A long-anticipated overhaul of how Minnesota licenses teachers was thrown into doubt Thursday when Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed the legislation and asked lawmakers to improve their proposal.
In a letter explaining his veto, Dayton echoed criticisms of the legislation that fellow Democrats and teachers union leaders said were fatal flaws. The move came as a shock to Republicans who argued the bill was a bipartisan improvement to the often-criticized current system.
“We’ve been blindsided by this veto and that’s very disappointing after the thousand hours we spent working on this,” said Sondra Erickson, R-Princeton, who was chief sponsor of the bill in the House.
Erickson said Dayton didn’t recognize a compromise and instead was bending to the will of Education Minnesota, the state teachers union, and the state’s teacher colleges rather than the needs of school officials across the state.
Eric Pratt, R-Prior Lake, who was chief sponsor in the Senate, said the bill had broad support from the majority of the state’s education advocates.
“We gave him a very nonpartisan bill that he vetoed for very partisan reasons,” Pratt said.
Dayton’s veto letter said the legislation disappointed him. He said the bill should include the estimated $3.5 million in funding needed to implement the changes and that the new system needed more rigorous standards for licensing.
“We all share the goal of ensuring that every child in every classroom is taught by a
high quality professional teacher, and that our efforts to attract and retain those professionals
are aided by a clear and easy-to-navigate licensing system,” Dayton’s letter said, urging lawmakers to send him an updated version of the bill before the end of the legislative session.
The proposal would have consolidated work now done by the state Board of Teaching and Department of Education under a new Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board. The board would credential teachers in a new four-tiered system based on their qualifications and experience.
It would streamline the licensing process for teachers trained in other states or in unconventional ways. It also would create more transparency about why license applications are denied, a top criticism of the current system.
School leaders across the state hoped the new system would make it easier to hire candidates for hard-to-fill positions in science, math and special education and for career and technical high school courses.
Republican lawmakers promised to include funding for the new system in the education budget still being negotiated. They have argued that in the proposed licensing system, standards would be tougher than they are now.
Teachers union leaders said the proposed legislation would make it too easy for people with no formal teacher training to get licensed. They argued schools struggle to fill jobs not necessarily because of faults in the licensing system, but because of low pay and other challenges.
Denise Specht, Education Minnesota president, said more than 1,000 teachers contacted Dayton and other lawmakers this week urging them to oppose the bill.
“They found it very insulting the Legislature was trying to solve the teacher shortage not by helping them, but by opening the door to people without training,” Specht said.
Without changes Minnesota’s teacher licensing system will continue to be in turmoil. A lawsuit brought by educators trained out-of-state who say they were unfairly denied licenses by the Board of Teaching is set to go to trial later this summer.
“We cannot go another year with this broken system in place,” said Daniel Sellers, executive director of the advocacy group Ed Allies who has been a key critic of the Board of Teaching. “To keep the current (system) in place is harmful to schools and to teachers.”
There’s still time for lawmakers to update their legislation before the session ends at midnight May 22, but Republican leaders on Thursday did not commit to doing so.