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Committee advances bill to expand how Minnesota measures teacher shortages
Summary
Senate File 1670 would require the Department of Education to collect data on unfilled teacher positions in addition to certifications in use; the committee voted to send the bill to Education Finance after testimony from policy advocates.
Senate File 1670, sponsored by Senator Duckworth, would broaden Minnesota's statutory definition of "teacher shortage" to include unfilled and vacant teaching positions in addition to counting teachers working with conditional or alternative certifications.
Matt Shaver, policy director at EdAllies and a licensed teacher, told the committee that Minnesota currently measures shortages inconsistently across statutes and programs. "We need holistic definitions and comprehensive data," Shaver said, noting that many other states collect vacancy data at the agency level to better target investments and measure policy impact.
The bill would require the Department of Education (Pelsby in testimony) to ask districts how many unfilled positions they report rather than only whether they had at least one unfilled position. Backers argued the change would give lawmakers and administrators better evidence to evaluate recruitment and retention programs and to target supports to districts with the greatest unfilled-position burdens.
Committee members supported the measure and sent it to Education Finance for fiscal and implementation review. The committee recorded a voice vote advancing the bill.
Action recorded: SF 1670 sent to Education Finance.
