We've had the policy in CT for a while - when my mom started teaching in the mid 70s, you had to be working towards your masters, and you only had a limited amount of time to accure the credits for it.

I think it's the same in MA - most of the people I knew who majored in education were also going to get their Masters, either while getting their BA (doing a BA/MA program) or earning it in the first couple of years of teaching.