Time is tight for state to implement new teacher licensing rules

Mar 23, 2018

Pioneer Press, Christopher Magan

Education officials say without more time to put the right procedures in place, the new Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board will struggle to issue teaching licenses when the law changes July 1.

“It opens the state of Minnesota up to some potentially serious liability issues,” said Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul. “We want the system to work.”

Republican lawmakers on the House education policy voted down Mariani’s attempt Thursday to give the board another year to put the new tiered system in place for credentialing educators.

State Rep. Sondra Erickson, R-Princeton, who chairs the committee and has led efforts to rewrite the licensing law, dismissed the idea the board needed more time. She urged its members to focus on complying with the new law rather than trying to make controversial rules.

“It is possible to accomplish this,” said Erickson.