Guest Post: Nick Archuleta, North Dakota United President, on Teacher Waivers

North Dakota United

Professional teachers in North Dakota have done an exceptionally good job of educating our youth since statehood. Our teachers have endeavored to provide an excellent education to every child that has walked, rolled or been carried through our schoolhouse doors. Our teachers and schools are recognized nationally for the outstanding service they provide.

Professional educators take the responsibility of providing enriching educational opportunities to our young people very seriously. They spend considerable time learning the art and science of teaching, often accumulating significant debt in the process. They take jobs in communities across the state, at salaries well below those of other professionals because they relish the opportunity to impact children’s lives in meaningful ways. They earn their degrees; they pay for their licenses and commit to continuing their education because they love what they do. They do not ask for the respect of their communities, they earn it every day.

Now, however, there is a plan afoot to turn all that on its ear. Gov. Dalrymple has been put in the unenviable position of having to decide whether to fast-track a plan that is destined to fail. The “community expert” plan would allow school districts to hire untrained, unqualified and unlicensed individuals to teach in North Dakota’s classrooms.

The plan will not solve the issue of unfilled teaching positions because it will only serve to attract more applicants despite their limited capacities to do the job well. The plan will not address the real reasons why some school districts do not attract more qualified applicants and why some have difficulty retaining the teachers they do have.

Every summer in North Dakota, an alarm is sounded at the beginning of August, calling attention to the number of unfilled teaching positions. On Aug. 1, 2014, there were some 200 unfilled positions. That number of unfilled positions seems daunting, yet on the first day of school three weeks later, the number of unfilled positions had dropped to 86.3. So what happened to affect such a dramatic drop in the number of unfilled teaching positions in a matter of a few weeks? No one knows for sure because no one at DPI compiles such information, but I will surmise that teachers signed their contracts.

The reason so many teachers wait to sign their contracts until August is because they are trying to do what is right by their families. Many teachers want to move to a community that offers better salaries, more professional engagement and more opportunity. Often, but not always, these are North Dakota’s larger cities like Grand Forks, Fargo, West Fargo, Bismarck, Mandan, Minot and Dickinson. Once those school districts’ rosters are full, teachers who had hoped to be hired in those cities opt to sign a contract and remain in the communities they served the previous year.

The teacher shortage issue is complex and this simplistic, stop-gap measure will not solve the problem. One cause of the teacher shortage is that as our teachers retire, there are fewer individuals to replace them. This is because there are fewer people choosing teaching as a career. The reasons fewer people choose teaching as a career are many, but two reasons I hear often are low salaries and that teaching has lost the prestige it once enjoyed in our society. The “community expert” plan addresses neither of these issues.

Since 1983, the teaching profession has been under constant criticism. When I was growing up, education was seen as the solution to America’s problems. Now, in some quarters, education is seen as the cause of America’s problems. The teaching profession has come under withering assault from misinformed ideologues who believe that teaching and learning occur in a vacuum, free from negative outside influences like poverty and politics.

Crafting a plan that is based on actual data is the way forward, and North Dakota United stands ready to help. Making communities viable places for teachers to live and work is the key. Raising salaries, requiring high-quality mentoring programs for teachers and creating student-centered, teacher-led teaching and learning environments will help teachers understand that they are valued professionals.

Let’s take the time to get this right. Our kids deserve our best efforts.