[IvyMike]

I have two close friends who, right out of college, became teachers in California. Neither of them had teaching degrees; instead, they both started teaching with "emergency credentials" when that program was active. I really have no idea if they were good teachers, but they both seemed like they could be.

Within two years, both of them had independently concluded, "This job sucks", and they had returned to school to get advanced degrees within their initial field of study.

The thing is, they both loved the teaching part of teaching. Instead, they were both surprised at how much the paperwork and bureaucracy killed their spirits day after day. From their description, it was as bad as the worst Dilbertesque office drone position.

I guess setting up hoops to keep bad and under-qualified teachers out of schools is one way to go, but if your goal is to improve the quality of education, there needs to be focus on making the job a satisfying and attractive career choice. A lot of people think this means "throw money at the problem", but I honestly think, "minimize the non-teaching overhead part of teaching" would be just as effective.