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The State of Oklahoma is rolling out some major new rules for teachers. Oklahoma's public schools superintendent Ryan Walters announced that those coming from California and New York will have to pass a test meant to weed out radical leftist ideology to teach in Oklahoma.
The assessment exam will be administered by PragerU, a conservative multimedia nonprofit based in Oklahoma. Teachers will have to pass the exam before being eligible to teach in Oklahoma public schools.
Unsurprisingly, many of the same radical leftists who have used public schools as breeding grounds for woke ideology are outraged at the change and are claiming this is a violation of their rights, but is it really?
Education policy expert Dr. Carole Haynes points out Oklahoma schools have every right to do this. She explained, "As long as these teachers are being paid by the state or a school to teach, they are obligated to comply with their employers' mandates."
Top officials at teachers' unions, including Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, have voiced outrage about this, something that didn't shock Dr. Haynes. Haynes said, "We know how broadly teachers' unions, especially the NEA and the AFT, have been pushing all of this (woke ideology) into the classrooms. They don't want anything changed."
Haynes says most Americans are sick of woke ideology in their children's classrooms and want schools to focus more on actual teaching. She also suggested Texas implement something similar but said it would likely have to be done on a district-by-district level.