If you’re a college grad, you may be the answer to NC’s teacher shortage.

Well, here’s a surprise: A bill offered by Republican state lawmakers that might actually help public schools.

Senate Bill 582 would address the state’s teacher shortage by allowing people with a college degree to teach high school classes without a teaching license. The change would come with sensible restrictions, but it could open the door for people with valuable work experience – such as doctors, accountants and other non-educators – to bring their insights and their enthusiasm for their fields into the classroom.

“People with practical experience are going to be excellent teachers,” said Sen. Kevin Corbin, a Macon County Republican and one of the bill’s primary sponsors.

The bill unanimously passed the Senate in May and passed the House on Wednesday. Corbin said it has the backing of State Superintendent Catherine Truitt.

Some teachers are critical of the bill, saying it disrespects their standards and tries to solve the teacher shortage without investing in teachers. However, the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) has taken a neutral position on the bill.

The unlicensed teachers – described in the bill as “adjunct instructors” – would have to complete at least one semester of teacher preparation courses at a community college and they would serve only on a part-time basis – up to 20 hours a week, or for less than six months at a time.

Sen. Jim Burgin, a Harnett County Republican and another of the bill’s primary sponsors, told the House Education Committee that widening access to part-time teaching could appeal to older workers who would welcome the chance to share their expertise with young people. “I think this is going to give a real opportunity for a lot of people that are not ready to retire and go home and sit to go into the schools and help these young people get excited about education again,” he said.

Teaching without a teacher’s license is hardly new in North Carolina. Private schools and charter schools regularly employ noncertified teachers. Substitute teachers are not required to be licensed. And many parents serve as teachers when they homeschool their children, a practice many thousands more parents took up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2019, The News & Observer’s Keung Hui and David Raynor assessed the effect of non-licensed teachers by analyzing state report card data from the 2016-17 school year. Their report found “no strong correlation between passing rates on state exams and the percentage of fully licensed teachers at charter schools.”

It’s important to note that the proposed bill does not dismiss the need for licensed teachers. It simply offers to augment their ranks. Licensed teachers – people extensively trained and committed to teaching as a vocation – are the foundation of successful public schools. That there are not enough of them speaks to a failure nationally – but especially in North Carolina – to support teacher education, provide proper compensation and show respect for those whose work shapes the futures of children.

Tamika Walker Kelly, NCAE president, said in a statement: “The fact that this bill exists speaks to a larger problem of the teacher recruitment pipeline and lack of investments in educator preparation programs at the collegiate level, the need to strengthen the alternative licensure program, and the necessity of boosting educator pay for recruitment and retention, which all could have made this bill unnecessary in the first place.”

Bringing accountants in to teach math and pharmaceutical researchers to teach science on a part-time basis won’t solve the teacher shortage, but it is an imaginative response that involves little cost. It’s a change that could be good for schoolchildren and their part-time instructors.