Louisiana, which is ranked 48^th in the nation in education, could have 2,500 certified teaching vacancies at the start of the 2022-23 school year. In some school systems, principals are driving buses and assistant principals are teaching in classrooms.

So what is the problem?

You can select a number of things. The pay is too low, the work is getting more complicated, discipline is out of control in many areas and fewer college students are attracted to the profession for those reasons, and probably others.

Members of the Legislature are trying to entice retired teachers back to the state’s classrooms, but even that has not been successful in recent years. The problem is current policy restricts what retired teachers can earn to 25 percent of their final average retirement compensation.

State Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, and chairman of the Senate Education Committee, has introduced Senate Bill 434 that is designed to change things. The major change would allow teachers in critical shortage fields to return to the classroom and keep all of their retirement benefits.

Retired teachers can take private school jobs without having to give up their retirement benefits. Supporters of Fields’ legislation said public school teachers should also be able to keep their full benefits.

Fields’ bill would allow the hiring of retired teachers who are certified in math, science, English language arts or special education. It would also cover educators filling in for teachers on maternity, military or extended sick leave. Gifted and talented fields are excluded.

Returning retired teachers would have to have been retired for at least 12 months and not retired because of a disability. The new policy would be in effect for three years, ending June 30, 2025.

Michael Faulk, executive director of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents, at a legislative retirement hearing added that other issues are discouraging for teachers and for those who might go into the profession.

While some legislators are trying to find solutions, Faulk mentioned there are 17 bills pending at the legislative session dealing with curriculum and instruction. Faulk didn’t say so, but what most of those bills are trying to do is tell teachers how to teach and what to teach.

Faulk said teachers feel overwhelmed because “so much has been placed on them.”

Curriculum and instruction are functions for which the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) is responsible, but some lawmakers believe they can do it better. Eight members of BESE are elected officials just like legislators and some of them have education backgrounds.

Katherine Whitney, director of the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana, said the system took no position on Fields’ bill. The Senate Retirement Committee reported it favorably, without objection, and it moved to the full Senate.

Two higher education officials early in the meeting used the occasion to seek help in shortages they are experiencing in the nursing field. Chris Broadwater is vice president for workforce policy and general counsel for the Louisiana Community and Technical and College System. Jim Henderson is president of the University of Louisiana System.

Both officials expressed the need for inclusion in legislative efforts to hire retired instructors. Broadwater said it isn’t just a K-12 education issue. He said some instructors are paid less than students will be making once they graduate.

Broadwater said it is their hope that some rehire retiree effort would move forward for higher education during the current legislative session, and they would work with lawmakers on the issue. He said nursing and process technology instructors are difficult to replace

Sen. Barrow Peacock, R-Bossier City, and a member of the committee, asked why higher education wasn’t increasing the pay of its instructors. Gov. John Bel Edwards in his proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 has included pay raises for higher education faculty, but it requires legislative approval.

That might help recruit instructors, but nursing shortages are an immediate need that Broadwater indicated could be satisfied quicker if higher education were included in existing retirement legislation. Current law makes it difficult to rehire retired teachers and college instructors.

Some of those who testified at the retirement committee hearing said education and nursing shortages are a national problem.

Dr. Keith Courville, executive director of A+PEL, a teacher support organization, offered a simple solution to shortages. He said, “I just don’t feel like it’s the government’s business to tell somebody what they can do about (their) retirement.”