Nick Archuleta, President, North Dakota United, Bismarck

The ND Education Standards and Practices Board (ESPB) held an emergency meeting on Thursday, July 27. The purpose of this “emergency meeting” was to seek authorization to send a letter to Governor Doug Burgum asking him to declare an emergency related to an urgent teacher shortage in North Dakota. ESPB Executive Director Dr. Rebecca Pitkin declared that the shortage of teachers has created an “imminent peril” that threatens to disrupt the welfare of public education in the 2023-2024 school year.

No one doubts that we have a serious teacher shortage issue in North Dakota. In ESPB’s letter to Governor Burgum, the Board cites the website of the ND Council of Educational Leaders which “currently has 202 positions listed as ‘open until filled.'” That sounds profoundly serious, and it is. ND United has for years encouraged the powers that be to take this challenge to public education seriously. We have released polling data that has shown that teachers are leaving the profession, and more importantly, why they are doing so.

What is vexing is ESPB’s sense of urgency. The teacher shortage is not new. In 2016, there were 204 unfilled positions according to this news report. There was no request for an “emergency declaration” calling for unlicensed teachers to become “teachers of record” and allow substitute teachers with just 48 hours of post-high school credits to instruct our children. So, why now?

The fact is, ESPB has spent more time appeasing legislators and school administrators than it has meeting its obligation to ensure exacting standards for teacher licensure. Rather than engaging in a robust and inclusive discussion of the facts surrounding the teacher shortage issue, ESPB continues to lower standards to help fill the ranks. The sad consequence of these actions is that it demoralizes those veteran teachers who earned their degrees and have worked for years to improve their practice. Feeling underappreciated, many of those skilled educators are leaving the profession they love.

For too long, ESPB and others have looked past the teachers they already have to entice unlicensed and under-prepared individuals to enter our profession. Rather than mitigating the problem, ESPB’s actions have exacerbated the teacher shortage. We need to stop kicking this can down the road or begging the Governor to solve this by emergency fiat.

It’s important to look at how teachers are recruited into the profession, and how they are supported once they are there. Teachers need to be empowered to make learning meaningful to students, and help young people realize that they can use their education to solve real world problems. Students have to see school as a place they want to be, and that is what trained, licensed, and resolute teachers and administrators will do. The result will be that both teachers and students will become even more creative and more enthused about the work they do. That in and of itself will help to recruit and retain the absolute best to teach in North Dakota.

Governor Burgum should deny this request from ESPB, whose members and leadership I respect. ESPB knows nothing now that they did not already know during the 68th legislative session where they should have brought forward a plan for legislative consideration.

We are working now to ease the teacher shortage in ND. The Department of Public Instruction’s Para to Teacher Pipeline initiative and the Teacher and Principal Apprenticeship programs are designed to help get more qualified people in our classrooms. Still, we owe it to the taxpayers of ND-who generously provide $2.3 billion per biennium to educate our children-to ensure that they have fully licensed, well-prepared, and enthusiastic teachers in every classroom. The ESPB’s band-aid approach to the teacher shortage lacks imagination and innovation at a moment that cries out for both.