TexasCHLforum.com

Perhaps there is a difference in renewals versus original instructors? I recently went through the instructor class. I was originally signed up for the abbreviated 4 day class last September, and then DPS cancelled it. When they came back to me, they said the only thing they now offered was the 5 day instructor class. The documents accompanying that information said the following:

Experience as a firearm instructor is required. This class will not teach the student how to be a firearms instructor.

It didn't affect me in terms of signing up, as I teach at a range and have NRA certs. However, I know of several people who were told they needed to provide proof of the above before DPS would assign them to a class.

Also, I don't know if they are tooting their own horn to fill firearm instructor classes, but I saw this from the Texas Concealed Handgun Assoc (TCHA):

For the past several weeks rumors have been circulating regarding training standards for Concealed Handgun Instructors in Texas.
Following a meeting today with personnel at the Department of Public Safety, we are now able to give out accurate information regarding these rumors.
Under the standards laid out in Government Code Chapter 411 a certified concealed handgun instructor must also maintain a certification under one of the following provisions:

1) Certification as an NRA pistol instructor,
2) Certification by TCLOSE as a pistol instructor,
3) Certification by the Private Securities Board as a pistol instructor,
4) Certification as a pistol instructor under some other nationally recognized program of instruction.

This standard will now be applied to all currently certified instructors during the renewal year of 2013. This means that all instructors who do not already meet one of these standards must gain one of these certifications prior to your renewal as a certified handgun instructor for Texas CHL.

Now, that said, if the auditor said that the firearms portion of the CHLI classes as it was taught met those requirements as a nationally recognized program, then that is good news for those doing renewals.

In the CHLI class I was in, we covered minimal firearms material over a couple of hours, maybe. Certainly not enough to train someone who knows nothing about firearms, how to teach someone else who knows nothing about firearms, to a decent level of competency. That said, the CHL program as it is, is not really meant to teach someone firearms from the ground up. Some instructors may do that on their own time as an additional service, but the basic 10 hrs is not that. Perhaps for new CHLIs, they are requiring the certs to avoid a case of the blind leading the blind????