NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Tennessee bill that would make it easier for industry experts to become public school teachers has gained bipartisan support, but some educators argue the state needs to do more to ease the growing teacher shortage.
The proposed legislation, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) and House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) would create a limited occupational teacher licensure program, which would allow industry experts to teach public school vocational courses without having to go back to school themselves if they have an active industry credential or license and meet other criteria.
"As someone who is a certified teacher, not currently, but is educated to be a teacher, I think that the licensure requirements are important, but what we're recognizing here is there are people who have very important life skills and professional skills that want to teach and want to share their knowledge, and we should have a streamlined pathway for those people to be able to get in and teach," Leader Johnson said.
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The bill is aimed at easing Tennessee's teacher shortage. The state estimates there were nearly 1,500 educator vacancies during the 2023-24 school year, and that doesn't include those on a limited or emergency license.
"For your core classes, you want a certified teacher and a teacher who is highly trained in the art of teaching," Lamberth said. "When you're hiring a welding teacher, you may just want that person to be able to weld better than anyone else out there and have a love to pass that down to the next generation."
J.C. Bowman, CEO and executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee said he has no issue with the bill, but he believes the state could do more to help tackle the teacher shortage.
"We create barriers to keep good people out of teaching," Bowman said.
Bowman told News 2 that one of the biggest barriers to becoming a teacher in TN is passing the Praxis exam. According to Bowman, many aspiring teachers fail the test because it's aligned with national standards, which state schools don't always teach.
"These are people who may have degrees; they're qualified. In every other sense of the word, they could teach and they're talented educators, but they can't pass a Praxis exam aligned to national standards on subject matter they've never learned," Bowman said.
Bowman added a career in teaching is becoming less appealing to young adults, partly due to the low pay and long hours.
"I talk to colleges of education at length at least twice a year," Bowman said. "They have an event and I sit down with them, and it's the same thing every year. 'How do we get more young people to come into our field?"'
While Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill in 2023 to raise the minimum teacher salary to $50,000 by 2026, Bowman argues a better work environment is even higher on educators' priority lists.
"Money is important, and we need to keep that in mind," Bowman said. "Benefits are important, health insurance is important, making sure that they get some of these other factors, but nothing is more important, I don't think, than the work-life balance and making sure the work environment is not such that it infringes on every avenue of their life."
The bill will move to the Senate floor Monday. It's set to be debated in the House Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee Tuesday.