Federal education officials, reports the Associated Press, are warning Virginia that it could lose federal money “because its standards for highly trained teachers are too relaxed.”
The state claims that the number of classes taught by “highly qualified teachers” is 95 percent, up from 83.5 percent three years ago. But the U.S. Department of Education is questioning those numbers.
Under the No Child Left Behind education law, all classes must be taught by educators who have a bachelor’s degree, a teaching license and can demonstrate knowledge in their subject area. At issue is how Virginia measures whether teachers are knowledgeable in the subjects they teach. For example, veteran teachers in Virginia can be considered highly qualified if they have at least a master’s degree. But the federal government thinks teachers’ advanced degrees should be in the subject they teach.
Predictably, victims rights groups are chiming in. The Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights said Virginia’s standard is unfair to students with disabilities. Said Executive Director Dianne Piche: “It’s almost like some of the states are saying that special-education students aren’t entitled to have teachers who really know math or really know history.”
If Virginia doesn’t address the putative problem, the federal government could cut $2.1 million in funding.
Is the problem real? Is this another example of federal bureaucratic meddling? Or is it a case of state bureaucrats manipulating the numbers to look good? I don’t know. (Conaway Haskins has addressed the issue in his column, “Teaching Our Teachers.”) In either case, it strikes me as an example of everything that’s wrong with a public education system accountable to three different, oft-conflicting levels of government: The system consumes itself with bureaucratic controversy.
In the next edition of the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine, columnist Chris Braunlich will highlight a brilliant, bipartisan proposal from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute that would end much of the bureaucratic nightmare.