Legislative report: Teacher bill could be vetoed


This is the latest in an occasional series of articles contributed by state Sen. Doug Berger about legislative issues of concern to Vance County.

There remain 31 bills Gov. Mike Easley has yet to sign into legislation.

One of the bills could have a significant impact on Vance County Schools. House Bill 706, “An Act to Facilitate the Hiring of Teachers,” would allow local school systems to hire teachers who met the highly qualfied teacher standard under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

North Carolina’s standards for teachers are more stringent than the requirements under the federal law. Currently, North Carolina graduates about 3,000 students per year in its teacher education programs across the state. North Carolina school systems have a yearly demand for about 11,000 teachers. We must recruit out-of-state teachers to meet this demand.

Unfortunately we are at a competitive disadvantage with other states with our more stringent requirements. This legislation was backed by local supeintendents and the North Carolina School Boards Association.

I voted for this legislation because I want all children to be taught by qualified teachers. Many Vance County classes are being taught by substitute teachers with no education degee. Poor rural school systems cannot effectively compete in the hiring process with other states with more flexible standards.

The governor has expressed opposition to the bill in the past, as did a majority of the Democrats in the Senate when an amendment was introduced by Sen. Tony Rand to gut the intent of the bill.

My wife, who is a schoolteacher, also opposed the legislation. She said that changing the standard would not fair to those teachers who had achieved the more rigorous standards required by North Carolina.

Sometimes a senator gets caught between a rock and a hard place and tries to use his best judgment. What do you think, readers?

Sen. Doug Berger, D-Youngsville, represents Vance, Granville, Warren and Franklin counties in the state Senate.