When the Techdirt community has had to hear so much about a single state’s education superintendent, you know something has gone horribly wrong. The horribly wrong in this case is Ryan Walters of Oklahoma. Walters appears to be doing some sort of combo-impression of Joseph McCarthy mixed with Donald Trump. In his role running Oklahoma schools, which rank near the bottom of states in the country, he seems far more interested in inserting Christianity anywhere he can into public schools, teaching children his favorite pet election conspiracy theories, and presiding over board meetings where tame but very strange erotic videos sometimes appear on screens.
Much of this runs afoul of the Constitution and the First Amendment, of course. And I very much wonder if the same might be true of Walters’ latest plan, which is to give transplants from certain states who want to become teachers in Oklahoma a “woke test” that will determine if they get a teaching license.
Teachers from “liberal” states who have relocated to Oklahoma and are seeking to work there must take a controversial new assessment, to be given for the first time today, that “keeps away woke indoctrinators,” according to Oklahoma’s top education official.
Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent for public instruction, told CNN that if applicants do not pass the test, they will not earn a teaching certificate to be able to teach in public schools in the state this school year, which begins for some Oklahoma districts on Monday. The superintendent’s office notified CNN on Friday that it had not yet been released as of noon, but that it was coming soon.
Now, I’m no constitutional law professor, but this sure sounds like the state government would be setting different requirements for different citizens purely based on the place in America from which they are emigrating. Section 1 of the 14th Amendment reads:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
I, and others, can certainly argue that these selective tests run afoul of that text. And I imagine someone will try to make that argument or another one, such as First Amendment violations, because this entire plan is buckets of stupid. At the very least, this well-publicized plan to root out the nefarious Marxist teachers from “liberal” states, whatever the fuck that means, apparently hinges on the idea that those same nefarious Marxist teachers won’t simply lie on the test.
A test that was created by Prager U of all organizations, mind you. Not the government. Not some scholastic body. Just a fake educational organization that pushes evangelical right-wing propaganda to anyone that will listen. Prager U has its own tortured history of trying to violate the First Amendment on top of its other nonsense.
What’s in the test? Simple civics stuff, for starters, with just a sprinkle of bigotry on top.
One proposed question deals with gender – asking teachers to select from a series of multiple-choice answers which chromosome pairs determine biological sex. Marissa Streit, CEO of PragerU, told CNN there are several questions on the test related to “undoing the damage of gender ideology that is forced and taught through some of these other tests like the PRISM test,” referring to a training for teachers in California that aims to “provide resources to bolster support for LGBTQ+ youth in California.”
Another question asks why freedom of religion is important to America’s identity. Other questions include asking for the first three words of the Constitution, naming the two chambers of the US Congress, and identifying the number of US Senators. Streit said the Oklahoma superintendent had asked for a test “that is more wholesome and in line with the Oklahoma parent body.”
Expect lawsuits. Probably several of them. And if the Oklahoma courts are just, this facade of patriotism will be nixed out of existence.
But that it is even being tried is a sign of trouble for the Union.
Filed Under: assessment, education, oklahoma, ryan walters, woke, woke test
Companies: prageru
