State Rep. Vernon G. Smith condemns bill lowering standards for teacher licensing

INDIANAPOLIS – State Rep. Vernon G. Smith (D-Gary) issued the following statement on the Indiana House's passage of Senate Bill 205, which would allow an alternate path to receiving a teacher's license that would skirt many key qualifications:

“In my life, I served many roles in education. I have been a teacher, a principal and a professor of teachers,” Smith said. “Never before, in all those years, have I seen a bill that so disturbed me.

“It is crystal clear that we have a teacher shortage in Indiana. We as a governing body bear responsibility for that problem by beating up on Hoosier teachers. On every side, our neighbor states pay more than us. And so we are losing our best and brightest across the border. This bill proposes that, rather than paying our teachers more, the solution to this problem is to lower our standards.

“However, that solution is not a solution at all. Instead, we get a microwave teacher program – There is no faculty interaction, no GPA requirement, no measure of disposition, no field work and, most alarmingly, no accreditation. Universities must meet much higher standards and expectations, none of which will be applied in this new program. Our teachers will still be leaving for higher paying states, only now some of those teachers will have received their license without ever fulfilling the most basic requirements we currently ask for.

“No teacher is where they are today on their own. We stand on the shoulders of those that came before. We have a responsibility to them and to the people of today and to the generations yet to come to take this seriously. Education is not a plaything. Every time we pass a law that affects it, we are reaching into the future. The choices we make will echo long after we leave this earth. We owe the children of tomorrow better than this.

“I am deeply disappointed by the passing of this bill. I hope that in our next session, we will work together to find real solutions to the problems our schools face.”

SB 205 passed the House on a vote of 63-26, along party lines.