Community colleges would play a larger role in training some teachers in a plan now before the General Assembly — and they could aid the state’s teacher shortage in the process.
Identical bills in the House and Senate would allow people with at least a bachelor’s degree to complete their teaching-degree requirements at the state’s community colleges instead of at four-year schools.
Obtaining teaching certification at a local community college increases the ease of changing careers because four-year schools are more expensive and often far from people’s homes.
Rep. Joe Tolson, D-Edgecombe, the House bill’s primary sponsor, said that there is a need for 10,000 teachers per year in the state and that four-year schools are producing only 3,000 per year.
“We’re in dire need of teachers, and the bill should receive support,” Tolson said. “We just need to get people to fill our classrooms.”
But Jane Smith, coordinator of teacher recruitment and retention for the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education, is concerned that the community college programs would not provide the same level of training as nationally accredited universities.
“It’s a matter of integrity of the teachers,” Smith said. “We don’t want to sacrifice quality of education for convenience.”
But Martin Lancaster, president of the N.C. Community College System, said community college programs work. He pointed to Piedmont College and Sandhills Community College, which he said produce teachers as qualified and equipped as those from four-year programs in only one academic year and two summers.
Lancaster said the deans of North Carolina’s schools of education do not want community colleges involved in teacher certification. But the programs are vital to helping fulfill North Carolina’s need for educators, he said.
