Cass Ballenger: “I would like to speak in strong support of the Armey amendment. H.R. 6 contains a provision that could be interpreted in…”

“I would like to speak in strong support of the Armey amendment. H.R. 6 contains a provision that could be interpreted in such a way that parents, teaching their children at home, would have to be certified in every academic subject they teach. This mess all began when an amendment was added to require the certification of all teachers in the academic subjects they are assigned to teach. The amendment was meant to disallow alternative certification. Alternative certification is based on the principle that certification, in and of itself, is not the best indication of an individual's ability to teach. Without alternative certification, even the president of Duke Power Co., who is probably the expert in the Nation on nuclear engineering, would not be permitted to teach even general science unless he first goes back to college for a teaching degree. This is ludicrous. In the process of outlawing alternative certification, home-schoolers were inadvertently harmed and that is why we are debating the Armey amendment. This amendment is absolutely necessary. I urge my colleagues to vote for the Armey amendment.”