FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) -- A coalition of Kentucky educators presented to state lawmakers its plans to address the state's teacher shortage.

The Kentucky Association of School Administrators created the Coalition to Sustain the Education Profession last fall. The 125 volunteers split into nine sub-groups and came up with over 30 recommendations to ease Kentucky's teacher shortage. Nine of those recommendations were shared Tuesday with the House Education Committee.

Those recommendations include:

  1. Conduct a comprehensive study of public education (wage and benefit analysis and perception of the teaching profession)
  2. Resolution to create a navigable system of alternative teacher certification 
  3. Web portal of resources for teacher recruitment (including a statewide application)
  4. Resolution to address multiple certification issues—teacher testing, admission to teacher education programs, state-to-state reciprocity, and varying grade levels of certification. 
  5. Clarify acceptable educator behaviors and provide clear and appropriate penalties for violations
  6. Fund a marketing campaign to highlight the importance of education and profession
  7. Fund a model teacher recruitment and induction program. Mandate the establishment of a Tenure Review Committee for teachers inducted into the education profession under that program 
  8. Fund GoTeachKY and the Ambassador program to every school district 
  9. Fund 1 undergrad teacher education scholarship per school district & $500 per week stipend for student teaching

This legislative session is not a budget year, however, KASA said majority of the proposed initiatives would not require funding.

"Whether or not we get that accomplished in a budget year, I do not know," said State Rep. James Tipton (R-District 53) who chairs the House Education Committee. "But even if we don't, those are things we want to take a serious look at in 2024."

Bullitt County Schools Superintendent Jesse Bacon and Central Hardin High School Principal Tim Isaacs are members of the Coalition and facilitated Tuesday's presentation to lawmakers.

Hardin County Schools Superintendent Teresa Morgan, one of the co-chairs on the coalition helping lead the recommendations, said pay raises to combat teacher burnout should be top priority, noting that her district has seen more than 80 resignations since the start of the school year. 

"It's because of the stress that is in education," Morgan said. "The amount of time it takes to be prepared in the classroom each day is very stressful. And so we really just hope that our legislators will pay attention to those issues and take action."

There has been some Republican pushback to calls for raises, but Morgan said the proposal needs to be viewed as nonpartisan to better help resolve the shortage.

"This really isn't a Republican issue. It's not a Democrat issue," Morgan said. "It is a commonwealth of Kentucky issue that deserves the attention of everyone who values the education of over 600,000 students. Ninety percent of Kentucky students go to public schools. So this really is a statewide issue."

Morgan said Hardin County teachers received a 2% raise last year, thanks to state funding from last session, and some Republican lawmakers said the funding from the previous session should be enough.

Kentucky Department of Education Commissioner Jason Glass also presented to lawmakers Tuesday. He suggested there should be three main areas of focus: pay, support and respect.

"We didn’t get into this problem overnight, and solving it is going to require a focused and multi-year effort if we want to see real results," Glass said. "We have to be wary of quick fixes and small-scale solutions which look good on paper but will not create the magnitude of impact we need to make a dent in this enormous challenge."

Glass said over the last few years, Kentucky has reached a "critical shortage" level in more areas like elementary education and social studies, which historically have had high numbers of applicants. He also raised concern over the number of emergency certificates almost tripling since 2017.

In 2017-2018, Education Professional Standards Board granted 383 one-year emergency certificates. This year, 1,156 emergency certificates were approved.

House Education Committee Republican Rep. James Tipton said he does plan to file legislation either this week or early next week related to alleviating the teacher shortage, but it's not clear yet what that will entail.

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