A new Kansas licensure proposal would enable school districts, rather than the state, to do their own screening and training of alternate route teachers.

Kansas currently has on the books some of the standard state policies that render so many "alternate" routes less than meaningful: alt route teachers have to take the standard education coursework during their first three years of teaching to qualify for a standard license--and districts can only hire them if they have "exhausted reasonable attempts" to find a standard-route teacher. The proposed changes would eliminate both of those requirements.

This proposal from a team led by Kansas education chief Bob Corkins would enable districts to fill hard to staff positions much more easily: of the 104 alternate route teachers in Kansas last school year, 21 were teaching math, 17 biology, 14 business, and 12 Spanish--all areas where districts struggle to attract highly qualified candidates

Corkins and Co. are likely to have a lively PR battle on their hands, of course. The plan gets a cool response from a Kansas NEA lobbyist, who stated, "Professional educators are offended by the idea...that just anybody can walk into any classroom and be fine." Who's saying that, anyway?