[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 129 (Tuesday, July 31, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S5520]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. KAINE:
  S. 3308. A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide 
for teacher and school leader quality enhancement and to enhance 
institutional aid; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions.
  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President. As the skills students need to be 
successful in the 21st century evolve, so too must the type of 
instruction they receive. Educators must provide educational 
opportunities that teach to the challenging State academic standards 
that meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. At 
the start of every school year we see the same news headlines about 
exploding class sizes and districts facing unfillable openings. Teacher 
and principal shortages plague the whole country, and are worst in our 
rural communities, but it's a problem we can solve.
  In 2015-16, more than half of U.S. States reported shortages of 
educators in mathematics, science, career and technical education and 
for English learners. Further, 48 States identified special education 
as a shortage area in their reports to the U.S. Department of Education 
and half of all schools and 90% of high-poverty schools are struggling 
to find qualified special education teachers. If current trends 
continue, we would see as few as 200,000 available teacher hires each 
year by 2025, resulting in a gap of more than 100,000 teachers 
annually.
  Additionally, in public schools today, the majority of the student 
population is comprised of students of color; however, teachers of 
color only comprised 20% of the teacher workforce in 2015-16. African 
American teachers made up more than 8% of teachers in 1987, but only 
made up 6.7% in 2015. It is critical for our teaching workforce to grow 
more reflective of the population of students it serves.
  This is why I am pleased to introduce today the Preparing and 
Retaining Education Professionals Act, or PREP Act. The PREP Act aims 
to increase access to high-quality teacher and leader preparation, 
diversify the teacher workforce, and address the significant national 
teacher and school shortages. More specifically, this legislation would 
expand the definition of ``high need'' districts under the Every 
Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to include those experiencing teacher 
shortages in rural communities and in areas such as special education, 
English language, science, technology, engineering, math, and CTE, to 
allow for access to additional support and improvement. It would also 
encourage school districts to create partnerships with local community 
colleges and universities to ensure their programs are educating future 
teachers in areas where there is a shortage of educators. It would 
increase access to teacher and school leader residency programs and 
preparation training and require States to identify areas of teacher or 
leader shortages by subject across public schools and use that data to 
target their efforts. Additionally, the PREP Act increases support for 
teacher preparation programs at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) or 
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to support a 
diverse and well-prepared educator workforce.
  The improvement of our country's educational system lies in our 
ability to prepare, support, and retain quality educators. When 
teachers and school leaders are equipped with the knowledge and tools 
they need to succeed, they are more likely to stay in their roles and 
positively impact young people and their communities. As we move 
towards the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, I hope that my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle see the PREP Act as a commonsense 
opportunity to help ensure that students in every zip code across the 
country have access to t well-prepared teachers and school leaders they 
deserve.

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