Conservative Think Tank WPRI Suggests Removing Teacher Licensure Requirements Altogether.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story below never once refers to the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute as a conservative think tank, a glaring oversight, that suggests their partisan pontifications have something to do with good policy or relevance in the real world. 

Below WPRI takes its shot at teachers, again, by recommending we open our school doors to street wise individuals with real world experience.  Any successful business man, any successful partisan celebrity should be eligible to teach. But that just applies to our public schools. Private charter schools would be allowed to do anything they want altogether, with no requirements except to cash their taxpayer provided checks.

The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute calls for an overhaul of the state's decade-old licensing rules, instead giving control to local officials with a system that places more emphasis on teachers' subject-matter knowledge and effectiveness. The state also should explore removing licensure requirements altogether for charter schools, which are publicly funded schools that operate independently with more freedom from state laws, the report by the Thiensville-based institute recommends.

Oh and don’t forget the ridiculous but often referred to educational expertise of working parents who just magically know which teaching methods would work best for their kids.  

"I think parents and principals should have much more authority about who's in the classroom and who isn't," said Mark Schug, an emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who wrote the report 

Christina Brey, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state's largest teachers union, said "That worked back when we had a horse-and-buggy society. Should we go back to the time when we needed only a high school diploma to teach? That doesn't move our state forward."

That may make sense but unfortunately, she’s a partisan union representative, which is different than a partisan think tanks opinion. Who can believe anything she has to say?

But there's a bigger underlying problem rarely talked about. By taking well known “experts” and removing any requirement for all charter schools, WPRI has effectively removed any possibility of fraud taking place on the taxpayer dime. Huh? Stay with me on this: Like voter fraud, teacher fraud is secretly destroying our schools. Take it away conservative paranoia:

Schug contends … aspects of the licensing regime are left to individual teachers seeking licensure and relicensing, opening the process up to the possibility of fraud.

Julia D'Amato, principal of Ronald Reagan College Preparatory High School in Milwaukee, agreed. "The system is flawed," said D'Amato, who was interviewed by the researchers for the report. "There's too many ways that people can - I'm not going to say fake it - but not follow through on what they need to do."

So the solution is remove “licensure requirements altogether for charter schools?” That will show those fraudsters? Sounds to me like our friendly conservative think tanks are trying to come up with ways to teach their crazy failed free market policies in our schools, without using real teachers, all the while offering their own rewritten version of American history.

Heck, now all we need now is a "ram down your throat" Republican majority and governor...oh my god!