Jarrett Skorup and Ben DeGrow
Mackinac Center for Public Policy
For decades, the media has long repeated the cry about an alleged teacher shortage in Michigan. Finding teachers in some subjects and in some areas of the state is often a challenge. But for the most part, there are still plenty of educators and plenty of applicants for Michigan school districts. Still, for those concerned that we don’t have enough teachers, one answer is to make it easier to welcome qualified educators instead of pushing them away.
Michigan school districts typically get way more applicants for some positions than others. Think: elementary school, high school English and physical education, versus physics, skilled trades and special education. But, historically, union contracts have made it hard for schools to pay different amounts of money for different subject areas, which is the most obvious solution to that problem. Things are moving in the right direction, however. Districts like Detroit and Jackson have successfully offered bonus pay to attract teachers to hard-to-fill classrooms.
More districts should do better at marketing themselves to the prospective teachers they need the most, telling them and their preparation programs about credentialing requirements and financial opportunities. Paying teachers based on something other than years of experience and graduate course credits certainly will send the right signal.
But it’s also, in part, the state’s fault that we have a limited supply of educators. Michigan’s teacher licensing and regulatory rules add unnecessary barriers to capable candidates who might enter the education job market. Some of the steps required to earn that certificate are more aligned with checking bureaucratic boxes than ensuring classroom effectiveness.
Michigan has made some progress in opening doors to the profession. The state’s list of approved alternative certification programs is growing, a boon for college-educated professionals or school employees who want to teach but don’t do so currently. A 2018 law eliminated two key requirements that restricted these classroom pipelines. First, alternative programs no longer have to be tested in another state before they set up shop here. Second, participants in alternative certification programs no longer have to go through the hassle of sitting with high school students to take the SAT again before becoming certified.
Lawmakers are now considering a proposal to reduce another barrier to teaching. House Bill 5056 would make it easier for certified teachers coming from out-of-state to work in a Michigan classroom.
Under current law, these candidates must take the Michigan teacher certification test. The state does provide the opportunity for some reciprocity, but it only considers waiving the added testing requirement for individuals with three years of experience and 18 graduate credit hours since certification. This may pave the way for some veteran teachers already
moving with their family into Michigan. But it is a pretty significant limit on new educators wanting to come to the Great Lakes State.
HB 5056 would change this by allowing a nationally recognized licensure exam to substitute for Michigan’s test. This would give Michigan schools a bigger pool of qualified candidates from which to recruit. Most other states already have a lower bar for certified teachers transferring from elsewhere. Some exempt them from taking another test altogether.
This proposal is another small step in lessening the burden people must go through to legally teach in public schools in Michigan. It’s the school, not the state government, that hires each teacher. If a local school official feels a person is qualified, it doesn’t make sense for the state to stand in the way.
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Jarrett Skorup is the director of marketing and communications at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Ben DeGrow is the Mackinac Center’s director of education policy.
