Streamlined licensure for vets, spouses attracting teachers

DES MOINES - Legislation passed last spring is paying dividends by attracting qualified teachers to Iowa and is proving to be a 'breath of fresh air,” for a military spouse who was able to get her teacher license thanks to the streamlined process.

Licensure 'usually comes with a long list of tests you have to take to be certified,” said Brooke Johnson, who has taught in five states in the past nine years due to her husband's assignments. He is currently stationed at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha and she's teaching special education in the Council Bluffs school district. The time and cost of getting licensed in most states is intimidating, she said at Gov. Terry Branstad's weekly news conference Monday.

She chose to live in Iowa rather than on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River due to Home Base Iowa. Because her husband is active duty and she is certified in other states, Johnson only had to pay the certification fee.

D.T. Magee of the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners explained that it is not unusual for a teacher moving from one state to another to be required to take several college courses to complete that state's battery of examinations to be fully licensed.

'It is only right that the service and sacrifice” of veterans and their families be recognized through educational licensure rules that 'fully acknowledge their military skills and schooling,” Magee said.

So far, he said, 24 people have received the military exchange license including five veterans and 19 spouses. Thirteen are teaching full-time in Iowa schools including eight in federally designated shortage areas teaching French, English as a second language, family consumer science and, like Johnson, special education.

Branstad said that since passage of the Home Base Iowa legislation, more than 600 veterans have been attracted to Iowa and more than 24,000 jobs have been posted on the Home Base Iowa jobs bank.

'Simply put, the mission is to ensure that members of the military don't have to worry about finding a job after they leave their service,” said Branstad, a veteran.

For more on Home Base Iowa, visit http://www.homebaseiowa.org/. For more on the military exchange license, visit http://www.boee.iowa.gov/.