State Bar for Teaching

Problem

For more than a generation, America has struggled to improve our public schools–especially in our poorest areas. This hurts all of us, because our country’s economic competitiveness depends on our ability to out-educate the rest of the world.

Solution

Representative Townsend wants to improve public schools by elevating the profession of teaching with a State Bar of Teaching patterned after the professional associations that govern the learned professions of law and medicine. Studies show that countries with the highest performing students have one thing in common: more of their best and brightest students want to become teachers. A professional association would attract better students to teaching jobs by giving them the autonomy, accountability, and tools to become excellent teachers.