INDIANAPOLIS — Since taking office in January, Indiana schools chief Tony Bennett has frustrated some school districts by changing a snow-day policy and some lawmakers by opposing charter school limits.

But Bennett's latest proposal - to revamp teacher licensing standards - has sparked fierce opposition and created a turf battle between teacher colleges and the Department of Education that could come to a head today when the state holds its final public hearing on the issue in Indianapolis.

Hundreds of people have spoken out against the proposal, which calls for limiting the amount of teaching-method courses that future teachers take in college, as well as other changes.

Bennett, a Republican, said elementary education majors need to take more classes in the subjects they'll teach and that pedagogy - how to teach - should be limited to no more than 30 required credit hours combined of classes and student teaching. Under his plan, future teachers who want to teach middle school or high school would have to major in a subject area, such as math or English, and earn a minor in education.

Indiana University School of Education Dean Gerardo Gonzalez said it's “ludicrous” for Bennett to dictate the school's curriculum and essentially erode the school's secondary education major, which he said has about 200 students.

Gonzalez said IU uses sound research and feedback from students to create its curriculum - not an arbitrary limit on credit hours.

The Indiana Association of Colleges for Teacher Education also opposes many parts of the plan, said Kathy Moran, the group's president-elect and education dean at the University of Indianapolis.

Licensing changes earlier this decade shifted the focus from the number and type of courses college students take before becoming teachers to results measuring whether those teachers are prepared, Moran said. Bennett's proposal goes the opposite direction, she said.