Senator Portantino’s Bill Addressing Teacher Shortages Heads to Governor’s Desk
For Immediate Release: August 31, 2022
Contact: Lerna Shirinian, (818) 409-0400
Senator Portantino’s Bill Addressing Teacher Shortages Heads to Governor’s Desk
Sacramento, CA – Senate Bill 941, a measure authored by State Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D – Burbank) which seeks to address teacher shortages and improve student learning environments, is headed to the Governor’s desk for signature. 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 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The issue of teacher shortages continues to impact kids and their learning environment,” stated Senator Portantino. “SB 941 is a very simple solution. It allows local schools to collaborate without any red tape. As a result, it will provide a great alternative to class cancellations and emergency teacher credentials. An empty seat has the same cost as a filled one. So, 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 these districts to easily work out cooperative arrangement.”
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.
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.
"Educators at all levels are working to support students and the current teacher shortage is making things more challenging, especially with the diminished pool of fully credentialed teachers in STEM and dual immersion,” said Dr. Edgar Zazueta, Executive Director of the Association of California School Administrators. “SB 941 makes tools available to Local Education Agencies and creates a pathway to offer courses in these subjects that will support student learning, especially in our small and rural communities.”
“The pandemic set up unique complications for language immersion families. Senator Portantino heard our concerns and we are grateful for him and his staff’s work on SB 941. These past few years have proven to be especially challenging with academic learning loss, but also with target language loss for the dual language student. These students will be forced to drop out of their target language program if they aren’t able to make vital gains in their target language comprehension and mastery. We are hopeful that districts will take advantage of SB 941, communicate with other neighboring districts providing similar programs, and create ways to overcome these educational losses for the benefit of language immersion students throughout the state,” stated Jane Potelle, PUSD Dual Language Immersion Program Parent.
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.
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