My name is Michael Payne and I am a CTE teacher at Powhatan High School. I teach electricity and building trades to over 100 students. I am in support of HB 632 for a couple of reasons. Finding quality teaching candidates to teach CTE courses has been cumbersome at best with the current licensure and certification of teachers. There are many qualified individuals with content-specific knowledge who have experience through their employment. Opening opportunities for these individuals is crucial if we want to address the CTE teacher shortage. I also believe that giving the locality the control to make decisions is always the best option. Who knows better than the locality on what is needed to staff their classrooms?

Distinguished members of the k-12 Subcommittee, My name is John Aughenbaugh and I have been a full time CTE educator in the Commonwealth for twelve years. I am writing to you today to congratulate all who have contributed to HB 632 and to encourage all members of the General Assembly to support this bill. The provisions included are long overdue and greatly increase the ability of school systems to staff their classrooms. I am excited about the modifications to licensure and re-licensure for all Virginia educators and I believe that reciprocity with additional supports for educators joining the Commonwealth's classrooms is vital. While there are many excellent provisions included in this bill, there is but one crucial element which is missing. Industry and career professionals, subject matter experts, and others interested in entering the classroom for the first time MUST be provided with a period of teaching internship with a fully certified Virginia teacher who has a minimum of five years of experience. I urge you to think of this teaching internship experience in the same way as the requirement for tandem skydiving. If you are unfamiliar, there is a requirement that first time skydivers must jump in tandem with a seasoned professional. Please remember that the lesson here is that bravery and a parachute is not enough - a first experience must be conducted within the guidance of a seasoned professional.

As a retired administrator of a Regional CTE Center, I support HB 632. On Virginia’s list of critical teacher shortage areas, Career and Technical Education teachers rank 4th in Virginia. This bill would go a long way in reducing teacher shortages in the Commonwealth by allow flexibility in the hiring process and licensure. In addition the flexibility would provide our business and industry partners an easier transition into the teaching profession

As the President-Elect for The Virginia Association for Career and Technical Education, I support HB632. The VA ACTE public policy committee has reviewed the bill as well offering support from the organization. Career and Technical Education teachers ranked fourth in Virginia’s 2023-2024 top-10 list of critical teacher shortage areas. Virginia continues to experience a critical shortage of qualified teachers, especially in its most challenged schools and in career & technical subject areas. School divisions increasingly have difficulty finding qualified CTE teachers; the shortage is predicted to expand over the next five years. This bill would allow school divisions flexibility in hiring highly qualified teachers from business and industry into the teaching profession.

We currently have 8 open AgEd teaching positions across the commonwealth and schools have not been able to find qualified candidates to fill them. This bill will provide broader access to high-quality candidates interested in applying. Out of the 330 AgEd teachers in VA, 187 have less than 3 years of experience and 70 are eligible to retire at any point in time. At this time, there are not enough traditional graduates in AgEd coming out of the qualifying universities (VT, VSU, Ferrum) to fill these positions. Addressing licensure and certification provisions as outlined in HB632 is necessary in closing this gap.