Give school districts licensing f lexibility
The slogan for the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association is “MTEAching all children.” Clearly the authors of this boast haven’t met the Children of Auer Avenue Elementary school.
In what could be described as possibly the most counterproductive protest in recent history, teachers from Auer Elementary linked arms around the school in objection to a legislative proposal that would allow the Milwaukee county executive to take over failing schools. But as the authors of that proposal quickly pointed out, according to state testing, exactly 0% of students at Auer are proficient in reading. The protest only served to illuminate the utter failure of the status quo in Milwaukee’s public schools.
But all the teachers chanting “Our schools! Our solutions!” have something in common other than the fact that none of them currently teach a student who can read proficiently: Every one of them has a state-granted teaching license.
Teachers unions argue that teacher licensure is a means ensuring quality in the education system. But it also undoubtedly keeps quality people out of the system by erecting insurmountable barriers to entry. Currently, the state rules for licensing doctors runs three pages, with three definitions and one subchapter. The rules for licensing teachers comprise 26 pages, with 63 definitions and 13 subchapters.
But as Auer Elementary shows us, simply granting a teaching license doesn’t guarantee quality — it certainly does, however guarantee protection for teachers union jobs. Yet in the past four years, the National Council on Teacher Quality has looked at the state’s licensing framework and given Wisconsin grades of “D,” “D+,” “C-“and “C” in its ranking of teacher preparedness.
Last week, the Legislature’s budget-writing committee passed a motion that would have loosened the state’s liof Christian Schneider is a Journal Sentinel columnist and blogger. Email cschneider@jrn.com. Twitter: @Schneider_CM
censing requirements, allowing people with more “real-world” experience to help out in schools.
Those with an interest in the status quo have tried to scare the public, saying the proposal would suddenly allow non-college degree holders to teach in Wisconsin schools. But according to federal law, all teachers in the areas of English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economic, art, history and geography must have bachelor’s degrees. Under the state budget proposal, a prospective teacher in English, science, math, and social studies, aside from needing a bachelor’s degree, could be granted a license based on a determination by the local school board rather than the state Department of Instruction.
There would be non-“core” subjects such as physical education and art that could be taught by non-degree holders, but that individual still would have to demonstrate to the local school board that he or she possesses relevant proficiency and experience. Under the current system, Toulouse-Lautrec couldn’t teach a painting course in Sheboygan; Ben Franklin couldn’t teach a course on the American Revolution in Iola.
Further, the state already has a program that allows non-degree holders to teach career and technical education courses in public schools. The GOP motion sets out a framework for people with specialization in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to teach without a bachelor’s degree if they can demonstrate proficiency in their field. For instance, a small rural school district could hire a skilled auto mechanic to teach a single class in the event it couldn’t afford to hire a full-time teacher. The students ultimately benefit.
And it’s not as if there isn’t a model for flexibility. Private schools are under no legal obligation to hire anyone with a state license. Yet they still routinely hire licensed teachers because they are the best fit for their schools and quality levels they are striving for; public school districts presumably would come to the same conclusion.
And clearly, parents not only fight to get their kids into private schools, they pay a great deal of tuition money to keep them there. The private school system created many of the state’s most notable politicians, including Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and former Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson, and yet, somehow, they were both able to get a top-shelf education in the absence of any state licensing regulations.
It’s no coincidence that state teacher licensure was made mandatory in the early 1970s, at the same time teachers unions rose to prominence in the state. Licensing is primarily a teacher job protection plan.
There’s a reason teachers believe public schools are “our schools” — they consider them their own impenetrable fortresses of job security. But schools are not jobs programs, they are there to educate kids. And at Auer, it seems “our school” could use some help from the outside world.