This year, the Florida Legislature passed legislation allowing classical schools to hire teachers without having to jump through the usual hoops to confirm their state education certificates.

As the founder of an organization dedicated to expanding access to classical education, I'm grateful.

Existing teacher certification rules aren't a logical fit for classical schools, which are rooted in the Greek and Roman traditions of academic excellence and character development.

The new law will allow a teacher who specializes in Latin to teach students about the rhetoric of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius without having to jump through more hoops to obtain a credential in English Language Arts.

But this change reminds me, a former certified public accountant, of the loopholes and deductions that get written into the tax code. Well-connected companies and special interests engineer ways to lower their tax bills while ordinary taxpayers get stuck with higher rates.

Classical schools will benefit from this new carve-out in state laws. But political leaders should be looking for ways to lower barriers to entry for all aspiring educators.

Leaders of classical schools know what to look for when they hire new teachers: instructors with strong character who are well read in the great books of Western civilization.

Other schools might have different priorities. A school focused on science and technology might want to attract career switchers with engineering backgrounds. A career academy will prioritize industry certifications and practical job skills. A performing arts school will look for teachers who have taken the stage professionally.

Different schools prioritize different skills and values. Their specific qualifications have one thing in common: They have little to do with whether a prospective teacher earned a degree from a traditional teacher preparation program or passed state-mandated exams.

But those are the requirements state laws prioritize for all prospective teachers.

Research has consistently shown that the requirements to get a state teaching certificate are, at best, loosely connected to a teacher’s effectiveness in helping students learn.

Classical education teachers in Florida will soon be able to bypass the most onerous certification requirements.

They will still have to have a bachelor’s degree, pass a background check, and be of good moral character. But other decisions about who qualifies to teach in a classical education environment will be back where they belong: with principals.

The current teacher licensure system assumes they need colleges of education and state bureaucrats to screen effective candidates for them.

It forces teachers to take on debt to get traditional education degrees that don’t make economic sense for them, and doesn’t even guarantee they will be effective on the job. Teachers who come to the profession from any path other than a traditional education college often have to get a temporary teaching certificate—and by the time they’re done jumping through the remaining hoops, many give up and take another job.

Effective principals know how to recruit, hire and retain and hire effective teachers for their schools.

School principals are some of the most trusted authority figures in American society. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found their standing took a hit when schools closed during the pandemic, but they still have two and half times as much public trust as politicians.

So why do we allow politicians and state bureaucrats to serve as gatekeepers to the teaching profession?

It’s time to shift power back where it belongs — to the principals.

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Erika Donalds is CEO of OptimaEd and a Visiting Fellow in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation.

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