Oklahoma will require teachers from NY, CA to prove they back 'America First' [View all]

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

Aug. 17, 2025, 5:02 a.m. ET


Teachers from California and New York who want to work in Oklahoma public schools will be required to pass a certification test to prove they share the state's conservative political values. Regardless of the subject or grade they teach, they'll have to show they know "the biological differences between females and males" and that they agree with the state's American history standards, which includes elements of a conspiracy theory that the Democratic Party stole the 2020 presidential election from President Donald Trump, which fact checkers have said are false.

The state Department of Education will implement the new certification test for teachers from the two largest Democrat-led states "who are teaching things that are antithetical to our standards" to ensure newcomers "are not coming into our classrooms and indoctrinating kids," Oklahoma schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, said in an interview with USA TODAY.

Walters has dubbed the new requirement an "America First" certification, in reference to one of Trump's political slogans. Oklahoma's Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Walters, a Republican, to the helm of the state's Department of Education in September 2020 and voters then elected him for a second term in November 2022.

Oklahoma is offering teaching bonuses that go up to $50,000 to attract teachers from across the nation and has seen "a dramatic increase in teachers wanting to come to Oklahoma," Walters said. The new test is meant to ensure they weed out teachers with opposing views from the state's standards. The state, like many others, has a persisting teacher shortage. He said the test will only apply to teachers from California and New York, for now, because those states specifically teach lessons that are antithetical to those taught in Oklahoma.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/08/17/oklahoma-requires-blue-state-teachers-america-first-curriculum/85510568007/

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The state, like many others, has a persisting teacher shortage.

Did their tiny pea brains ever consider WHY they have a "persisting teacher shortage"?