A Small Victory for Licensing, But a Big Victory for Education

The Missouri General Assembly has approved a bill, which Governor Blunt will almost certainly sign, loosening the certification requirements for people who would like to teach, if they have a college degree in the subject they hope to teach and can pass an alternative certification test. (Hat tip to to my friend Don for the suggested link.) Here is yesterday’s Post article on the issue. In short, this bill will allow a retired chemist from Monsanto to teach high school chemistry without having to go through the lengthy teacher certification process. Rep. Muschany puts it very well here:

"We’ve got a crisis of a teacher shortage facing us," said Rep. Scott Muschany, R-Frontenac, the sponsor of the House version of the bill. "If Harry S Truman were alive today, he wouldn’t be allowed to teach history to 12th-graders."

I’ll leave additional commentary on this change to our education people, but I think this is a great improvement for education in Missouri. I commend Rep. Muschany for leading the succesful fight.