Teacher workforce shortages get legislative look
Published: June 15, 2016
Several bills intended to help school districts with the teacher shortage will face a key hurdle in the next two weeks. July 1 is the deadline for bills to be approved by policy committees in the second house of the Legislature. The updates on the key teacher workforce bills below include actions taken to fund these proposals in the 2016-17 state budget, which was passed by the Senate and Assembly on June 15 and is awaiting Governor Brown’s approval.
SB 62 (Pavley) Assumption Program of Loans for Education
This bill was introduced last year and passed the Senate. The bill would reinstate and improve the Assumption Program of Loans for Education, or APLE program. In existing law, the program forgives up to $11,000 of college loan debt for a person who teaches for four consecutive years, with additional loan forgiveness for those teaching in specific subject areas and certain schools. CSBA continues to support this bill this year.
Status: Awaiting hearing in the Assembly Appropriation Committee
2016-17 Funding: The program was not funded in the 2016-17 budget.
SB 915 (Liu) California Center on Teaching Careers
This bill would re-establish the state’s CalTeach program to help recruit individuals into the teaching profession. CSBA has taken a support position on the bill.
Status: The bill passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote and is awaiting a referral to an Assembly policy committee.
2016-17 Funding: The budget allocates $5 million in one-time Proposition 98 funding for the program.
SB 933 (Allen) California Teacher Crops Act of 2016
This bill would make grants available to individual and consortia of local educational agencies to help establish and maintain school-based teacher preparation residency programs. A prospective teacher would teach alongside an experienced mentor teacher while receiving teacher training in a credentialing program at an institution of higher education. The bill is supported by CSBA.
Status: Approved by the Senate on a 37-0 vote and awaiting a hearing in the Assembly Education Committee.
2016-17 Funding: Having not been funded in this year’s budget, this proposal will face significant challenges to progress.
AB 1756 (Bonilla) Four-year Integrated Teacher Credential Programs
The intent of this bill is to incentivize the creation of teacher preparation programs where students earn a baccalaureate degree and a teaching credential concurrently within four years, including student teaching. The bill creates a grant program for one-time funding to postsecondary institutions. The program will be administrated by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, with a total of 40 one-year grants available in the amount of $250,000 each.
Status: Currently set for hearing in the Senate Education Committee on June 29.
2016-17 Funding: The budget allocates one-time funding of $10 million from the General Fund.
AB 2122 (McCarty) California Classified School Employee Teacher Credentialing Program
The bill would require the CTC to issue a request for proposals to all school districts and county offices to seek funding for a new classified employee teaching credentialing program. The new program is designed to address shortages areas in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, where the existing program focused only on K through 3rd grade. Applicants will receive grants up to $4,000 per participant, per year; up from $3,500 in the existing program. The author intends to provide grants for up to 1,000 new participants per year.
Status: Currently set for hearing in the Senate Education Committee on June 29.
2016-17 Funding: The budget includes $20 million in one-time Proposition 98 funding for the program.