programs, the policy experts said. One education group suggests a return to nonpartisan civics courses.

“At the end of the day, there are some real threats to free speech on both sides,” Adam Szetela, author of the recent book “That Book is Dangerous! How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars are Remaking Publishing.”

“You’re not going to put an end to this unless you have real political diversity in the teacher training programs,” he told The Epoch Times.

The Assessment

Conservative nonprofit PragerU developed Oklahoma’s teacher qualification test to “counter the harmful” effects of state-required cultural competency training, such as California’s certifications for supporting LGBT children, its website says.

“At a time when schools are being used to push radical agendas—from gender ideology to anti-American narratives—this test helps direct and support educators who are committed to teaching students the foundational values that have made America great,” the PragerU website reads.

The 34-question multiple-choice test mostly covers basic American history or government, with the applicants being asked to name the two chambers of Congress, the first words of the Constitution, and so on.

Several questions are rhetorical, allowing an applicant to easily determine the answer based on the premise of the test, even if the applicant believes otherwise.

These include “Why is the distinction between male and female considered important in areas like sports and privacy?” and “Should teachers be allowed to express their own political viewpoints in the classroom in order to persuade the student to adopt their point of view?”

Other questions relevant to gender ideology include “What is the fundamental biological distinction between males and females?” and “What did the Supreme Court rule in the 2025 case Mahmoud vs. Taylor?”

How It Came to This

Walters has prioritized the inclusion of the Bible in public schools, curriculum transparency, stronger academic standards, and an “America First” recruitment initiative to hire thousands of teachers who oppose progressive ideologies as he does.

Justin MacDonald, who heads the Academy at District Church in El Dorado Hills, California, said Walters was selected by Oklahomans to overwrite any left-leaning curriculum.

MacDonald said Walters has been transparent, unlike his counterparts that push “neo-Marxist” standards and determine curriculum behind closed doors.

“The classroom shouldn’t be a political battleground. That’s what’s happening,” MacDonald said in an email to The Epoch Times.

“But this way forward, of not just undoing bad decisions, but compounding them by including politically charged standards and requirements, is not going to have good outcomes.

“I’d say don’t teach 2020 election fraud or BLM (Black Lives Matter) corruption like case-studies; rather, teach the Constitution, the founding principles, and the contrasting ideologies that the founders specifically were guarding against when they envisioned our country.”

What Critics Say

Dennis Nolasco, a former teacher and the education coordinator for the EarthDay.org nonprofit agency, said Walters’s initiative—along with mandatory displays of the Ten Commandments in public schools—should not be considered an appropriate response to instruction about climate change or the Black Lives Matter movement.

He said those conservative initiatives aren’t geared toward classroom discussions between students and teachers.

“Curriculum debates often get framed in the same old partisan language and terms, but education at its core is about preparing students to engage thoughtfully with their communities,” Nolasco said in an email to The Epoch Times.

“It is wrong for any state to play party politics in the classroom—it’s not American and it is not what the Founding Fathers decreed.”

The American Federation of Teachers posted sharp criticism of Oklahoma’s recruiting initiative on its Facebook page, calling it a test for “political alignment, not qualifications.”

“It includes questions promoting false election claims and omits topics like racial justice and the murder of George Floyd,” the Aug. 18 social media post said.

Its president, Randi Weingarten, calls the test a major distraction that will discourage teachers from applying for positions in Oklahoma.

Progressive Education 

Nationally, teachers’ unions have played a role in influencing progressive ideals, as shown on their websites, Szetela said.

He said graduate teaching programs at most universities lean left, and students who pursue teaching careers are most often Democrats.

Undergraduate teaching programs effectively teach classroom management and relevant subject matter, while graduate-level programs—a tenure requirement in several states—focus on “higher theoretical level” instruction that promotes social justice causes, according to Szetela.

“It’s so unambiguously far left of center,” he said.

Emphasizing or mandating civics education, which covers the rights and responsibilities of American citizenship, could suffice as a politically objective curriculum, but liberal opponents don’t believe it addresses colonialism and inequality, Szetela said.

“It’s not wrong to feel like K–12 is heavily biased toward left-wing ideas,” he said. “Our country has been grappling with this for a while now.”

Suggested Middle Ground

The THINC Foundation, which promotes K–12 curriculum transparency, surveyed 1,436 parents across the country.

Two-thirds of respondents indicated they were unaware of the liberated ethnic studies curriculum, and few would endorse it.

Ninety percent said school curricula should be publicized.

Most supported instruction on “ethnic groups that have shaped American history and a concept of diversity that goes beyond identity” and also said it’s unacceptable for teachers to share their personal politics.

“We have to stop with this ‘oppressor or oppressed,’ and that you are either one or you are the other,” THINC Foundation Founder Mitch Siegler told The Epoch Times.

He said that the California Department of Education strongly recommends liberated ethnic studies but has yet to require it.

Siegler pitches a middle ground for liberal and conservative education leaders: Use age-appropriate materials, which should never include “thought pieces” from a university, and beware of any curricula from social justice advocates.

Teach that America still has problems and inequalities with nuance and balance, but don’t editorialize that our country is irredeemable.

“And ask parents and voters what they believe,” Siegler said. “It’s probably not from the far left or the far right.

“It’s really as simple as ideology out, critical thinking in.”