Could alternate education programs make colleges obsolete? Credit: Corbis
What qualifies a teacher to teach?That's the question being pondered by the New York State Board of Regents, which this week will vote on whether to allow alternative organizations such as
Teach for America to create their own master's degree programs,
The New York Times reports.
If approved, the action could put the future of education colleges in question.
"In a lot of respects, what the Regents have done is the ghost of Christmas future," Arthur Levine, a former president of Teachers College at Columbia University and now president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, tells The Times. "Education schools are on the verge of losing their franchise."
Teach for America places recent college graduates into teaching jobs without previous teaching experience or