From a report recently published by Frederick Hess of our friends at the American Enterprise Institute on the need for quality teachers in America:
“We have a difficult time recruiting enough quality teachers in the U.S. After all, even if every single graduate of every selective college opted to become a teacher next year, it wouldn’t even replace natural attrition in a nation with 3.5 million educators.”
Most Americans have become aware of the problem of having a quality teacher in every public-school classroom.
This problem has been a long-time coming, mostly attributable to the highly onerous teacher licensure regulations established in every state. As “droves” of teachers leave the classroom due to COVID and a multitude of other reasons, Tennessee has developed a permanent solution to this problem plaguing nearly every state.
It’s worth a read and certainly worth replicating in Minnesota.
Why? Because “Tennessee will become the first state with [a] permanent, federally funded teacher apprenticeship.”
As Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn puts it, the program makes it possible “to become teachers for free while earning a wage,” offering a model that could help states “combat teacher shortages, remove barriers to becoming an educator for people from all backgrounds and continue to invest in the teaching profession.”
You can read the details about the program HERE.