Teachers unions are gearing up for a fight against a controversial proposal in Gov. John Kasich’s budget that would require educators to shadow workers at local businesses in order to renew their license.
The idea is to give teachers an inside look at how companies operate and what students would need to know as future employees.
Melissa Cropper is president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, one of the state’s two teachers’ unions. She says she’s absolutely against requiring this in order for teachers to renew their licenses, but might be interested if it’s an option.
“So instead of taking a college course you could choose to do an externship that might relate to your teaching field. I think that we might have some teachers who would be interested,” said Cropper.
Teachers have to renew their license every five years and there are about 120,000 teachers in the state. Cropper says it would be a logistical nightmare to find the time and placement for all those teachers.
Copyright 2017 The Statehouse News Bureau
