Teach for America recruits recent college graduates, young professionals and others to teach in low-income school districts around the country. Ohio's teacher licensing requirements kept the program out of the state. But this legislation would allow for resident educator licenses for those who have taught through Teach for America for two years, or who have a bachelor's degree and a minimum grade point average of 2.5, and have passed an exam for their subject area and completed Teach for America's summer program.
Schools then could choose to hire Teach for America corps members. Republican Rep. Courtney Combs of southwest Ohio sponsored the legislation.
"To be clear, this bill was not introduced due to the possible loss or need for talented teachers. It was introduced because talented teachers are using this path to make a difference."
But that sparked a debate on what the program really seeks to achieve - and who will really benefit or be hurt by it. Columbus area Democrat Ted Celeste said he was reluctant to support the bill now, with the legislation that would curb the power of teachers unions and others to bargaining collectively looking on the horizon.
"While we've been sending the wrong messages to our teachers, this is the opportunity to send a message to our young people who want to be teachers that there's an opportunity to do so in this state."
Other Democrats were more direct in their claims that allowing this program in Ohio is an attack on teachers. Clayton Luckie of Dayton said the requirements these Teach for America corps members will be held to are not enough.
"We want to make sure when they come into our classroom, when they teach my kids in my inner city school districts, they know what they're doing. Just because you have a graduate from MIT does not mean you know how to teach."
And Debbie Phillips of Athens said she doubts those in other professions would take a positive view of a proposal aimed at their industry.
"We do have a shortage of primary care physicians in the state of Ohio, and no one is proposing we should just open that up to any college graduates who've taken a five week course so we can get a bunch of young, enthusiastic new doctors into the field. Teaching is a serious profession, and we should continue to treat it that way."
But Republican Gerald Stebelton said there are problems in Ohio's schools, and Teach for America has been shown to help in other states.
"The problem we have with reading in our prisons isn't caused by Teach for America, it's caused by the teachers we have today and the students we have today. The problems we have with our failure of reading in third grade is caused by the teachers we have today and the students we have today. What we're trying to here it to provide an alternative."
That infuriated Democrat Teresa Fedor of Toledo, a former teacher and ardent opponent of the legislation.
"We cannot say we just have bad teachers. That is not a direction to move Ohio's education reform. And quite frankly, it is a direct insult to every one of us in the state of Ohio who have taught. And I will not accept that type of comment. Thank you. (applause)"
The bill passed in both the House and then immediately afterward in the Senate with all Republicans and a few Democrats voting for it.
