A gigantic bureaucratic blunder may cost as many as 7,000 new Illinois teachers their jobs. It seems the state of Illinois, in its new certification law, mandated that teachers get special training through mentoring programs in order to be eligible for a standard certificate after four years of teaching that is required in Illinois. Accordingly, the state was supposed to establish provide money for mentoring programs. But now, a year after its passage, the state has neither funded nor started a single mentoring program nor has it approved any district-based programs. Currently, the only alternative for teachers whose license is set to expire in June is to earn a master's degree an unrealistic option for those teachers whose certificate are set to expire in eight months.

Illinois regulations are so burdensome that even the state cannot follow them. Now, thanks to that fact, classroom teachers' jobs are in jeopardy. Legislators are showing no intention of granting broad waivers to resolve the problem.