Senate Approves Amendment to Hire Additional Teachers
March 1, 2000

Washington, DC – The U.S. Senate today approved an amendment cosponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to help ease the teacher shortages in California and across the nation.

The amendment to the Education Savings Account Act was introduced by Senator Bob Graham (D-Florida) and approved unanimously. It authorizes $25 million to recruit and train teachers so that they can teach in high poverty school districts for at least three years. The measure also will provide additional teachers by establishing a retraining program for mid-career professionals.

“With California’s exploding population growth, we will need 300,000 new qualified teachers by 2010 just to keep up with our projected enrollment,” Senator Feinstein said. “This amendment will provide much needed resources for California to hire qualified teachers needed to educate our young people. The amendment will also help the poorer districts in our state hire the trained teachers they need.”

Specifically, the amendment would authorize $25 million for each year from 2001 through 2006 to recruit, train, and place mid-career professionals in teaching jobs. The amendment also requires those trained with these funds to teach in high-poverty school districts for at least three years and defines “high poverty” as a district in which poverty rates for children is 20 percent or greater.

Senator Feinstein has introduced a number of measures to improve our public education system, including legislation to: provide grants to school districts to reduce school and class size and meet high standards; fund remedial education programs; invest in construction to repair crumbling and overcrowded schools; train teachers on how to use technology effectively in the classroom; and to end the practice of social promotion.