And now for another action that the Republican-led legislature of Wisconsin took that has teachers, unions, and their advocates crying foul again.
Last week, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that a provision approved by the WI Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee made its way into the state budget bill, easing standards on licensing for teachers in grades 6-12. One part of the provision states that if the bill is passed and signed as is by Governor Scott Walker, all that would be required to teach the core subjects of math, science, English, and social studies is a bachelor’s degree without regard to the licensee’s field of study. Another part of the provision allows those wanting to teach non-core subjects to not be required to have a degree–meaning that as long as they have “relevant experience” in that subject, they could be allowed to teach regardless of their own level of academic attainment.
Some outlets portray this as a provision that the Republicans sneaked into the bill in the middle of the night, away from the eyes of the sleeping public, potentially making Wisconsin the state with the worst-qualified teachers in the nation. However, both Republicans and Democrats were present when the provision came up for a committee vote at 1:30 in the morning and was added. All Republicans voted for its inclusion while all Democrats voted against it. And the budget process still has a ways to go before final passage and signature by Walker.
State Rep. Mary Czaja (R-Irma) proposed the provision. She stated that she put forth the proposal so that schools in rural areas will have an easier time finding and keeping suitable teachers.
In an interview, Czaja said the idea was to help schools fill specific niche areas, not to help people bypass a four-year degree and some kind of formal teacher training.
But when pressed about the impact of the broader provision, Czaja agreed it might make it easier to become a teacher in Wisconsin than in any other state.
“The districts are going to be the ones that hire these people, and I firmly believe that they’re not going to throw somebody in there that isn’t doing a good job,” Czaja said. “This is just flexibilities. They don’t have to use it.”
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers calls the provision “breathtaking in its stupidity,” adding that it “essentially ends teachers’ licensing, in the grand scheme of things.”
That would be a grand overstatement. School board officials have to answer to the people who voted for them. Like Rep. Czaja said, it’s not likely that they will allow just anyone off the street who knows a thing or two about a given subject to teach children.
As noted in the Journal-Sentinel article, unions and teachers’ organizations have a few words to say about this budget insertion:
Jon Bales, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators, said there are issues in Wisconsin around the recruitment of would-be teachers and the quality of their preparation. But he said the provision championed by Czaja is shortsighted and wouldn’t solve the problem.
“This is characteristic of bad and ineffective policy,” Bales said. “We think this puts all kids at risk.”
Christina Brey, spokeswoman for the state teachers union, said teaching requires more than subject-matter expertise. Licensure, she said, provides some assurance that the person has received training in how to teach children.
“Children all across the state deserve to have teachers who have proven they can do the job,” Brey said.
In a four-page letter this week to Assembly and Senate lawmakers, the Wisconsin Association of Colleges for Teacher Education said the changes would compromise the quality of adolescent education.
The association urged lawmakers to amend the budget, saying that putting unprepared teachers into classrooms was not only unwise and unfair, but “threatens the very foundation of a strong, competitive workforce.”
As for the governor’s opinion of the matter…
Walker was asked Thursday whether he supported the certification change, which he did not propose. He declined to comment, saying it was something he would look at once the budget passes.
Of course, the always mature Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), one of the main opponents to the infamous Act 10 law that curbed the power of Wisconsin’s public-sector unions, had to lob a stinker at Governor Walker over something he hasn’t done yet.
Will College Dropout Gov. Walker Sign Budget Measure To Allow High School Dropouts to Teach in Wisconsin? http://t.co/cywfw3Wv0g #WIbudget
— WEAC (@WEAC) May 29, 2015
I’m sure that’ll keep him from approving the budget. They’re basically saying that the Governor of Wisconsin shouldn’t be allowed to be a licensed teacher in his own state.
Reading about this on some sites, I find it amusing that one line of argument being used is that soon, the low-down, dirty GOP will allow practically anyone to become a doctor, seeing how they’ll let anyone become a teacher now. But after looking at WI state statutes, one would notice that the section “License to Practice Medicine and Surgery” is three pages long while the section “Teacher Education Program Approval and Licenses” is 26 pages long. So in comparison, Wisconsin is already letting just about anyone become a licensed doctor.
My thought on this is that if you’re a top-notch mechanic or carpenter, fluent and well-studied in another language, or excellent in some other area of expertise, you could be qualified to teach. If you have a talent and history of teaching your skills to others, and you want to pass your knowledge down to children, why shouldn’t you be able to? Would it be better to have a teacher who has spent his life in academia merely teaching that sort of subject, or does it make perfect sense for middle- and high-school students to be taught by people with real-world experience who have actually become successful at those lines of work?
As for the other part where anyone with a bachelor’s degree could be allowed to teach the core subjects, I’m not sure how I feel about that. It does seem weird that someone who got a degree in English would end up teaching math. But seeing as they had to go through the process of getting the bachelor’s degree, which requires a decent amount of knowledge of all core subjects, perhaps such an arrangement could work. I’ll leave that debate for others to argue for now.
