LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky House committee Tuesday passed a bill aimed at addressing the ongoing teacher shortage.
Rep. James Tipton (R-District 53), who also chairs the House Education Committee, proposed House Bill 319.
The measure suggests several solutions to the state's teacher shortage, without making major appropriations since this isn't a budget year for the General Assembly.
In early February, Tipton said he'd been told the state is short hundreds of teachers.
"I would prefer we not be in this situation," Tipton said Tuesday. "But this is where we are."
Tuesday, the House Education Committee passed the measure with bipartisan support, despite some concerns that it doesn't go far enough.
"I expected a more robust bill that possibly addressed salaries, how we increase the pipeline," Rep. Josie Raymond (D-District 41). "I know in the legislature we say there's always next year, but our kids are only in first grade once, second grade once."
In part, HB 319 would expand the GoTeachKY program, require exit interviews with teachers, call for the Kentucky Department of Education to create a statewide application portal, and bring Kentucky into a compact to make the licensing process easier across state lines.
Education advocate and former Jefferson County Board of Education member Sam Corbett said that could make an impact.
"Having the transferability, for lack of a better term, to be able to teach in Kentucky but also teach in Ohio or Indiana without going through a recertification process, that does seem to make sense," he said.
Tuesday, Tipton said under a committee substitution, the bill would allow staff members like teacher's aides to fill in for certified teachers.
Tipton said the measure would only be temporary and was something done during COVID when other lawmakers voiced concerns.
The bill also calls for a statewide marketing campaign to recruit young people to the teaching profession, in an effort to improve attitudes towards teaching.
Emilie McKiernan Blanton, a Jefferson County Public Schools teacher and member of Jefferson County Teachers Association's Board, said opinions of teaching have taken a downward turn, pointing to other measures taken in the state legislature.
"Honestly if you're an 18, 19-year-old kid looking at the news, do you want to be a teacher? I wouldn't," she said.
Tuesday, lawmakers also brought up plans for further bills to retain teachers and address teacher behavior.
Corbett said behavior can be a compounding problem.
"If we don't figure out how to address that issue, I think that's a major contributing factor to people leaving the profession," he said.
Earlier this year, before the House Education Committee, Bullitt County Superintendent Dr. Jesse Bacon, alongside the KASA Coalition to Sustain the Education Profession, presented nine ideas for addressing the teacher shortage.
Bacon is glad HB 319 addresses some of those asks. He said fixing the teacher shortage is a long-term goal.
"Ultimately we can alt-certify, and we can come up with different ways to get working folks into the classroom but until we create that desire for our own students to want to become educators I think it's going to be a hard time trying to extend this," he said. "How many of our best and brightest kids can we entice and really incentivize to join the teaching profession."
Tipton said the bill would come at a cost of about $250,000 annually, after higher start-up costs for the first year. Some of the provisions are contingent on funding being available.
Lawmakers would still need to pass HB 319 in the full House and Senate.
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