While there is much to decry about education in America at all levels, there are still many teachers who do understand the subject they are teaching with many even good at it. However, the adage “those who can do while those who can’t teach” is now the law in New Jersey.
“New Jersey Democratic Governor Phil Murphy passed Act 1669 as part of the state’s 2025 budget in June to address a teacher shortage, Read Lion reports. The law went into effect on Jan. 1, 2025. Individuals seeking an instructional certificate will no longer need to pass the Praxis Core Test, a basic skills test for reading, writing, and math that is administered by the state’s Commissioner of Education. Candidates still do, however, need to pass the Praxis Subject Tests that are specific to their degree.
“‘We need more teachers,’ Democratic Sen. Jim Beach, who sponsored the bill, said in May 2024 when the chamber cleared the bill in a 34-2 vote. ‘This is the best way to get them.’”
And who is responsible for pushing this bill? Unsurprisingly, it’s the teachers’ union.
“Just a few months prior, Murphy also signed a similar bill into law that established an alternative pathway for teachers to sidestep the testing requirement. According to Read Lion, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), a teachers union that is associated with the National Education Association (NEA), was a driving force behind the bill and called the testing requirement ‘an unnecessary barrier’ to those who want to teach but may not perform well on standardized exams.”
Sadly, New Jersey isn’t alone in allowing teachers teach without needing to demonstrate command of the subject matter.
“In 2017, New York also scrapped its basic literacy requirements for teachers, noting it was meant to increase diversity among teachers. However, according to the NEA, only about half of New York students in grades three through eight tested proficient in English and math during the 2022-2023 school year despite the state spending almost twice the national average on education.
“California and Arizona also lowered requirements for teacher certification by implementing fast-track options for substitute teachers to become full-time educators and eliminating exam requirements to make up for shortages in the field that were worsened by the pandemic, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.”
Education in America has a fundamental and systemic problem. It won’t be an easy fix and there is no panacea, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start working towards that now.
