Students are back to school, and some of them are being taught by college students majoring in education who are on teaching assignments. A former teacher who's now a state lawmaker has proposed a bill that would pay those student educators for their work in class.
Rep. Sean Brennan (D-Parma) taught history in high school before coming to the legislature.
"I went through student teaching. It's a lot of work. It's a full time job," Brennan said in an interview. But he added school districts don't pay student teachers, who are often balancing a lot of expenses.
"You are also paying tuition and housing and food and the utility bill," Brennan said. "It was tough back when I was doing it and now with inflation and rising costs of just about everything, it's become a barrier to entry for a lot of young people."
Brennan said student teachers should be paid – just like college students in internships in other fields.
“I think this is a great way to entice young people into what I feel is the best career anybody could pick," Brennan said.
His Future Educators Support Act has bipartisan support. It would permit school districts to pay a student teacher an hourly wage and offer healthcare benefits, but wouldn't require them to. It would also allow the Department of Education and Workforce to provide cost-of-living stipends and test fee waivers. And the bill would authorize a state university to waive tuition for student teachers.
Brennan said Maryland, Michigan, Colorado and Pennsylvania are among the states providing stipends to student teachers. He said it could help reduce the teacher shortage found in some areas.
“Our bill is not mandatory," Brennan noted. "It simply allows districts to pay and to provide health care to student teachers as a way to incentivize young people to go into the profession.”
Brennan said he's hoping lawmakers will take up the bill this fall when lawmakers return from summer break - which ended this month for nearly all K-12 students in Ohio.
