Arkansas lawmakers question claims of teacher shortages

(The Center Square) – Members of the Arkansas Legislative Council grilled officials from the Department of Education on Thursday after they asked for a rule change on teacher licenses. 

An emergency rule would have allowed school districts to hire teachers with provisional licenses enrolled in an alternate educator preparation program. The candidate would be required to have a bachelor’s degree in the subject they would teach or successful work experience, according to the rule.

The DOE said the rule was based on a “severe teacher shortage.” Senate Pro Tem Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, said he wanted the numbers showing the shortages. 

“I don’t have the definite numbers,” said Dr. Ivy Pfeffer, deputy commissioner of the DOE. “We don’t have local data collected in an aggregate form. We can get the numbers of emergency teaching permits, teachers that are teaching on waivers. The most severe areas are going to be in Southeast Arkansas where in some districts you have well over 25% of teachers that are teaching on a waiver.”

Hickey said lawmakers “hear that rhetoric all the time.”

“But you come before us and you don’t have the numbers,” Hickey said. 

Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, said many schools are pulling certified teachers out of the classrooms and moving them into other positions.

“Most of the time those different positions are better paid, they are higher paid than what they are getting in the classroom,” Irvin said. “That’s exasperating the problem.”

Hickey said he wanted to know how many certified teachers were working in other school positions. 

DOE agreed to pull the request and return to the committee with updated numbers. 

This is the second time in a month that lawmakers have clashed with educators. Education groups and Democrats pushed to get teacher raises on the agenda for this month’s special session. Lawmakers chose to use a $1.6 billion surplus for tax breaks and school safety grants. 

Hickey said during Thursday’s meeting he believes lawmakers will address teacher pay in a “significant way” during next year’s legislative session.