Rethinking Teacher Certification to Employ K-12 Adjunct Teachers. Sketching a New Conservative Education Agenda

America's public schools are in a crisis. Despite investing more money in K-12 education than most other countries (nearly $15,000 per student annually), educational performance levels are stagnant. One source of the problem is a rigid and deficient process for selecting and employing teachers. Teacher certification laws, intended to ensure good teachers lead classrooms, instead frequently keep highly qualified individuals out of the profession. And the COVID-19 pandemic will likely further exacerbate the preexisting teacher shortage. The crisis demands a new approach to hiring teachers: It's time for K-12 public education to modify teacher certification laws to follow the example of colleges and universities in leveraging the advantages of adjunct teachers. This report describes what an adjunct teacher is, lists some benefits of adjunct teachers, and discusses what must change in order to implement an adjunct teacher model for K-12 public education. The report also explains why conservatives should champion for adjunct teachers and provides some possible limitations for adjunct teaching.