DEBATE OVER CREDENTIALS IS REALLY ABOUT POLITICS AND VESTED INTEREST.

FORMER Colorado Gov. Roy Romer may have taken on the most difficult job in the nation, as the new superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, and I wish him well. One problem he will not have is the large number of teachers under his leadership who are teaching under emergency credentials. This is because Gov. Romer is himself, in effect, also working under emergency credentials; in fact, two of them.

In order to assume this position, the governor needed waivers from the state of California for both a teaching credential and a school administrator credential, neither of which he holds. Being a reasonable man, I suspect the governor will soon realize that if he is capable of performing his job then many, if not most, of his emergency personnel can also perform theirs.

One of the popular myths, exploited by nearly all factions vying for political favor, is that teachers holding emergency credentials are a major contributing factor to the failure of our public schools.

This deceit has been repeated for so long and so often, it is no longer questioned, even by those who should know better. Al Gore has said it; Gray Davis has said it; as have many of their political opponents. Therefore, it must be as certain as overcrowded schools, deplorable Stanford test scores and rampant illiteracy.

Such misrepresentation plays well with many of those entrusted to educate our children. In essence, it lets them off the hook. Responsibility is conveniently shifted to those with the least political clout.

To school boards and school administrators this message interprets as, ``It isn't your fault. The problem is not enough funds to attract more 'trained' teachers.''

The same message is embraced by teachers unions with the implicit nuance that more fully credentialed teachers will translate into more dues-paying members and more political influence.

It should be noted that even though many with emergency credentials are also dues-paying members of teachers unions, they are often treated as second-class citizens, perhaps because they can be so conveniently used as scapegoats.

Apparently the often rich backgrounds and experience of these ``outsiders,'' plus being college graduates from a variety of disciplines, and passing the same literacy and mathematics skills testing required of all teachers, count for little.

I have yet to hear school administrators or teachers unions publicly speak well of the expertise, innovation and creativity that many emergency credentialed teachers have brought to their classrooms. The reason, I suspect, is such praise might diminish the perceived value of the teacher training courses which lead to full certification.

In that vein, the myth of emergency credential inadequacy serves teacher colleges especially well.

Over the past four decades we have witnessed the results of quixotic teaching theories and ill-considered methods emanating from the ivory towers of college and university departments of education. Consider the tragic fiasco resulting from the insistence on whole-word reading to the exclusion of phonics. Equally disastrous has been the exile of traditional math in favor of dubious experiments in the impressive-sounding but ineffectual new math, more recently followed by the warm and fuzzy ``Let us all get together and make a good estimate!'' integrated math.

When I was growing up, most of my teachers stressed individualism, self- reliance and taking personal responsibility for our accomplishments and failures. Of course, we occasionally worked on group projects; cooperative interactions are also an important part of the learning process.

Personal achievement, however, thanks to those innovative minds inhabiting the ivory towers, has fallen from favor. I have been dismayed to find that the norm in many classrooms is to work in pods or groups of, generally, four students. In theory, the students are to learn from each other.

Too often, I have found this to foster dependence on the strongest member of the group and to be an irresistible opportunity to socialize. I can only shake my head and wonder how reliance on the group is expected to prepare a student for the very highly individualized effort required for state-mandated testing.

Could it possibly be that this is at least some of the reason for low scores?

A substantial number of emergency credentialed teachers own their own homes, have run businesses, raised families, and held responsible positions in the public or private sectors. For them, teaching is an opportunity to share their unique observations and real-world, life experience with their students.

Yet in the politics of teacher training, it is not experience or expertise that counts, but the number of approved units taken beyond the bachelor's degree. The system is designed to improve both the cash flow of the teacher colleges and teacher earnings.

I would happily endorse the current methods of teacher training if a full teaching credential and the ongoing accumulation of college units undeniably resulted in better teachers. Yet I am not aware of any objective study that has shown this to be so. There are tens of thousands of competent and inspiring teachers who have no credential, and who have yet to sit in on a teacher training course.

This isn't about the children. The real focus is politics, money and vested interest.