“(And retired “boomer” business men, engineers, etc. have not as a group cultivated the art and skill sets needed for teaching. They are already marked as poor achievers in downsizing of their own specialties; that is, if they are still young enough to keep up with the energy of teenagers.)”
I don’t agree with your above statement. I know of several professionals, engineers and financial managers and such, who after retiring would live to teach in public school. And, I can assure you that after many years of supervising and managing people they have excellent interpersonal skills. Btw, education hours and a teachers certificate are not necessary to teach at the university level. Requiring them is merely a ploy of the teachers unions to protect their turf.
Are you one such person, or is this just an opinion? These other people selected what they wanted to do with their lives. I have, I did, and I appreciate the dedication, training, and experience of professional educators. It is foolish to think that a retiree from another discipline can just be plugged into a teacher slot.
Teaching is not something you decide to take up as a hobby. The reason schools require some course work in education is to get acquainted with the system, understand basic duties, and practice teach to see if you are fit for it. This is aside from the subject matter.
Furthermore, by retreading retired people, paths for employment and advancement of younger teaching professionals may be blocked. For what educational post is a financial executive qualified? an engineer? a product manager? Teaching is an art and a natural gift, not something you just decide to do.
And I'm speaking from experience. It's better that we reframe the context so that dedicated pros do not find themselves in the situation like the protagonist of this article, IMO.