Ohio's Proposed Budget Asks Teachers to Job Shadow Businesses

Kasich: Teachers should job shadow with businesses to renew licenses

Governor John Kasich's budget proposal is making headlines in education communities across the country due to a provision that would require teachers to complete an externship with a local business as part of their licensure renewal. The rule was proposed by a team of educators and business/trade leaders who sit on the governor's workforce board and who were asked by Kasich to come up with ideas to help Ohioans prepare for the workforce. The intention behind this provision is related to a growing concern that Ohio's schools are not doing enough to prepare students for jobs. According to this particular article, teachers who have completed similar externships have appreciated the increased insight into the type of work that exists locally. One of Ohio's teacher unions though is concerned that the provision is a requirement instead of a recommendation and is concerned that some areas of Ohio simply do not have enough opportunities for all teachers to complete an externship.

I tend to come down on the side of the teacher's union, I think. It is not a completely heinous idea but its execution might unnecessarily hurt teachers. I also cannot help but think that it is politicians and business leaders who might benefit more from completing an externship in a public school. The work that goes into being a teacher is unfathomable until you've done it yourself (or at least so I've heard). I also wonder at the fact that this concern about Ohio's students being ill-prepared for the workforce hasn't inspired changes to the curriculum instead. Across the country, specials that teach skills and trade schools have been cut or underemphasized when the opposite is what is needed. I learned how to write a check in elementary school as part of a math lesson. We were given a word problem about a series of purchases and then were instructed to write a check for the total. So we not only practiced our addition but we learned a practical skill. I didn't go to public school in Ohio but I know that these sorts of lessons have been deemphasized in the classroom everywhere. If we want our students to be better prepared for the workforce, it seems that the first culprit is what they're learning in the classroom, not the person who is standing at the front of it. Perhaps students would be better prepared for the workforce if that is the information that the ubiquitous standardized test was testing...