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To Restore Confidence in Public Schools, States Must Seek Out Fresh Thinking and Increase Transparency

Key Findings

  • States are experiencing a teacher shortage at the same time the public school system is losing students to private schools and homeschooling.
  • Across the country, colleges require divisive social justice courses to earn a degree in education.
  • Teachers who enter the profession through alternative certification pathways are as successful in the classroom as traditionally trained teachers.
  • Both parents and teachers want more parental involvement in the classroom, which helps students succeed.
  • States should make it easier for prospective teachers to take alternative pathways to certification and increase transparency in the curriculum.
The Bottom Line: The public school system needs fresh ways of thinking and more transparency to break the education-industrial complex and restore confidence.

Overview

There are two large and connected problems in the public school system. First, states from coast to coast are experiencing a teacher shortage, with 55,000 vacant teaching positions and an additional 270,000 positions filled by underqualified teachers.1 These shortages are especially prevalent in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields and foreign languages.2 Second, parents are often in the dark about what their children are being taught, or not being taught, in school.3-4 Remote learning during COVID-19 opened many parents’ eyes,  resulting in a massive rise in homeschooling and private school enrollment.5-7

Both of these problems are caused by the education-industrial complex that keeps willing and competent teachers out of classrooms and parents in the dark about classroom learning. This second point was exemplified by former Governor Terry McAuliffe (D-VA) when he said, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”8

To fix these problems, states should make it easier for prospective teachers to take alternative pathways to certification and ensure that parental rights do not end at the classroom door.

The system is keeping good teachers and parents out of public education

The education-industrial complex is a closed loop that keeps fresh perspectives and ideas out. On the front end, most prospective teachers are trained by schools that teach divisive social justice courses, creating a monolith of educators who are taught the same leftist beliefs in how to educate the nation’s children.

On the back end, there is little accountability because too few parents know what their children are taught in school. Since most parents are not alerted when controversial subjects will be taught in class, they understandably assume their children are receiving an unbiased, uncontentious education covering subjects like math, science, history, and English.

Roughly 80 percent of public school teachers enter the field after receiving a degree in education from a four-year college.9 This method is expensive, carrying an average student debt of $55,800.10 It is also time-consuming, especially for anyone considering public school teaching as a second career. This pathway forces many future teachers to take Marxist social justice courses to receive their degree and begin their teaching careers.

For example, Indiana University requires a course in “Diversity in the United States.”11 Possible courses to fulfill this requirement include: “Diversity and Social Justice,” “Teaching Mathematics and Science for All Students,” and “Teaching in a Pluralistic Society.”12-13 At Louisiana State University, future elementary teachers take a course entitled, “Education and Diverse Populations.”14 While students planning to teach English in middle or high school take “Student Development and Diversity.”15

The University of Iowa requires future educators to take a course in diversity and multiculturalism.16 One of four courses that fulfill this obligation is “Citizenship in a Multicultural Society,” which promises to teach “human relationships in the context of societal oppressions such as racism, sexism, able-bodyism, and heterosexism.”17 Not to be outdone, Iowa State University offers selections like “Social Justice Education and Teaching,” “Bilingualism and the Education of Latinx Youth,” and “Inequality & Schooling in the U.S.”18

Courses like these and others—many of which are required—set up teachers for a slanted worldview. There is little check on this worldview because too many parents are unaware of what is being taught in their children’s classrooms, often because they do not want to be a burden to teachers. Fortunately, there is a better way to educate America’s youth.

Alternative certification pathways are available and effective

Every state offers alternative pathways to teacher certification outside of a teaching degree from a four-year college.19 This is necessary to draw in second-career teachers with subject-matter expertise to enrich the quality of education at public schools. The main difference between the states is how approachable the programs are or how difficult they are to complete while balancing a career transition.

There are various options for different pathways to public school teaching across the country, but some of the most common include: certification through a formal alternative teacher preparation program such as Teach for America, Teachers of Tomorrow, and Transition to Teaching; National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification; Career and Technical Education certification; emergency and provisional teaching certification; in-district training; and teaching equivalency and portfolio evaluations.20 Some of these options allow prospective teachers to enter the classroom before completing the program, making it an easier transition for those with bills to pay or a family to provide for.

Studies have repeatedly shown that teachers who enter the field through alternative pathways are similarly effective in the classroom as traditionally trained teachers, and many support
superior outcomes.21-34

States would benefit from allowing less-restrictive alternative teaching routes. A study from Florida showed that these pathways attracted the most-qualified prospective teachers and that teachers who entered through paths requiring no coursework had a substantially larger impact on student achievement.35

States like Florida and Tennessee have excelled at bringing high-quality teachers into the classroom quickly with continuing support and training through innovative programs.36-37

Make parents partners in their children’s education

Parents make thousands of decisions on behalf of their children while keeping their children’s best interests in mind. Unfortunately, many public school systems fail to provide them the information they need to make informed decisions. Many parents are unaware of what their children are being taught, including controversial subject matters. And many are equally unaware of important topics that are neglected to be taught.

Parents want to know what their children are being taught and have every right to obtain this information.38 But many do not know, whether out of concerns of embarrassing their children, crossing boundaries with teachers, or even not knowing how to go about obtaining the information.

Teachers want more parent involvement as well, with a survey showing 97 percent believing this to be a good thing, but three-quarters say fewer than half of their parents are engaged in the classroom.39 Research also shows that parental involvement in schools can lead to higher student achievement and better social-emotional outcomes.40

The best way to encourage parental involvement while creating transparency is to ensure that parents are proactively informed about classroom lessons and given the tools to best manage their children’s education. States can make this happen by passing legislation that outlines explicit parental rights in education. Included in these rights should be curricular transparency, notifying parents of controversial topics, and providing an opt-out process from these topics.

This would give parents a heads-up before controversial subjects are discussed in class. It would also allow parents to prepare for possible questions from their children or discuss the topics as a family before their child learns about it from their teacher and in front of all their classmates. Parents could pull their child from a lesson if they are still uncomfortable with a planned lesson if they think that is in the best interest of their child.

These two reforms would help break the education-industrial complex

Opening alternative pathways to teacher certification and codifying parental rights in education would put a wrench in the education-industrial complex by bringing more people into the fold.

On the front end, lawmakers should encourage second-career teachers with fresh ideas who have not been churned out by a radical leftist education system. This would add voices to public schools with real-world experience who want to pass on this knowledge to the next generation. It behooves states to remove barriers that prevent these individuals from becoming public school teachers. This is especially true when doing so can help address a teacher shortage and they perform comparably to teachers who entered the field through the more traditional route.         

On the back end, lawmakers should create transparency and encourage parental involvement so that parents are fully informed of what is and is not being taught in their children’s schools. Parents want this, teachers want this, and it benefits students. A parental bill of rights is a win-win-win, no-brainer for states.

Public schools were already losing students due to lower birth rates.41-42 Now there is an increase in parents choosing to homeschool or enroll their children in private school.43-45 Change is necessary to restore trust in the public school system. Welcoming outside thinking and more transparency is just the ticket.

The Bottom Line: The public school system needs fresh ways of thinking and more transparency to break the education-industrial complex and restore confidence.

The public school system is in crisis. States are experiencing a teacher shortage, there has been a drop in confidence in the public school system, and private schools and homeschooling are both experiencing a surge in enrollment.

To address these issues simultaneously, states must break up the education-industrial complex. They should do this by creating alternative paths for teacher certification with limited restrictions and by codifying parental rights in education.

Encouraging more teachers with different perspectives while simultaneously creating transparency in the curriculum would break the education-industrial complex and help restore trust in an institution losing Americans’ confidence.46

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