If you are thinking of teaching in Oklahoma, you better think again.

Oklahoma public schools superintendent Ryan Walters recently announced that certified teachers seeking to transfer from blue states like California and New York to teach in Oklahoma will have to pass a test to safeguard Oklahoma students from “radical leftist ideology.” Among other things, teachers will have to demonstrate that they know “the biological differences between females and males.” According to Walters, the test will be necessary before a teacher on any grade level can receive Oklahoma’s “America First” certification.

The 50-question multiple choice test will be designed by Prager University. According to its website “PragerU is proudly not an accredited university, nor do we claim to be. We do not offer degrees, but we do provide educational, entertaining, pro-American videos for every age.” Essentially, it is a rightwing digital media company. The test has not been made public, but the Associated Press reports that questions include what do the first three words of the Constitution, “We the people,” mean and why freedom of religion is “important to America’s identity.”

Oklahoma under Walters’ leadership is already under criticism for requiring that high school social studies teachers present 2020 election conspiracy theories about the election being stolen as a possible explanation for Biden’s election. In grade 9, students will “Identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellwether county’ trends.”

Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers called “This MAGA loyalty test will be yet another turnoff for teachers in a state already struggling with a huge shortage." According to Weingarten Walters’ priority should be educating students, but instead, it’s getting Donald Trump and other MAGA politicians to notice him.” National Council for the Social Studies President Tina Ellsworth charged “Imposing an ideology test to become a teacher in our great democracy is antithetical to those principles.”

Despite Walters’ fears, it is highly unlikely any certified teachers from New York or California we apply to teach in Oklahoma. The state with the highest average teacher salary at $101,084 and the highest average starting salary at $58,409 is California. The state with the second highest average and starting salaries is New York. Oklahoma ranks 34th out of the 50 states plus Washington DC with an average salary for teachers of $61,330 and a starting salary of $41,152. One reason for the low salaries in Oklahoma is that Oklahoma is a right-to-work state so collective bargaining, strikes, and union protection are illegal under state law and there are no union contracts.

In 2018 there was an illegal walkout by Oklahoma teachers protesting state education funding cuts by almost thirty percent, the largest in the country, during the preceding ten years.

As a result of the budget cuts, 20% of Oklahoma public schools were open only four days a week because of a lack of funds and many classes were taught by emergency-certified teachers and short-term substitutes because qualified teachers were leaving Oklahoma for jobs in higher paying states.