Free Republic

AUSTIN – Thousands of college graduates with no teacher training are expected to be put in charge of classrooms this fall under a controversial plan approved Friday to ease the state's teacher shortage. The plan creates a new two-year teaching certificate that allows college graduates to become instant teachers in grades eight through 12 if they pass a state test and their degree is related to the subjects they would teach. State Board of Education members cleared the plan on Friday even though a bare majority was against it. Opponents on the 15-member board were two votes short of the...

<p>Secretary of Education Rod Paige says a shortage of public school teachers could be ended if states put qualified non-teachers in classrooms, but he says the National Education Association, the biggest teachers union, is standing in the way.</p> <p>"There are still some guardians of mediocrity out there fighting to keep the status quo," Paige said Monday in an interview with USA TODAY and Gannett News Service reporters.</p>

<p>WHILE the Bush administration wants to make sure no child gets left behind, some state public educators say they may be forced to fire thousands of teachers who would no longer qualify for their jobs under new federal regulations, worsening a teacher shortage crisis.</p>