The Model Education Licensure Code has been jointly sponsored by the National Association of Scholars, California Policy Center, Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, Goldwater Institute, James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, John Locke Foundation, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Palm Beach Freedom Institute, and Washington Policy Center.
The Model Education Licensure Code provides three model bills to reform education schools and the education licensure process—the Education Licensure Nondiscrimination Act, the Education Licensure Review Act, and the Education Licensure Certificate Act.
Education reformers must include education schools and education licensure in their reform agenda, because radical activists use education schools and licensure requirements as their central means to gain power over America’s classrooms.
Radical activists long ago seized control of education schools and began to insert ever more radical ideology and pedagogy into teacher training. The radicalized education schools both propagandize would-be teachers and screen out would-be teachers who refuse to assent to radical dogma. The radical activists also use education licensure requirements to force teachers and education administrators to receive degrees from education schools—which ensures our schools’ education administrators and teachers are committed to radical ideology. More recently, states such as Illinois and Minnesota have moved to impose explicitly politicized education licensure requirements. The body of radical teachers created by politicized education schools and licensure requirements sabotage education reform laws wherever they can. Education reform cannot succeed so long as the radical education establishment controls the education of our teachers.
Our three model bills work jointly to eliminate the radical establishment’s power to select America’s teachers. The Education Licensure Nondiscrimination Act forbids a broad range of the different means the radical establishment uses to politicize the education of our teachers. The Education Licensure Review Act gives state policymakers the power to veto politicized licensure requirements imposed by state education department bureaucrats. The Education Licensure Certificate Act, building on initial work done by states such as Arizona, establishes a standard path toward licensure that bypasses requirements for an undergraduate degree and minimizes education-school requirements. These three reforms together will work to make it possible for a new generation of liberty-minded teachers to enter the classroom—teachers who will support education reform policy with a good heart.
Education Licensure Nondiscrimination Act
The Education Licensure Nondiscrimination Act provides a comprehensive solution to the politicization of state education requirements by depoliticizing education licensure requirements; depoliticizing materials for education licensure and professional development; requiring transparency for materials for education licensure and professional development; preventing State Boards of Education from applying for funds from external organizations that tie funding to politicization; preventing politicized external funding for education licensure and professional development; preventing approval of politicized education schools and departments; preventing alignment with politicized external education standards; and preventing group-identity discrimination in education licensure. We have carefully written this model language to respect the First Amendment—to bar the inculcation of politicized beliefs and pedagogies, not the free discussion of their existence.
Education Licensure Nondiscrimination Act
Education Licensure Review Act
The Education Licensure Legislative Review Act requires all existing education licensure requirements, and all forthcoming revisions, to be submitted to the state legislature and the governor for review and possible veto. State policymakers ought to be able to review and veto state education certification criteria—and state education department bureaucrats will act in a more responsible fashion when they know that state policymakers have the possibility to veto their work.
Education Licensure Review Act
Education Licensure Certificate Act
The Education Licensure Certificate Act creates a new, simplified education licensure pathway, which requires students to take a number of undergraduate courses, focused on subject matter content, as well as a standardized test focused on subject matter content—and no other requirements, such as an undergraduate degree or an education major. The Act then establishes temporary or provisional certificates for candidates who are still taking these courses and certificates of Professional Mastery for candidates who have taken further courses and tests focused on subject matter content. To facilitate access to this licensure pathway, the Act directs the State Board of Education to include as many courses as possible that are also components of the Core Transfer Curriculum. The Act finally forbids the State Board from including politicized requirements such as discriminatory concepts or service-learning.