Massachusetts aspiring teachers can't do math.

Let's do the easy stuff first: Pathetic. It's a disgrace that the vast majority of people trying to be teachers in Massachusetts are mathematically incompetent.

Now for the interesting stuff.

In a world that is increasingly dominated by specialists, why should we care if 73% of the people teaching in Massachusetts don't understand math? Who cares? Obviously, as long as we're not socialist (oh wait, nevermind) pre-college education should be as well rounded as possible (with particular attention to not sacrificing quality for allowing for more diversity (I'm sure it is a sin to say that)).

Does it follow, then, that an elementary school teacher needs to be well rounded as well? In a school of 100 teachers, you don't need 27 teaching math, so there are plenty of math teachers to go around. Maybe schools should go away frmo the model where teachers teach a broad range of classes and just teach in their areas of expertise. What do you think?