Know how to teach?
Licensed teachers are hard to find in certain subject and geographic areas in Kansas, and getting more so. But a proposed remedy – easing the hiring of unlicensed and inexperienced teachers in certain “innovative districts” – furthers the impression that state leaders are waging a war on teaching as a profession.
At least 3,720 teachers left Kansas or the teaching workforce after the 2014-15 school year, the Associated Press reported, compared with 2,150 a couple of years ago. The exodus is attributable to 2,326 retirements this spring but also to funding cuts and fears of more, as well as low salaries and recent legislative actions such as stripping terminated teachers of due-process rights. There also have been proposals to curtail teachers’ bargaining rights and enable their prosecution for presenting materials deemed harmful to minors.
It’s in that context that the State Board of Education is expected to vote Tuesday whether and how six “innovative districts” created under 2013 legislation can hire people to teach who lack licenses and education degrees. Under the proposal, the prospective employees would have to pass background checks and be approved by state and local school boards and the Coalition of Innovative School Districts in order to secure “specialized teaching certificates.”
Some of the innovative districts’ ideas stress the specialized nature of the need, including Marysville’s desire for a chef to teach culinary arts and Hugoton’s outsize demand for Spanish-speaking teachers. Other innovative districts – notably Blue Valley in populous Johnson County – are less able to argue credibly that they can’t find teachers.
That raises the risk that the relaxed hiring rules will serve convenience rather than need, and end up ill-serving students. And though the move would affect only six districts now, the state expects to allow dozens to earn the innovative designation – making this a key decision for schools and students statewide.
The state already allows districts to hire unlicensed teachers under certain controlled circumstances, including for hard-to-fill spots in middle and high schools for science, technology and math. And Jim McNiece, a former Wichita principal who chairs the state board and sits on the coalition board, is correct that the innovative districts would be irresponsible to fail to follow up the hiring with the support and training that will ensure these employees succeed.
One big question looms for the state board, as it considers how to proceed on what was a legislative mandate: Can the Legislature even tell the elected state school board, which the state constitution entrusts with “general supervision of public schools,” what to do regarding teacher licensure?
And why must the state’s chosen answer to a teacher shortage involve turning over more Kansas classrooms to people who don’t know how to teach? Why not improve teacher pay and benefits in the state, as well as again treating teachers with the respect due professionals?
For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman
This story was originally published July 13, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Know how to teach?."