by Bruce Walker
A Republican legislator has introduced a bill intended to curtail Michigan’s alleged teacher shortage.
The House Education Committee heard testimony related to House Bill 5685 on Monday. The bill, introduced by Rep. Pamela Hornberger, R-Chesterfield Twp., if passed, would allow public schools to hire college education majors prior to their certification as teachers.
The bill would amend current state law governing public school teaching qualifications. HB 5685, in part, reads: “[T]he board of a school district or intermediate school district or board of directors of a public school academy may employ directly, through a contract, or contract for a full-time or part-time noncertificated, nonendorsed student teacher without a permit to teach in a school operated by the board for not longer than 1 year.”
A House Fiscal Agency analysis of the bill noted an August 2020 Michigan Department of Education memorandum, which claimed “students enrolled in teacher preparation programs have long been underutilized in filling vacancies when districts struggle to find fully certified teachers.”
The analysis also references a November 2021 MDE memo identifying “the teacher shortage as the greatest issue facing Michigan schools and school children. Among its recommendations to address the shortage was a stipend for student teachers willing to relocate to high-needs school districts. The proposed stipend would pay for relocation and housing and would last for up to one year.”
The HFA analysis said any additional MDE costs attributable to HB 5685 “would likely be absorbed using existing staff time,” while concluding the bill overall would reduce costs for Intermediate School Districts, districts, and Public School Academies. The analysis didn’t provide amounts for the projected savings.
According to research conducted by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the so-called “teacher shortage” only applies to certain disciplines within the pedagogical profession. In an essay published by the think tank last summer, authors Ben DeGrow, education policy director, and Jarrett Skorup, senior director of marketing and communications, state many schools receive an abundance of applications for elementary school, physical education, and high school English teachers. Filling teaching positions, they add, in physics, skilled trades, and special education is far more difficult.
Because school union contracts make it difficult for schools to offer larger salaries for harder to fill teaching positions, there exists a pronounced shortage of teachers in those disciplines, DeGrow and Skorup wrote.
Nevertheless, DeGrow expressed his approval of HB 5685.
“Time and time again, the COVID experience has exposed how Michigan’s public school bureaucracy has proven too rigid to meet diverse and changing needs,” DeGrow told The Center Square. “That red tape includes many of the rules used to restrict entry into the teaching profession. This new legislation represents one more tool schools could put in their toolboxes to cut red tape and help ensure students access to classroom instruction.”
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Bruce Walker is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as editor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s MichiganScience magazine and The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News.
