Opinion
Education Letter to the Editor

We Can’t Legislate Teacher Quality

September 13, 2005 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

To the Editor:

Michael J. Petrilli argues that the No Child Left Behind Act will fail to improve teacher quality in our nation’s public schools because it was passed with watered-down provisions for ensuring that veteran teachers are “highly qualified” (“Improving Teacher Quality: Better Luck Next Time,” Commentary, Aug. 31, 2005).

Mr. Petrilli misses the point. The details of the No Child Left Behind law, its requirements for new teachers vs. older teachers, and so on, are irrelevant. You cannot legislate truly qualified teachers into the classroom, because the incentives for top-flight individuals to teach are simply not there.

If you have lax requirements, you get poor teachers (the status quo). On the other hand, if you legislate strict requirements, you don’t get a highly qualified teaching force, but rather a huge shortage of teachers.

Can we really expect our best and brightest to enter the profession and face a room full of needy kids for $25,000 a year, or maybe $50,000 after 20 years of service? While there are many wonderful, dedicated public school teachers out there, our current incentives have produced a teaching force that is woefully inadequate, and no act of Congress will remediate this.

My own experience is a classic example of why Mr. Petrilli’s argument is a red herring. I left a job in industry to teach in the public schools, taking a huge pay cut in the process. I worked for two years on an emergency credential.

As an engineer, I was certainly qualified to teach math, and I passed my content-area tests with flying colors. But the federal No Child Left Behind law effectively eliminated emergency credentials, so to remain a public school teacher I would have had to get a teaching credential by going to school at night and on weekends for two years while working full time at my high school.

I might have been able to afford the time and money to do that if my salary had been higher. But it wasn’t, so I became a statistic. I left for a private school. They don’t require credentials and often pay better.

What’s the formula for getting highly qualified teachers into public schools? It’s simple. Pay them better, give them smaller classes, and toughen tenure requirements. If new teachers started at $50,000, increased to $90,000 after 15 years, and had to prove themselves for seven years, instead of two, to get tenure, our nation’s teaching corps would improve immeasurably, as good candidates competed for these jobs.

Instead, the politicians and pundits argue and place blame while our kids are very much left behind.

David H. Goldbrenner

San Francisco, Calif.

Related Tags:
Opinion

A version of this article appeared in the September 14, 2005 edition of Education Week as We Can’t Legislate Teacher Quality

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Reflections on Evidence-Based Grading Practices: What We Learned for Next Year
Get real insights on evidence-based grading from K-12 leaders.
Content provided by Otus
Artificial Intelligence K-12 Essentials Forum How AI Use Is Expanding in K-12 Schools
Join this free virtual event to explore how AI technology is—and is not—improving K-12 teaching and learning.
Federal Webinar Navigating the Rapid Pace of Education Policy Change: Your Questions, Answered
Join this free webinar to gain an understanding of key education policy developments affecting K-12 schools.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Quiz ICYMI: Moms for Liberty Launched Its Own University And More
Test your knowledge on the latest news and trends in education.
1 min read
Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Moms for Liberty annual convention in Washington, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024.
Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Moms for Liberty annual convention in Washington, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Education Briefly Stated: April 16, 2025
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education Quiz ICYMI: Do You Know What 'High-Quality Curriculum' Really Means?
Test your knowledge on the latest news and trends in education.
1 min read
Image of curricula.
iStock/Getty
Education Quiz ICYMI: Lawsuits Over Trump's Education Policies And More
Test your knowledge on the latest news and trends in education.
1 min read
Image of money symbol, books, gavel, and scale of justice.
DigitalVision Vectors