Thousands Sign Petition Against Plan To End Degree Requirement For Some Teachers

Opponents of a measure that would let people without bachelor’s degrees teach non-core academic subjects delivered a petition with more than 37,000 signatures to the governor’s office Wednesday.

University of Wisconsin-Madison elementary education student Briana Schwabenbauer started the MoveOn.org petition against the measure after it was added to the proposed state budget last month. She said she did it because of her passion for her future students’ “quality education experiences.”

Schwabenbauer and other opponents of the plan held a news conference Wednesday morning, where they said the proposed changes will have a negative impact on Wisconsin’s education system and future students.

“It’s a loss for our children who are not going to have equal access to prepared, professional, and practiced educators. Thus, we will be robbing them of the liberty to learn,” she said.

Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, said the proposal would decrease the quality of teachers and the teaching profession.

“We as a state cannot continue to lower our expectations, lower our standards and expect Wisconsin to thrive,” Larson said. “We are better than that, and the state budget ought to reflect that.”

On Wednesday, Rep. Mary Czaja, R-Irma, who authored the provision, said new language was being drafted in the proposal to tighten it up, although it would still allow people without bachelor’s degrees to teach. She and other supporters of the proposal say it was meant to fill hard-to-fill teaching positions in rural school districts.

“We never intended this to replace the four-year teacher … that goes through the college and then does the student teaching, and has all the behavioral skills and things,” she said. “This is just to fill in opportunities where there is no one to teach these classes now.”

Czaja said among the changes would be new language to specify that people teaching non-core subjects would need to have at least a high school diploma. Those teachers would be limited to working part-time.