[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 22, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H4719-H4720]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              ADDRESSING AMERICA'S TEACHER SHORTAGE CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, we are about to have a major 
problem on our hands in this country. We have more and more children 
entering in our schools than we have seen in a generation. At the same 
time, we face a massive retirement as more and more of our teachers 
begin to reach retirement age.
  In fact, we are going to need over 2 million new teachers over the 
next decade. In my home, Florida, a growth

[[Page H4720]]

State, we are going to need over 7,000 teachers just in Hillsborough 
County, one county that I represent.
  Fixing our education system is like a three-legged stool. We have to 
modernize our schools, we have to build them the right size the first 
time, we need to reduce class size, especially in the early grades, so 
we can return control of the classroom back to the teachers, and we 
need to begin preparing to replenish the ranks of our teaching 
profession with the very best and brightest we can find.
  Along with the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer) who spoke earlier 
this evening, I will be introducing legislation on Thursday that offers 
one approach to attract more qualified people into our teaching 
profession. Our bill is referred to as the Transition to Teaching Act. 
It is modeled after the very successful Troops to Teachers law in this 
country which has resulted in more than 3,000 retired members of the 
military choosing to become math, science, and technology teachers 
since 1974. More than 270 of these men and women alone are now teaching 
in Florida schools.
  The Transition to Teaching Act expands the Troops to Teachers program 
so that any midlife career professional can consider making a change in 
the teaching profession, and like the Troops to Teachers program, will 
qualify for up to a $5,000 grant or stipend to cover the cost of 
returning to a college or university to complete the coursework 
necessary to be trained as a teacher and certified as a teacher in the 
State where they choose to go.
  In exchange for that training, we and the taxpayers of our country 
will expect at least 3 years of teaching, and we have targeted our bill 
towards those schools that have the highest percentage of students from 
an impoverished family where we face the greatest challenge in 
attracting teachers. We will expect the recipients of this grant to 
spend up to 3 years teaching in one of these schools, to help begin to 
fill the ranks of our dwindling number of teachers.
  Yesterday in my home, Tampa, I met with three highly qualified 
individuals who formerly served in our military and are using those 
life experiences to be very successful teachers, Ronald Dyches, Al 
Greenway, and Karen Billingsley.
  Ronald Dyches told me it had always been his dream to be a teacher. 
When it came time to retire from the military, the Troops to Teachers 
program was there to help cover some of the costs to pay the bills of 
going back to school before he could begin to earn a salary as a 
teacher. He told me it was always his dream to be a teacher, and that 
grant helped him realize his dream. Now he is doing a terrific job. As 
a matter of fact, as a veteran he helped design a course on the history 
of the Vietnam War that is not only being used in his high school, it 
is being used in other high schools in the Hillsborough County area. He 
is simply one example of some of the very talented and mature people 
who have worked in other professions, who can be brought into our 
schools.
  Our bill can help move people from the boardroom to the classroom, 
from the firehouse to the schoolhouse, from the police station on Main 
Street to the school on Main Street.
  Let us work together to bring more qualified people into our teaching 
profession. Let us reach out to people who might consider realizing 
their dream and making that change to a second career in teaching. Let 
us get together and pass this legislation, and begin to deal with the 
need to have quality teachers as more and more students are in our 
schools.

                          ____________________