Iowa House Republicans pitch streamlined licensing to help teacher shortage

DES MOINES — Individuals with a bachelor’s degree and three years of work experience would have a faster route to getting a teacher’s license under a proposal introduced by Republicans in the Iowa House.

Those workers would need to get 15 credit hours of teacher education and then work in what would amount to a yearlong internship, Iowa Rep. Dustin Hite, a Republican from New Sharon who chairs the House’s education committee, told reporters Monday at the Iowa Capitol.

Hite said he is not aware of any data that shows a shortage in the state’s education workforce, but that he and his legislative colleagues hear about it from their local schools. He said it is difficult to determine if any shortage in education workers is different from the overall workforce shortage, which is impacting Iowa and most other states.

“When we hear from our schools, what they’re telling us is they are having a hard time finding not only teachers, but bus drivers and lunch personnel, janitors. You name it, they’re having a hard time filling it,” Hite said. “We have schools telling us that 10 years ago, 20 years ago you’d have hundreds of people apply for an elementary job, and now you might get six. And for high school jobs, you might have one now.”

Mike Beranek, the president of the Iowa State Education Association, the state’s largest public teachers union, called the House Republican proposal — and others they have offered — a welcome start, but not everything that educators need from the state.

Beranek said his organization supports the alternative licensure program proposed by Hite, another proposal to eliminate the standardized test needed to acquire a teaching license, and a proposal to increase the number of teachers-in-training who are eligible to apply for a state grant program.

“We are very concerned about the idea of recruiting and retaining our educators here in the state,” Beranek said Monday. “So while these are positive moves in the right direction, we can’t forget the importance of fully funding our schools and making sure our classrooms aren’t overcrowded.”

Republicans hold agenda-setting majorities at the Iowa Capitol. House Republican leaders have said they expect their school funding proposal to be published later this week.

Gov. Kim Reynolds, in her budget proposal, proposed a 2.5 percent increase in state funding to K-12 public school districts over the previous year.

Historically, K-12 funding increased an average of 5 percent annually over the first 38 years under the state’s current state funding formula, according to data from the state’s nonpartisan fiscal analysis agency. Since 2011, when Republicans gained at least a portion of control over the state lawmaking process, the average annual K-12 funding increase has been 1.9 percent.

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