| Contrary to popular notions, teacher licensing in public | | | | done in the 1920s and 1930s as of studies in the 1980s. |
| schools does not insure teacher quality. A license also | | | | Whether measured by Scholastic Aptitude Tests, |
| does not even insure that a public-school teacher | | | | ACT tests, vocabulary tests, reading comprehension |
| knows much about the subject she teaches. In fact, in | | | | tests or Graduate Record Examinations, students |
| our upside-down public-school system, licensing often | | | | majoring in education have consistently scored below |
| leads to ill-trained and mediocre teachers instructing our | | | | the national average." |
| children. As we will see, it turns out that teacher | | | | "At the graduate level, it is very much the same story, |
| licensing is a protection racket. | | | | with students in numerous other fields outscoring |
| The notion that only state-approved, licensed teachers | | | | education students on the Graduate Record |
| can guarantee children a good education is proven | | | | Examination--by from 91 points composite to 259 |
| wrong by history and common sense. In ancient | | | | points, depending on the field. The pool of graduate |
| Athens, the birthplace of logic, science, philosophy, and | | | | students in education supplies not only teachers, |
| Western civilization, city authorities did not require | | | | counselors, and other administrators, but also |
| teachers to be licensed. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle | | | | professors of education and other leaders and |
| did not have to get a teaching license from Athenian | | | | spokesmen for the education establishment." |
| bureaucrats to open up their Academies. A teacher's | | | | Because of poor teacher training, public schools often |
| success came only from his competence, reputation, | | | | hire ill-trained or mediocre teachers, which can cause |
| and popularity. Students and their parents paid a | | | | untold damage to millions of children. Parents have no |
| teacher only if they thought he was worth the money. | | | | recourse to oust these teachers because most |
| Competition and an education free market produced | | | | teachers get tenure after a few years on the job. |
| great teachers in ancient Greece. | | | | In contrast, in a private school, a truly incompetent |
| Parents in America gave their children a superior | | | | teacher will not last long. Parents will complain, and the |
| education at home or in small grammar or religious | | | | school owner will have to fire this teacher to keep |
| schools for over two hundred years before we had | | | | parents happy. Also, for the same reasons, a |
| public schools or licensed teachers in this country. | | | | private-school owner will make every effort to find out |
| School authorities' claim that teachers have to be | | | | if a teacher is competent before he hires that teacher. |
| licensed for our children to get a quality education, is | | | | The school owner's livelihood and the success of his |
| therefore false. | | | | school depend on having competent teachers and |
| Today, in millions of companies across America, | | | | happy customers. Compulsory public schools can |
| bosses or their managers teach new employees job | | | | ignore parents, so they have no such constraints. |
| skills, from the simplest to the most complex. Private | | | | Most parents naively assume that if a teacher is |
| schools and trade schools teach millions of students | | | | licensed, he or she is now a trained professional they |
| valuable, practical skills. Thousands of college | | | | should trust their children with. Parents therefore lower |
| professors with masters or doctorate degrees in the | | | | their guard with "licensed" teachers because they |
| subject they teach, instruct hundreds of thousands of | | | | assume that a licensed teacher must be competent. |
| college students in subjects ranging from philosophy to | | | | As we have seen, this is often not the case. |
| electrical engineering. Over a million home-schooling | | | | One solution offered for this problem is "merit" pay for |
| parents teach their children reading, writing, and math | | | | teachers. Merit-pay programs would judge all school |
| with learn-to-read or learn-math books, | | | | employees on competence. Better teachers would get |
| computer-learning software, and other teaching | | | | paid more, and bad teachers, principals, or |
| materials. All these teachers are not licensed yet they | | | | administrators could be fired or demoted. How one |
| often give children a far better education than licensed | | | | judges merit, of course, is a whole separate issue, but |
| public-school teachers. | | | | just as private-school owners devise methods to |
| Licensing laws imply that only public-school education | | | | judge the merit of their teachers, so too could public |
| "experts" can judge a teacher's competence. These | | | | schools. |
| alleged "experts" are usually graduates of teacher | | | | Yet, if teacher licensing produced competent teachers, |
| colleges and university education departments. | | | | why do school authorities and teachers unions fight so |
| Unfortunately, so-called teacher education is often an | | | | hard against merit pay? The answer seems |
| academic joke or waste of time, especially to | | | | obvious--the system produces many teachers, |
| student-teachers who have to endure years of this | | | | principals, and administrators who may not "merit" their |
| "teacher-training" torture. | | | | pay, and might lose their jobs under merit-pay rules. |
| Steve Wulf, writing in Time magazine, revealed the | | | | In effect, public-school employees say to parents: "You |
| opinion that many student-teachers had about their | | | | have to pay our salary and benefits, but how dare you |
| so-called teacher training: | | | | demand proof that we know how to teach your |
| "Six hundred experienced teachers surveyed in 1995 | | | | children? How dare you judge our merit? How dare |
| were brutal about the education they had received, | | | | you demand that you get your money's worth?" Only |
| describing it as "mind-numbing," the "shabbiest | | | | employees who think the world owes them a living are |
| psycho-babble," and "an abject waste of time." They | | | | afraid to be judged by the people who pay them. So |
| complained that fragmented, superficial course work | | | | licensing does not keep charlatans out of our public |
| had little relevance to classroom realities. And judging | | | | schools. Instead, it practically guarantees that we |
| by the weak skills of student teachers entering their | | | | employ charlatans or ill-trained teachers. |
| schools, they observed, the preparation was still | | | | If licensing doesn't work, what is the alternative? The |
| woefully inadequate." | | | | answer is, no licensing. If anyone could teach without a |
| Many teacher colleges don't teach crucial reading | | | | license, like home-schooling parents or private-school |
| phonics or math instruction skills, nor do they teach | | | | teachers, then millions of new, competent, creative |
| science or history. Many "licensed" reading, math, | | | | teachers would flood the market. These new, |
| history, or science teachers have not taken courses in | | | | unlicensed teachers would compete with one another |
| or majored in these subjects in college. One survey by | | | | and drive the price of education down, much as |
| the American Association of Colleges for Teacher | | | | competition drives down the price of computers. They |
| Education found that more than three-quarters of | | | | would, hopefully, also put public schools out of business, |
| teacher-college graduates preparing to be | | | | since millions of parents and free-market schools |
| elementary-school teachers had no academic major | | | | would now hire these new competent, low-cost |
| except education. | | | | teachers. |
| In many teacher colleges, student-teachers don't learn | | | | Without licensing laws, anyone with a special skill or |
| specific knowledge in their subject field or competent | | | | knowledge could simply put an ad in the Yellow Pages |
| teaching techniques to teach our kids reading, math, | | | | or their local newspaper and advertise themselves as |
| and science. Instead they learn the history and | | | | a tutor in English, math, biology, history, or computer |
| philosophy of education and other mostly useless | | | | skills. Retired cooks, engineers, authors, plumbers, |
| nonsense. Also, many university education | | | | musicians, biologists, or businessmen who love teaching |
| departments waste student-teachers' time on socialist, | | | | could easily open a small school in their homes. If there |
| politically-correct courses about gender and minority | | | | were no license laws, these talented new teachers |
| oppression, multiculturalism studies, and other courses | | | | would not have to worry about school authorities |
| that would fit right in to a Marxist curriculum in Cuba. | | | | shutting down their schools because they didn't have a |
| Licensing also implies that parents can't and shouldn't | | | | license. |
| judge a teacher's competence. Yet millions of parents | | | | How would parents be sure they were not hiring a |
| in all fifty states send their children to private | | | | charlatan if there were no licensing laws? The same |
| kindergartens, grammar schools, and colleges. These | | | | way they judge their car mechanic, accountant, and |
| allegedly ignorant parents have no problem judging the | | | | child's kindergarten teacher -- by results, reputation, and |
| competence of teachers in private schools, and | | | | by being careful consumers. Naturally, parents would |
| withdrawing their children if the schools don't live up to | | | | make occasional mistakes in judgment because they |
| the parents' expectations. | | | | are human. However, they would quickly become |
| We judge the competence of our car mechanic, | | | | careful consumers because they would now be |
| accountant, and our child's private kindergarten teacher | | | | spending their hard-earned money for teachers. It is |
| all the time, and we do so reasonably well. Is there | | | | amazing how fast we learn to judge the work of |
| some mysterious reason we can't judge whether our | | | | others when we have to pay for their services out of |
| children are learning to read, write, or do math? | | | | our own pockets. Also, if a parent does make |
| Public-school officials who claim that parents are too | | | | mistakes in judging an unlicensed teacher, by watching |
| ignorant to judge their children's education are | | | | her child's progress she will soon catch her error. At |
| self-serving. If we allegedly can't trust parents with this | | | | that point, she can quickly fire the teacher and find a |
| job, obviously we have to trust the so-called education | | | | better one. Can a parent do that with her children's |
| "experts," thereby guaranteeing these so-called | | | | public-school teachers? |
| education experts' cushy jobs. | | | | The worst nightmare for public-school authorities is a |
| School authorities also claim that we need licensing to | | | | true free market of teachers who don't need a license |
| guarantee competence, so no charlatans become | | | | to teach. Fierce competition by millions of new, |
| teachers. Yet some licensed public-schools teachers | | | | unlicensed, competent, highly-skilled people might |
| are barely literate themselves or are ill-trained or have | | | | destroy public schools, the teacher unions, and |
| little knowledge of the subject they teach. Fred Bayles, | | | | teachers' lifetime security in tenured jobs. It might |
| in a "USA Today" column titled, "Those Who Can't | | | | destroy the licensing racket that protects their jobs. |
| Spell or Write, Teach," gave an example: | | | | That is one unspoken reason why school authorities |
| "On April 1, 1998, the Massachusetts Board of | | | | fiercely defend licensing laws--real competition terrifies |
| Education gave applicants who wanted to teach, a | | | | them. That is also one of the best reasons to eliminate |
| basic reading and writing test. The results of the test | | | | licensing. |
| were that 59 percent of the applicants failed. If you | | | | The only way to insure good teachers is to let parents |
| think these test results made the Board of Education | | | | decide who will teach their children, not bureaucrats. |
| do something constructive, think again. It promptly | | | | Millions of parents making individual decisions about |
| lowered the test's passing grade from 77 to 66 | | | | who should teach their children will bring forth the best |
| percent. Under the "new" standard, only 44 percent | | | | teachers. Fierce competition and an education free |
| failed. Note that all the applicants were college | | | | market would raise all boats in the teaching profession. |
| graduates." | | | | Teachers who want to succeed in their profession |
| Also, these same education students often score | | | | would have to prove to parent-customers or private- |
| lowest in academic achievement among other | | | | school owners that they have what it takes. They |
| high-school graduates. Thomas Sowell, senior fellow at | | | | would have to prove by results that they know how |
| the Hoover Institution, wrote about this issue in his book, | | | | to teach and motivate children to read, write, and learn. |
| "Inside American Education." | | | | Once this licensing protection racket was broken, |
| "Despite some attempts to depict such attitudes as | | | | parents would have complete control over who |
| mere snobbery, hard data on education student | | | | teaches their children. Our kids could then learn from |
| qualifications have consistently shown their mental test | | | | the best teachers out there and get the great |
| scores to be at or near the bottom among all | | | | education they deserve. |
| categories of students. This was as true of studies | | | | |