House Bill 583 aims to serve as short-term fix for substitute teacher shortage in Ohio

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Ohio — Despite the academic year winding down, the Ohio Legislature is already looking ahead to the next two school years.

With the substitute teacher shortage across the state, House Bill 583 is aimed to make finding subs easier.

The bill appears to be moving quickly through the Senate, and it would bring some relief to Ohio schools strained for help.

But it comes with conflicting feelings -- and a much larger problem of waning interest in going into the education field.

House Bill 583 is sponsored in part by State Representative Don Jones of the 95th district.

He and some of his colleagues in Columbus realize the need for teachers and subs is at an all-time high.

“House Bill 583 is a short-term fix,” Jones said. “It's not a long term. It's got a sunset clause. I think it's going to sunset after two school years, which is next year and the year after, but as educators, I think we need to look at this because I think the problem is only going to get worse."

The bill extends guidelines such as only requiring a high school diploma for a substitute to be hired.

And it's garnering mixed responses from different organizations in the education sector.

"We appreciate the fact that legislature is taking a serious look at this,” said Scott DiMauro, president, Ohio Education Association

“House Bill 583 is a Band-Aid, it extends some flexibility until the legislature has time to look at more comprehensive solutions."

The Ohio Education Association says it wishes the extension would be just 1 year rather than 2.

Meanwhile, the Education Association and Jones both know attracting more people to the education field will be tough, and there are varying methods of how they believe it could change.

"I think we need to look at the bigger picture of why aren't more people going into education,” Jones said. “I think we look at it and there's a lot of requirements to be a teacher today. They wear a lot more hats, they have a lot more responsibilities, and I think as we look down the road, we need to make it a little more attractive and maybe get rid of some more of these requirements."

Jones is also in favor of eliminating some professional development hours and evaluations as one solution.

Another potential solution mentioned by both Jones and DiMauro is compensation.

"Let's look at what a starting teacher makes. A starting teacher is about $31,000 in the state of Ohio, that's not a lot of money after a 4-year college degree and multiple testing requirements just to get to that opportunity."

"It is critically important, whether you are talking about teachers, school bus drivers, cafeteria workers that anyone working in those important roles serving students in our schools is paid on a professional basis, is paid in a way that reflects their values to the community," DiMauro said.

Jones says if the bill passes, it leaves this opportunity up to each individual school district.