Educational changes are examined from the perspective of consumer protection--the direct consumers are the teachers being prepared; the indirect consumers are the students and the society that supports the schools. During the colonial and early national periods of American history, there was an absence of formal and separate teacher education. During the common-school revival, state departments of education provided some supervision of practices in schools. Normal schools provided the opportunity for some separate preparation of teachers and the application of minimal standards for their selection. Teacher examinations were first developed locally, then by counties and by states, and were a primitive effort to assure basic levels of knowledge about teaching. This century saw the development of full-fledged state certification and accreditation laws and procedures that represent a more sophisticated effort to protect children and the public against unethical and incompetent practitioners. However, recent examinations of teaching and teacher education by critics such as James Conant, James Koerner, and Charles Silberman, demonstrate that all this effort has not in fact adequately protected prospective teachers from miseducation or their students from poor instruction. The direct consumers of teacher education have apparently decided they cannot wait any longer for higher education to improve and they are thus promoting teacher centers for inservice education. In Oregon and California, recent legislation has created commissions (containing educators and noneducators) with full legal authority to establish and apply standards for teacher certification and program accreditation. Perhaps Ralph Nader will turn his attention to the process of providing consumer protection for educators and the public they serve. (MM)