Why are education majors forced to double major??

Does your college even offer an elementary education degree? No college would force you to double major, so I'm thinking you just don't know what you're talking about.

It depends on your state's teacher certification program.

For instance, I went to college in Michigan. To get a teacher's certificate, you need a bachelor's degree in anything. and you needed to fill out a form for the certificate. That was it. Michigan is the among the easiest states to get certified, but that certification is only really useful in Michigan.

Perhaps that's why kids in Michigan often had teachers teaching subjects they knew nothing about.

My old high school in Michigan had hired a teacher with a Spanish degree to teach advanced Spanish, but when the school's Japanese teacher abruptly quit, she ended up teaching Japanese instead. She'd spent a summer in Japan teaching English when she was in College, but that was the extent of her Japanese experience. She admitted to going home every night, and studying the next chapter so she could attempt to present it to the class the next day.

By comparison, California requires teachers to have a degree in education, as well as a degree in the topic they want to teach. So if you want to be a History teacher, you have to get a History degree. A teacher certificate from California will get a teaching job anywhere in the US, and in a few foreign countries.

This may sound like a good idea...except that a Education degree doesn't train you to be a teacher. It's just a bunch of child psychology classes, along with a bunch of "education" requirements to make you take a bunch of useless classes - such as taking "education algebra" after you've taken calculus. It might not be bad if the "education" classes were about teaching the subject to kids...but in this case it was literally taking high school algebra for college credit.

A friend of mine once wanted to quit his job as an engineer in silicon valley and teach elementary kids arithmetic. Then he learned he'd have to get a bachelor's degree in education, which meant he would have to take calculus (remember, he already has a masters in computer engineering) as well as the stupid "education algebra" class, plus 2 years of a foreign language, plus a bunch of other unrelated liberal art elective classes, plus a year as a teacher's assistant (unpaid, of course.)

It would have taken him 4 years, cost nearly $80,000 in tuition (plus his normal mortgage and living expenses) to become a teacher, so he could start making $50,000/year - less than 1/3rd his salary as an engineer. He wouldn't even be able to afford his mortgage as a teacher.

Needless to say, he did not become a teacher.

Maybe you need to transfer to a different university. This double major requirements doesn't appear to be common and I"m sure you could find a university that would not "force you" to do this.