Florida's new governor, Charlie Crist, wants to certify the state's pre-kindergarten teachers--basically because he thinks it sounds like the right idea.

"How do you argue against having certified teachers?" Crist said. "I don't want to make that argument."

There are actually quite a few good arguments to be made, never mind that neither states nor the Feds should impose such big regulatory changes without some smaller-scale evidence that it's everything they think it's cracked up to be. Further, the new governor appears to also be overlooking the impact of new regulatory hurdles on teacher supply, given a severe teacher drought in the Sunshine State. In particular, districts are reporting surprisingly large shortages of elementary education candidates.

Rather than certifying Pre-K teachers, the state tackle the more fundamental problem of the chronically low pay that is offered to preschool teachers, resulting in programs having to hire too many unskilled, poorly educated teachers and aides. Flawed curriculum with far too little attention given to developing children's language skills also deserves political attention. Pre-K programs in America, in particular Head Start, do far too little to make up serious language and academic deficits that generally plague children coming from high poverty backgrounds--a problem that could be addressed by not having to hire teachers and aides who aren't suffering from their own language deficits.

Calling for more regulatory control that will require underpaid individuals to take a lot of questionable coursework isn't the answer. Crist may be thinking he is solving a problem--and avoiding a fight with the unions, Head Start, and higher ed in the process-- but the plan is not what is best for kids.