If we ever solve the teacher shortage. I believe that for high school public teachers a mandate that makes it so they have their degree in the subject that they are teaching and then get there teaching certificate would drastically increase the quality of the teachers. I am in high school and you can easily tell the difference in the teachers who got their bachelors and sometimes masters in the subject they are teaching. My AP Euro teacher didn’t get his degree in “Secondary Education” he got his degree in history and it is obvious. From his enthusiasm to his background and in depth, critical, and deep understanding of the topic. This policy I truly believe would get students more engaged and produce students who aren’t merely there to pass a test but and eager and willing to learn. Limitations to this are obviously all the current teachers should get grandfathered in. And there are definitely great teachers who do have there degrees in secondary education. Thank you
In my opinion we should be moving away from degree requirements in general.
Like you mentioned, this wouldn’t help with the teacher shortage. Increasing the time and cost requirements to become a teacher would limit the pool of candidates further.
It sounds like you goal is to have high quality, passionate teachers that know the subjects they teach well. I heavily agree with that aim, but I don’t think this change would help us get there.
Instead we should encourage more people to become teachers by making it easier to get their foot in the door, increase the pay scale, and reward good performance (learning rates, student engagement and satisfaction). On the flip side, to reduce bad teachers we should make it easier for schools to fire teachers based on bad performance so they don’t stick around for years. To my knowledge, teacher union contracts often require administrators to fire based on seniority rather than performance.
This is just my own anecdote, but I dropped out of college and taught myself programming and web development. I’m more knowledgeable and passionate about these things than any teacher I’ve ever had and have a successful career in it. I’ve often thought about how I’d like to teach a class or two at a local high school on the side if I could because I would have loved the opportunity to learn what I know now in highschool. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is possible given that I don’t have any degree.
I think we should be moving more in the direction of finding the best teachers we can wherever we can. Firing the bad ones, and paying the great ones well 
How about incentivizing it with better pay and other things which would get better teachers and still allow for those without those types of degrees to become teachers.
I have a bachelor’s in Early Childhood Development and 17 years experience in teaching (daycare/private school) and all the states will not let me have a license because I didn’t do “student teaching” but i can substitute in the districts. Plus all the teachers I work with currently love having me aroubd and say I’m good at what I do… Make it make sense (I am currently long term substitute in special education)