SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – It may not completely solve the state’s shortage of teachers, but it may very well help.
Governor JB Pritzker signed a package of laws Wednesday at Springfield High School which include increasing the minimum teacher salary to $40,000 a year, and providing some help for students trying to get their first jobs in the teaching profession, among other things.
“We’ll also allow students currently enrolled in teaching programs who have nearly finished the requirements to graduate, to get into the classroom early as substitute teachers,” said Pritzker.
Currently, only those with bachelors degrees can be subs.
Also included is reducing a penalty from $500 dollars to $50 for reinstating a lapsed educators license.
State Education Superintendent Carmen Ayala says while 5,000 teachers have been hired statewide since 2018, more still needs to be done to get teachers where they’re really needed.
“These vacancies are concentrated in hard-to-staff schools and subjects,” said Ayala. “Our low-income, bilingual, and special education students have the least access to the teachers they need to grow and thrive.”
Ayala claims the switch to evidence-based funding has helped quell the shortage of teachers, but the sub shortage is now becoming a bigger problem.
Measures regarding the number of days a sub can be in one classroom during a disaster declaration, and lowering to 18 the minimum age for a paraprofessional, also were a part of what Pritzker signed.
