Warren Lee Culpepper
Poor President Bush, I feel his pain. His education law calling for a “highly qualified teacher” in every classroom has yet to meet its mark – more than four years after its inception. I imagine this letdown has to gnaw on him, as it only adds to everything else the honorable man is struggling nobly to make better, like Iraq and America’s out of control southern border.
As far as the meaning of “highly qualified teachers” though, my illegal- fifty-one-year-old friend, Luis, from Texas (I mean, Mexico) would say, “El definicion es muy obscuro.” No Child Left Behind mandates that teachers have a bachelor’s degree, a state license, and proven competency in every subject they teach. All of that sounds pretty good, except for the high toll one must pay to acquire a state teaching credential and the various standards between states – essentially both are barriers for unwanted competition from aspiring teachers outside the existing establishment.
Not long ago I poked fun of the process I endured to acquire my teaching credential. I compared the requirements to a legal shakedown versus any meaningful training to develop competent teachers. I don’t know all the details regarding states’ laws, but I do know the process I endured would be exasperating for anyone with a brain or even a partial brain.
The experience is similar but incredibly worse than a trip to the DMV. Just the other day I was trying to register my truck and trailer. Despite all the documentation I had that proved I owned both, I failed to have my Texas registrations. One day later, I went to another DMV, still without my registrations. After spending another two and half hours waiting and explaining, I walked out of that office with my new North Carolina tags. What an educational experience. I now had my tags, yet I had brought nothing new to the DMV — I just talked to a more reasonable supervisor.
Now, apply that scenario to acquiring a teacher’s license, but add silly homework assignments, political-correctness training, ridiculous education theories, hours wasted in night classes, and strong-armed robbery to pay for all this work — and you, too, could be a teacher. Oh, it’s worth noting, I was already teaching full time on the provision I fork out my cash to pay for these classes, which failed to teach me anything worthwhile about teaching. My degree in English and my related experience leading Marines meant nothing to the credentialing program or the state’s department of education in terms of teaching teenagers. To my principal’s credit though, my experiences meant something to her. She needed an English teacher and valued proven leadership experience.
While my forced-credentialing experience wasn’t exactly extortion, it might define coercion. An experienced and respected principal had qualified me to teach in a good school – knowing I lacked a state credential; she had the opportunity to hire credentialed applicants instead, but she didn’t — this was not a district lacking “qualified applicants.” Furthermore, I was receiving excellent evaluations as I taught, but the state still forced me to pay a hefty tuition to a teaching college for experience that came nowhere close to what I was learning on the job. Are you getting the picture? This system is beyond broken.
When I moved to Texas, my argument against teaching credentials (the benchmarks defining “highly qualified teacher”) gained evidence. Texas granted me only a one-year-teaching license although I held a valid California teaching credential; I held degrees in both English and Communication from a reputable college; I had eight-years experience in the classroom; I had passed two Educational Testing Service exams for English language arts (the same agency responsible for the SATs and GREs); I had four-years experience leading Marines; I had earned a Navy Achievement Medal for superior performance of duty; and I had received Teacher of the Year honors from the JROTC program at my California high school. But now, Texas demanded I pay another hefty fee to take another test so that I could then buy another supposedly “highly qualified credential.” Considering I took nearly a 40% pay cut from California to Texas (I’ll discuss that in another column), I decided I wasn’t going to pay another cent to be a teacher. Although I felt honored to be the first pick from all applicants interviewing for English positions at my new school, I had decided I would teach only one year. Coincidentally, at the end of that year, my wife’s company promoted her for a second time within two years, and now we live in North Carolina. I still haven’t decided if I will bother applying for my North Carolina teaching credential.
Regardless of my situation, I return to the murky meaning of “highly qualified teachers.” The phrase’s obscurity is troubling. Not because President Bush is intentionally misleading anyone, but because the state’s education departments, the colleges of education, and the teachers’ unions refuse to push for what’s best for education: an agreed upon national standard for teachers. Regrettably, each group seems more concerned about how to pinch more money from aspiring teachers.
I propose that if an aspiring teacher has a degree from an accredited university and a clean FBI background check, a school’s principal and a staff department head should have the responsibility to evaluate the person’s qualifications for the job. Currently, the pool of teacher candidates is confined to “credentialed teachers.” Well, many clueless drivers have driver’s licenses. Many people have children, but that doesn’t qualify them as parents. The logic applies to teachers, too. Performance — not purchased certificates – indicates a teacher’s quality. Meanwhile education’s bureaucracy continues discouraging outside competition from individuals with proven performance and excellent experience in applicable fields. My illegal compadre, Luis, didn’t need a teaching credential to teach me some useful Spanish regarding the obscure phrase “highly qualified teachers.” Shoot, he doesn’t even need a driver’s license to drive, let alone American citizenship to live here.
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Warren Lee Culpepper is currently writing his first book, Alone and Unafraid: One Marine’s Counterattack Inside the Walls of Public Education. Additionally, he is a contributing columnist for The Publius’ Forum, The North Carolina Conservative, and The Hinzsight Report.
A 1991 graduate of Virginia Tech, Culpepper majored in both English and Communication. He was also a varsity wrestler. He attended the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia, and received his commission in 1993. He served four years on active duty before settling in southern California to begin his teaching career. He taught high school English in both California and Texas. He recently moved to eastern North Carolina with his wife, Heather, and their bulldog, Shrek.
Lee can be reached at drcoolpepper@yahoo.com.
Visit Lee’s blog at http://wlculpepper.townhall.com/