Certification Reform Bill Tackles Teacher Shortage

The legislature’s Education Committee continues to focus on workforce development as a major theme for this year’s session.

Among the bills approved by the committee is HB 6879, which creates the Commission to Modernize the Educator Workforce and tasks it with reviewing, analyzing, and making recommendations about current statutes and regulations governing teacher preparation programs and certification. 

CBIA has worked closely with affiliate organization ReadyCT to advocate for the bill, which is waiting action by the state House. 

“It has been over two decades since Connecticut’s educator certification and preparation
requirements have been comprehensively reworked,” ReadyCT executive director Shannon Marimón told the committee last month.

“This means that candidates who want to become part of the educator workforce in Connecticut—a dire need for the state given current educator shortages—are operating under rules and regulations that have not been updated since before they were born.”

Foster Workforce Development

Marimón added that while the bill is geared specifically towards the teaching profession, ensuring a robust, qualified, and equitable teaching environment will help foster workforce development in other sectors of the economy. 

The bill is tasked with looking at barriers to entry from a cost and time perspective for those looking to make teaching their first profession, and for industry experts to enter the teaching profession in a “second” or even “third” act. 

Making it easier for industry experts to enter the teaching profession helps ensure institutional knowledge is passed to the next generation.

The teacher shortage has disproportionately affected students in underserved and under-resourced districts, which will significantly impact the workforce population.

ReadyCT is a leader in advocating for the overhaul of the teacher certification process citing that this bill is an opportunity to diversify the educator workforce amidst a rapidly diversifying student population. 

Additionally, the teacher shortage has disproportionately affected students in underserved and under-resourced districts, which will significantly impact the workforce population in the near future.      

The bill has support from other organizations, including Columbia’s Center for Public Research and Leadership, the Connecticut Association of Schools, Connecticut Education Association, the School and State Finance Project, Educators for Excellence, the Connecticut Chapter of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, and more.   

HB 6879 is an example of the way the legislature is tackling the worker shortage.

---

For more information, contact CBIA’s Ashley Zane (860.244.1169) | @AshleyZane9.