Minnesota House Democrats want to close what they say is a loophole in the state’s new teacher licensing system, but opponents argue the result will be a less diverse workforce of educators.
State Rep. Mary Kunesh-Podein, DFL-New Brighton, is chief sponsor of a bill that would eliminate one of the more contentious pieces of the licensing overhaul approved by the Legislature in 2017. The so-called loophole allows teachers without formal training to work their way up to a full teaching license.
Members of Education Minnesota, the state teachers union, balked at the provision when the law was passed. But school leaders supported it because they thought it would help address staff shortages and felt there were other safeguards against ineffective teachers.
“We don’t need to lower the standards to make the teaching licensing system easier to navigate,” Kunesh-Podein told members of the House education committee Monday. “Nothing in this bill prevents a highly qualified teacher from out-of-state from teaching in Minnesota.”
Those were the two most prominent criticisms of the old licensing system — that it was difficult to navigate and made it too hard for educators trained in other states to become licensed. After years of debate and fine-tuning the new system was officially launched last fall.
OPPONENTS: CHANGE THREATENS DIVERSITY BOOST
Opponents of the change say it will make it harder to fill positions where there is already a shortage of educators, especially for career and technical programs. They also argue that it will harm the state’s ongoing efforts to attract more teachers of color.
“Please allow the new tiered licensure system time to work before altering major pieces,” said Denise Dittrich, a lobbyist for the Minnesota School Boards Association.
H. Adam Harris, a black actor and director who teaches at the St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, worries the change could mean students of color are exposed to fewer educators who look like them.
“They’ve never seen anyone who looks like me in charge of a classroom,” Harris said of his students. “There is no teacher prep program that can prepare me better than my career has.”
One in three pupils in Minnesota is a student of color, yet the teaching force of about 63,000 is 96 percent white.
ADVOCATES: MAINTAINING HIGH EXPECTATIONS
Advocates of the change say school leaders will still have the flexibility to hire working professionals who bring real-world experience into the classroom.
Dennis Draughn, a social studies teacher at Apple Valley High School, said the state should not lower standards for some teachers in the name of diversity. Doing so is “unacceptable and insulting.”
“We hold high expectations for students in the classroom and we should also expect the same in terms of our practice,” Draughn said.
While the change has the support of DFLers who control the House it faces opposition from Republicans. Rep. Sondra Erickson, R-Princeton, who led the effort to rewrite the teacher licensing law, called the proposal an “insult to all the work that was done.”
“We need to give it a chance to work,” she said.