Experts could teach in SC classrooms without certification under pilot program

COLUMBIA — Legislation allowing experts on a subject to temporarily fill teaching vacancies in South Carolina’s public schools without getting certified is advancing in the House.

The bill sent unanimously Tuesday to the House Education Committee is designed to relieve the state’s worsening teacher shortage, though teacher advocates expect the program to have little effect.

It isn’t meant to fix the shortage on its own, lawmakers said.

“This is just one tool in the toolbox,” said Rep. Terry Alexander, D-Florence. “What we’re doing is not working. If it was, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”

As potentially more help, the panel tacked on separate legislation that teachers have been applauding, which would make their professional teaching certificate permanent.

The amended bill would create a five-year pilot program allowing most schools to fill up to a quarter of their teaching staff with non-certified instructors. They must hold a college degree in the field they’re hired to teach and have at least five years of on-the-job experience. They would need to get certified within three years if they want to continue teaching beyond that.

The original bill sponsored by Senate Education Chairman Greg Hembree allowed fewer noncertified teachers.

Under the version approved by the Senate 39-1 last year, only schools with track records of having the best or worst scores on state report cards could participate — signaling they’re doing so well, they’ve demonstrated the ability to try something new, or they’re doing so poorly, they need any help they can get. And it set the max at 10% of teaching staff.

But then South Carolina’s teacher shortage crisis reached new all-time highs.

This school year started with nearly 1,400 classroom vacancies and an additional 200 positions unfilled for librarians, counselors, psychologists and speech therapists, according to last fall’s annual Supply and Demand Report by the state Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention & Advancement. More than 920 additional certified educators left their job mid-year, leaving 1,315 positions open statewide as of an update in February.

Patrick Kelly, a lobbyist with the Palmetto State Teachers Association, said he doesn’t oppose the idea, but he doesn’t expect it to make much of a dent in the problem.

He said most people who want to be teachers, even as a career change, go through the state’s alternative certification program, which trains people without requiring them to go back to college.

Still, even bringing in one teacher could help, said Kelly, a Blythewood High teacher of advanced government courses.

Although not ideal, having non-certified teachers in schools is better than the alternatives, he said.

“While I would prefer that my daughters have a certified teacher instead of a non-certified teacher,” he said, “I’d also prefer they have a non-certified teacher working under the requirements and parameters of this bill than having a long-term substitute teacher with no content expertise or being assigned to a virtual class due to a lack of qualified applicants for a teaching job.”

Training will be key, he said.

Being a professional in a certain field isn’t preparation for teaching that knowledge, knowing the dos and don’ts in state law, or managing a classroom of students, he said.

“We’ve got to make sure the people going into that classroom are ready for what they’re about to encounter,” Kelly said.

Rep. Kambrell Garvin, D-Columbia, agreed, saying he can personally attest to that from his experience with Teach for America, another alternative certification program for non-education majors that requires a two-year commitment to teach at a partner school.

“Without the training I received, I would’ve been eaten alive in the high school,” Garvin said.

The bill requires ongoing training and support but leaves the details to school districts that choose to participate and the state Department of Education.

It’s intentionally vague so principals and superintendents can decide what each new teacher needs, said House Education Chairwoman Shannon Erickson.

“There will be some that need exactly what you said — classroom management,” the Beaufort Republican said to Garvin. “But there might be some, as Mr. Kelly mentioned, that need educational law.”

The program would expire in five years unless the Legislature passes a new law to renew it.

Permanent certifications

The panel attached a separate bill sponsored by Erickson that passed the House unanimously last year but has yet to get a hearing in the Senate. With just a month to go before session ends, combining the two bills may give both a better chance of becoming law this year.

Making a teaching certificate permanent eliminates the bureaucratic hurdles involved in renewing it every five years through the state Department of Education.

The idea is to reduce teachers’ paperwork burdens and out-of-pocket expenses while giving them more flexibility in their annual contracts — hopefully, keeping more of them in the classroom.

Teachers would still have to fulfill training required by their district. They just wouldn’t have to prove it to the state, Erickson said.

“It’s tying up a lot of people doing paperwork that’s really just busywork,” she said.

Another provision allows teachers to bow out of their contracts once they see their salary. School districts require teachers to sign their contracts in mid-May, usually weeks before their local school board sets their pay.

Teachers who break their contract after signing lose their certification to teach for a year. The clock starts whenever the State Board of Education hears the case, potentially dragging out the suspension 16 months or more.

The bill gives teachers up to 10 days to submit a withdrawal notice after salaries are set. It would also reduce the penalty for breaking a contract after that to six months. Advocates have said that would allow teachers who may have needed to leave simply because their spouse got a new job or they had some family emergency to get a new teaching job quicker.

Editor Seanna Adcox contributed to this report.