Oklahoma has begun to require an “America First” certification for teachers who relocated in the hopes of keeping away “woke indoctrinators,” according to the state’s superintendent of instruction.
“We will not allow these leftists’ plans and schemes to take place here in Oklahoma. They are trying to warp the minds of our kids to turn them into social justice warriors, instead of kids that are getting the most of their god-given talents to go get a good job, to go live a fulfilling life,” Oklahoma Superintendent of Instruction Ryan Walters told CNN.
According to Walters, new teachers from New York and California, known as majority Democrat voting states, must pass a certification test in order to teach in Oklahoma publics schools during the 2025-2026 school year, many of which began today. Testing of new teachers may expand to up to eight states.
Conservative media company, PragerU, developed the assessment test. The company’s teaching materials are approved for use in public schools in 10 American states. Republicans have embraced the company’s curriculums because they champion ideas that align with the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, but PragerU is not an accredited education institution and has been accused of spreading inaccurate information.
The partnership between Oklahoma and PragerU is a “watershed moment” to University of Pennsylvania History of Education teacher Jonathan Zimmerman, because the partnership will shift the company from being an outsider to influencing the certification of teachers.
“It’s official and it’s institutionalized. It’s actually giving Prager an explicit role,” Zimmerman told CNN.
According to CNN, the multiple-choice assessment test is approximately 50 questions, including one about gender which asks teachers which chromosome pairs determine biological sex.
PragerU CEO Marissa Streit told CNN that several questions on the assessment are intended for “undoing the damage of gender ideology that is forced and taught through some of these other tests like the PRISM test.” The PRISM test is administered in California for training teachers to “provide resources to bolster support for LGBTQ+ youth in California.”
Why freedom of religion is important to America‘s identity as a nation is another question on the test, as well as asking for the first three words of the U.S. Constitution, naming the two chambers of the U.S. Congress and identifying how many U.S. senators represent Oklahoma. Walters asked for a test “that is more wholesome and in line with the Oklahoma parent body,” according to Streit.
Founded by right-wing commentator Dennis Prager in 2009 and headquartered in California, PragerU “promotes the American values of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness through free educational content for all ages.” The core of the company’s curriculum is animated videos. With 1 million followers on X, PragerU claims its content is watched 5 million times a day.
The Oklahoma State Department of Education shared the state’s required standards and certification tests with PragerU in July 2025, which then compared them to standards for teachers in California and New York before developing and writing a new assessment for Oklahoma.
“You’re gonna teach that there’s biological differences between males and females, period. You’re going to teach American history and use primary source documents, not pushing a left-wing agenda on to our kids,” Walters told CNN. He believes that California and New York have required teachers to “do things that are antithetical to our standards and values as a state.” Oklahoma‘s assessment will help ensure “that these teachers agree to teach what is required in the state of Oklahoma.”
The assessment test, the first in America from PragerU, becomes a requirement as the state finds itself near the bottom of public education system rankings and is experiencing a teacher shortage like many states have since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You don’t sign up to teach schools because you hate America, that’s not who’s teaching in our classrooms,” Oklahoma Democratic Party Chairman John Waldron, who is a former social studies teacher, told CNN. He added that the assessment is a “loyalty test” from “an unaccredited agency,” and that it felt like “an insult to our profession.”
Oklahoma State Board of Education members pushed Walters on the legal merits of the assessment at the board’s July 2025 meeting. The board asked for a review and approval before release of the assessment, but Walters declined to allow them to review or approve it.
According to Walters, in his role as superintendent of instruction for the state, he has the legal authority to order and administer the assessment. He told CNN he will oversee and ensure the assessment is taken and passed.
“Every teacher that teaches in the state of Oklahoma will have to have a certificate that goes through my office. It has my signature on it. So that those will not move forward until this is done,” Walters added.
Democrats in Oklahoma expect legal challenges in regards to the assessment, which has already brought calls to their office from concerned teachers and parents.
PragerU’s short kind-friendly videos presented through a conservative lens with a focus on history, social issues like race and sex, history, climate change and financial literacy have been approved for use by teachers in public schools in South Carolina, Alaska, Idaho, New Hampshire, Louisiana, Arizona, Montana, Texas and Florida. The company’s website says the company’s goal is to counter “the dominant left-wing ideology in culture, media and education.”
Some of the company’s teaching content has raised attention for inaccuracies, such as a video of abolitionist Frederick Douglass which falsely claims that “slavery was a part of life all over the world. It was America that began the conversation to end it.”
President Donald Trump made a surprise appearance at a PragerU gala in December 2024 at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
“I want you tonight to think about all the good things you are doing. You are a spectacular group, and you are so successful. I have many friends in the crowd,” Trump said at the event.
In early 2025, the U.S. Department of Education and PragerU worked together on a new exhibit called “The Road to Liberty,” which debuted in early summer in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building near the West Wing. The exhibit features portraits of Founding Fathers with QR codes linked to AI-generated images to learn more about each Founding Father. A disclaimer on the videos states that the partnership “does not constitute or imply U.S. Government or U.S. Department of Education endorsement of PragerU.”
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Rebecca Barnabi
