The Nebraska Legislature’s Education Committee took testimony yesterday on bills proposing different ways to address the state’s teacher shortage.
Senator Lynne Walz said her bill to set aside $35-million dollars for retention bonuses for teachers and other school personnel is in response to a state Dept of Education survey last fall that found nearly 600 vacant teaching positions statewide.
Walz said nearly half of the 156 districts or school systems responding said they had no applicants for their vacancies for teachers and support staff while over half said the pool of applicants continues to get smaller with less qualified candidates.
The bill also increases loans available to teacher education students and forgives up to $10,000 for those who teach in high-poverty or sparsely-populated districts. Private school teachers who apply directly to the Education Dept for assistance.
Testimony was also taken on Revenue Committee Chair Lou Ann Linehan’s bill allowing teacher certification for non-teacher education graduates by alternative certification programs operating for at least 10 years in 5 different states
The bill was opposed by the Nebraska Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, which represents Chadron State and other teachers colleges in the state.
Association secretary and UNL Director of Accreditation, Placement, and Licensure Sara Skretta told the committee there are already alternative certification programs in the state that allow people without specific training or practical experience to teach.
Teacher shortages started well before the pandemic. The pandemic just highlighted it! Teachers leave because of no support from admin or boards. Kids do what they want, parents complain about everything and admins have no backbone as they are only concerned about keeping their big pay-checks. Main-streaming is a disaster, lack of discipline, and trying to do to much in a day trying to please all. One of these bills even wants tax dollars used to support private schools!
Perhaps if school districts paid teachers better there would be more young people who wanted to pursue the profession.