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Here's some interesting data you probably won't find in your local liberal newspaper: Across Tennessee, 36 percent of all secondary classes in core academic subjects are assigned to a teacher lacking at least a minor in the subject. That means more than a third of those classes are taught by unqualified teachers. The data comes from The Education Trust, a Washington D.C.-based education think tank, in a report titled All Talk, No Action: Putting an End to Out-of-Field Teaching. Only two states rank worse - Delaware at 37 percent and Louisiana at 40 percent.

The news is even worse for secondary schools with large populations of low-income and minority students. The Education Trust says 40 percent of classes in high-poverty schools are taught by teachers untrained in the field, and 39 percent of classes in high-moinority population schools.

French teachers teaching history. Art teachers teaching biology. Gym teachers teaching English. You get the picture. No wonder test scores in such districts are so low. This is what continuing to throw money at the entrenched public education bureaucracy buys you: untrained teachers and lousy results. No wonder the teachers union is so opposed to merit pay, voucher-based competition and other sensible reforms.

Since 1993, Tennessee taxpayers have spent billions of extra dollars under the "Better Education Program" to reform schools and fix education. It was "for the children." Test scores haven't improved. And the educrats continue to put untrained teachers in the classroom.

The report says, "Fortunately, the new No Child Left Behind Act recognizes that the key to raising student learning and closing achievement gaps lies in access to a highly qualified teacher for all students. That new federal requirement should signal to all of us that the time for empty talk is long over. To provide every student with a qualified teacher, education leaders must take action now to put an end to the practice of assigning out-of-field teachers once and for all."

Tennessee gubernatorial candidate and current U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary was instrumental in passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, the cornerstone of the Bush Administration's much-needed education reform agenda.

The Education Trust's report is available here as a PDF file.