Want To Improve Public School Outcomes? End Teacher Licensing

The Federalist ^ | 07/06/2023 | Shannon Whitworth

[SeekAndFind]

To teach full time in a Wisconsin public school, one must jump through time-consuming, resource-draining hoops to obtain an occupational license. 

Our public schools are failing children by requiring strict, impractical licensing requirements and excluding highly qualified, would-be instructors from entering the teaching profession. We must create flexibility in licensing requirements to allow more experienced people to expand young minds. The kids will see the inherent value in this approach and respond.  

Our children are starving for people who can provide them with practical skills that will allow them to build a life for themselves.  There are many adults who have those skills and would love the opportunity to prepare kids for a jobs-based economy, if only they were allowed.  There are welders, machinists, lawyers, artists, graphic designers, writers, accountants and more out there, all with skills our children need. 

This is even more reasonable when you consider the shortage of teachers affecting schools around the nation. A 2022 national survey of schools found that nearly half reported having at least one vacancy. It is foolish, at best, to require that people in the middle or at the tail end of their career spend a year or more to get a license, especially considering the stark number of unfilled positions.  

I am an attorney by trade.  I have a degree in law, yet I am precluded from teaching about the Constitution in Milwaukee Public Schools.  I also spent 12 years as a business litigator, but I would not be allowed to teach basic supply and demand.  In 22 years as a practicing attorney, I communicated in court with countless lawyers, judges, and juries, yet I cannot teach public speaking in our public schools.  At Milwaukee Lutheran, however, where I am the director of the Free Enterprise Academy, I can teach all these subjects.

Why shouldn’t any principal at a public school have the option to hire someone like me with significant real-world experience? To teach in a Wisconsin charter school, a candidate only needs a bachelor’s degree with demonstrated competency in the subject area — having majored or minored in the subject or passing a content test or assessment. To teach full-time in a Wisconsin public school, one must jump through time-consuming, resource-draining hoops to obtain an occupational license.  

This past semester at Milwaukee Lutheran, a fellow teacher paid me the highest compliment.  He told me he was having a discussion in his class about courses the high school offered students. Several students said the things we teach in our Free Enterprise Academy were “what we really need to know.”  

Like most other teenagers, they do not appreciate reading Shakespeare or knowing algebra as much as they will later in life. But they did appreciate the practical life skills that I and others are able to provide by sharing our decades of experience. Where would these students be if the powers that be had prevented me from teaching them? 

Whenever I write a column on education reform, I invariably get a message from some education “expert” who pontificates that strict and cumbersome licensing requirements exist to ensure that only the highest quality instructors can teach students. The expert assures me that these requirements will translate into higher-performing students and schools.  My response is that this concept has not worked out in practice.  

With our public schools’ failings now fully exposed, we see that in most states and school systems, proficiency rates are in free fall. Now more than ever, our kids are less educated, less skilled, and less prepared to meet the challenges of adult life.  The situation couldn’t get any worse by trying a model different than the one that has been failing students for decades.   

These exclusionary licensing requirements benefit no one except unionized teachers. Licenses shield them from the accountability that a free market demands by keeping qualified people out of their schools. 

If we are truly going to reform education in this country, then we need to shed the old model that does not serve students’ needs. 

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Shannon Whitworth is a Bradley Freedom Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty and directs the Free Enterprise Institute at Milwaukee Lutheran High School.

[BobL]

Better solution is to PURGE teachers and administrators who have ‘Education’ degrees. Let them go back to school to actually LEARN something credible, like trash sorting.

[RightOnTheBorder]

But without those requirements a teacher won’t be required to go through a college “education” program and be taught to be a good little leftist.

[1Old Pro]

End the union stranglehold as well. But the best way is to offer choice with competition and public schools will wither on the vine

[Jim Noble]

Our children are starving for people who can provide them with practical skills that will allow them to build a life for themselves

SURE they are.

Garbage in, garbage out.

[Brian Griffin]

Perhaps states could subsidize Education 101 and Education 102 courses.

This might mean second-year students would only have to pay say 75% of two semesters worth of tuition and the states would in turn have plentiful supplies of possible teachers.

[arthurus]

The most effective single method to improve public schools is to end government unions. The second is to end totally federal government funding and regulating local schools. The third is to eliminate teachers’ colleges as a credential for employment (which includes licensing).

[Gen.Blather]

I was taught by the WWII generation until about 1965. They had no professional training. They were very good. Then, along came the college grads. It was a noticable step down.

[CarmichaelPatriot]

End teacher unions.

[Reno89519]

No, end teacher unions. Teachers should still qualify, but that qualification should be merit based, not union or political oriented.

[mikey_hates_everything]

Start with eliminating that fake doctorate, Ed.D. Almost every school principal in my area has one. And don’t get me started on the “Education” majors I went to college with (naturally none in any of my upperclass courses) as an Engineering student.

[mountainlion]

end unions, license with background check and performance based employment.

[SpaceBar]

This.

[GingisK]

The situation isn't as simple as that. A lot of the material one has to learn in order to get certified is actually fairly important. Teaching is not easy and requires some finesse. It helps a new teacher a great deal to learn how to deal with pupils of different backgrounds, learning rates, personalities, and so on. It is not intuitively obvious how to utilize tests to determine both student learning issues and curriculum faults. Teachers also have to identify signs of abused children, and how to deflect false claims of abuse.

I was stunned when exposed to the full spectrum of the teaching experience.

There is a lot of slop in the teacher certification requirements; but, it really can't be discarded out of hand.

[GingisK]

Our children are starving for people who can provide them with practical skills

My experience is that most students would rather not learn anything.

[Leaning Right]

> I am an attorney by trade. I have a degree in law, yet I am precluded from teaching about the Constitution in Milwaukee Public Schools. <

I’ll play the devil’s advocate for a moment. I wonder if this guy would be okay with folks practicing law without going to law school, or without getting a law license.

Now on to more serious things. I was a high school teacher for decades. And I see two things of value with teacher licenses.

1. It shows you have a good grasp of the subject matter. My first license was in chemistry. I had to obtain enough credits in the subject, and then pass a state exam to get that license.

I know the ins and outs of chemistry. I know the lab safety rules, and I can answer advanced questions the students might have. And one more thing. I taught for awhile at a private school where no teaching license was necessary. Some of my fellow teachers were quite competent. Some really didn’t know what they were talking about.

2. The license also (theoretically) shows that you know how to teach the subject. And here’s where the problem lies! University courses on ‘how to teach’ are almost always worthless, unrealistic trash.

I dunno. Perhaps an alternative might be to set a rigorous test for each subject. Pass that test, then intern for a semester under the eye of a master teacher. And that internship is important.

College professors don’t need to know how to motivate students. They just lecture away. It’s different in the public schools. You gotta learn the art of how to present a lesson.

[GingisK]

The most effective single method to improve public schools is to end government unions

Government unions have very little affect on the teaching process. The problems are many, but unions are the least of them. I've been a high school teacher. Have you?

[Mermaid Girl]

I earned both my BA and MFA in English. I’ve been paid to ghost write books for corporations, and have worked in editing, finance, tech. About five years ago, I decided to go into education. My years of experience counted for NOTHING.
Instead, I was made to go BACK to school to earn a useless final edgree in education (I went to an EPI program at a local community college...)

I am now SO sick of the education field, and was so disgusted by actually working in a local middle school, that I’ve decided to go back to corporate.

They can have their stupidity and catty cliques. The kids will suffer, but it’s just not worth it.

[Fresh Wind]

When I was a kid, my mom took a part time job at a nursery school while my brother and I were at school. She loved working with kids, and the extra money was welcome. She did that for a few years. Then the state moved in and told her that she had to take certain “education” courses so she could continue working there. She had two degrees, but that wasn’t enough for the state.

She quit.

[BobL]

“There is a lot of slop in the teacher certification requirements; but, it really can’t be discarded out of hand.”

In my case, I didn’t oppose the certification, but I do oppose the ‘Education’ degrees. My recommendation is to require a REAL 4-year degree (technical, if they want to teach higher level math or science), and then have them take the needed teaching skills classes at a community college.