In Oklahoma, teaching kids isn’t just about reading, writing, and arithmetic anymore—it’s about passing a political litmus test designed by PragerU, a far-right propaganda outfit that alters history to make it more favorable to conservative views.
Thanks to State Superintendent Ryan Walters, last seen losing his mind after being accused of playing porn on his computer during a board meeting, any teacher coming from those “radical” havens of sin like California or New York will now need to pass a PragerU assessment to get certified in Oklahoma.
PragerU, the brainchild of founder Dennis Prager, is a conservative media outlet disguised as a “university” that specializes in short lectures on why America was never racist and capitalism is the best.
Walters, a man perpetually auditioning for a Newsmax guest slot, declared the move a safeguard against the leftist brainwashing supposedly seeping out of blue states and into Oklahoma classrooms. Oklahoma is experiencing a teacher shortage and is trying to thread a needle by attracting teachers from all over the country, including blue states like New York and California, but doesn’t want them to bring snooty, arrogant, coastal values like compassion and reason.
To that end, he’s working with PragerU to roll out a 50-question test. Only a handful of the questions have been shared so far, including the old civics class standby “What are the first three words of the Constitution?” and some fresh ones, like “Why is freedom of religion important to America’s identity?”
Of course, they’ve got a bit of bigotry in there for good measure. As PragerU CEO Marissa Streit has said, there will be several questions aimed at “undoing the damage of gender ideology.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, one of America’s largest teachers unions, disagrees with her colleagues, calling the Prager test a “MAGA loyalty test.” Others, like Tina Ellsworth of the National Council for the Social Studies, say the test clashes directly with constitutional values by requiring ideological purity as a job qualification.
Scary stuff is happening in Oklahoma, and it can all be traced back to Ryan Walters, a man who seems quite desperate for Trump’s attention. Luckily, some local lawmakers see right through it. State Rep. John Waldron, a former teacher himself, says this is more about politics than education. “If you want to see a textbook definition of indoctrination, how about a loyalty test for teachers,” said Waldron. “It’s a sad echo of a more paranoid past.”
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