CA Senate Passes Rubio’s Education Bill to Help Stem Severe Teacher Shortage

SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, the California State Senate passed a bill by Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) that will collect important feedback to stem a severe teacher shortage, and gather data to better recruit and retain teacher candidates and veteran teachers.  

Senate Bill 1487 – The TEACH Survey (“Teachers Exiting and Addressing the CHallenges Survey”) – would allow the state to create and administer a survey to teachers exiting their position, and to those declining a teaching assignment. This bill will also require the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to work with the Local Education Agencies (LEA) to develop and administer a statewide survey that would allow us to glean more specificity on why teachers are leaving their positions. Additionally, SB 1487 would require the information collected to be posted on the CDE’s website.

“California has been experiencing a severe teacher shortage, with significantly low numbers of teacher candidates entering the profession and high numbers of educators leaving,” said Senator Rubio. “As a longtime teacher, I have many teacher friends who are considering leaving as well, with various reasons for why. Unfortunately, we have little data on this issue. With SB 1487, we will be able to collect data that will explore how we can support our educators who are teaching our children, the future of California, expand diversity and retain our veteran teachers.”

California State Teachers’ Retirement System data reported that it had an increase of more than 25 percent of retirements within the first half of 2020 than the previous year. The retirements, combined with a severe shortage in substitutes, led to an unprecedented shortage in classroom teachers, which led to some schools temporarily closing. Schools are currently grappling with higher than normal teacher vacancies, leaving remaining teachers overworked.

Senator Susan Rubio represents Senate District 22. For more information, visit https://sd22.senate.ca.gov/

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Media Contact: Edward Barrera, edward.barrera@sen.ca.gov