Colorado House passes bill to address teacher shortage

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) - On Thursday, the Colorado State House passed a bill to address teacher shortages and get more educators on the job.

Democratic lawmakers want to attract more Coloradans to the teaching profession to help with the teacher shortage. The idea is to break down financial barriers.

The bill calls for raising the income threshold for teachers in training, opening up the aid to student teachers from families with moderate incomes, and permitting student teachers to work in other states.

“So this will open up, we hope, some floodgates for more, just more people to be coming in who have been all the way trained, all they need to do is be certified, do their student teaching, take the test, and we will pay for those tests. And then they don’t have a lot of debt as they go into teaching,” said Rep. Barbara McLachlan.

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