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Committee hears broad support for teacher apprenticeship proposal; DE3 amendment adopted and bill held over
Summary
The committee adopted an author’s amendment and heard testimony March 27 on House File 15‑38, which would fund and coordinate registered teacher apprenticeship programs intended to expand the pipeline into teaching and specialized licensure areas.
Representative Raymond Mueller (Representative Mueller) presented House File 15‑38, an author’s amendment (DE3), and asked the committee to adopt the amendment and advance a registered teacher apprenticeship proposal intended to expand pathways into teaching, including for paraprofessionals and other school staff.
The committee adopted the DE3 amendment by voice vote before testimony. After the amendment was adopted, witnesses described multiple registered apprenticeship efforts underway in Minnesota, including models run by Brightworks Educational Cooperative, Minnesota State Mankato, the University of St. Thomas, and University of Minnesota campuses; district sponsors described pilots that combine job‑embedded instruction with university coursework leading to licensure.
Caitlin Snyder of Education Minnesota said she had planned to support the original idea of a competitive statewide JATC structure but raised concern that the amendment as written would make a single cooperative the statewide fiscal sponsor. “Unfortunately today, the amendment instead says that one cooperative will be able to perform this work across the state,” Snyder said, and she urged protections for collective bargaining and local contract enforcement.
Brightworks teacher‑apprenticeship liaison Gina Boots described building a Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (JATC) with equal representation of labor and management and said Brightworks planned multiple partner districts and university partners for fall cohorts. Erin Larson, director of apprenticeship at the Department of Labor and Industry, advised that many program elements included in the bill already exist in Minnesota apprenticeship law (Minn. Stat. ch. 178) and recommended streamlining language so grants fund programs run “in accordance with chapter 178,” and suggested broadening eligible uses so districts can participate more easily.
District leaders and university partners described pilots with cohorts of paraprofessionals and district employees pursuing dual licensure and bachelor’s completion while working a teacher calendar. Northeastern Metro Superintendent Veil Raybo (transcript speaker) said a 21‑apprentice cohort is on track and that the two‑year, job‑embedded model meets state licensure requirements for specialized special‑education licensure areas.
Representative Mueller asked that the bill be held over for further consideration; the committee laid House File 15‑38 over after testimony and the DE3 adoption.
No final appropriation was adopted at the March 27 hearing. Committee members asked for continued technical work with DLI and stakeholders to coordinate statewide governance, fiscal sponsorship and collective‑bargaining concerns.
