Senator Portantino’s Bill Addressing Teacher Shortages Passes Senate Floor
For Immediate Release: April 21 2022
Contact: Lerna Shirinian, (818) 409-0400
Senator Portantino’s Bill Addressing Teacher Shortages Passes Senate Floor
Sacramento, CA – Senate Bill 941, a measure authored by State Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D – La Cañada Flintridge) which seeks to address teacher shortages and improve student learning environments, passed the Senate Floor today. SB 941 would authorize school districts to locally determine inter-district collaboration for courses related to STEM and dual language immersion. The bill was inspired by comments the Senator received from parents in the Pasadena Unified School District.
“The shortage of teachers – especially in the math, science, and bilingual education courses – continues to impact kids and their learning environment,” stated Senator Portantino. “A great alternative to class cancellations or emergency teacher credentials is inter-district collaboration for STEM and dual immersion courses. It costs a school district the same amount of money whether there are empty seats or not. If one district has an available spot in a classroom and another district has a student in need, let’s cut out the bureaucracy and allow those districts to easily work out cooperative sharing arrangements that will improve learning outcomes and present educational opportunities for students who otherwise would miss out on these courses.”
During the 2017-18 school year, 80% of California school districts faced a shortage of teachers. Nine out of ten school districts stated that the shortage was getting worse. A recent report on school districts around the state by the Learning Policy Institute found that the most pronounced shortages include math, science, and bilingual education and are more prevalent in rural areas, communities of color, and low socioeconomic areas. Some impacted local educational agencies are canceling important dual-language immersion classes due to the shortage of qualified credentialed teachers, where the consequences of substandard learning outcomes are likely to reverberate through future educational attainment and economic prospects.
Currently, local educational agencies can accept transfer students through the District of Choice program. Students can transfer to another school district that participates in the program through a random, unbiased selection process that is not dependent on academic or athletic performance, physical condition, or English language proficiency. The pronounced shortage of STEM and dual-language immersion teachers necessitates specific collaborations between school districts for these courses.
SB 941 would authorize the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school to enter into an agreement with one or more local educational agencies to offer individual classes to pupils from other local educational agencies who have been impacted by disruptions, cancellations, or teacher shortages in STEM classes, or dual-language immersion programs. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2028, to evaluate the success of these local educational agency collaborations.
###
