CA is trying to reduce the cost of teacher training programs

from Adam EchelmanCalMatters

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Becoming a new California public school teacher means facing an impossible choice: working for a high-needs school, earning a full-time salary but with little support or training; or get proper education and training but lose a year or more of wages.

For decades, these were often the only options. But in recent years, California has expanded opportunities for teachers to receive paid training to work in high-needs schools, namely through special grants and through programs known as teacher residencies. This fall, the state will launch its first registered apprenticeship program for teachers, meaning it gives students a chance to earn a salary and a teaching credential at the same time.

These programs are promising but set against a troubling backdrop, said Mary Vixey Sandi, executive director of the California Commission on Teacher Accreditation, in state hearing last month. “More teachers are entering the profession, but too many are leaving,” she said, adding that there is “a continued reliance on under-prepared staff, emergency-type permits and substitutes to fill permanent vacancies.”

In the last academic year, nearly 16,000 teachers in the state entered the classroom underprepared, about 5 percent of the total teaching workforce, according to the latest report by the commission. This is a significant increase compared to the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years. Areas in California’s Central Valley, the far north and rural parts of the state, such as near the Sierras, have some of the highest rates of underprepared teachers.

Being a teacher is stressful and, for many, prohibitively expensive, even in areas with a lower cost of living. California requires teachers to obtain a credential, which can cost upwards of $30,000, in addition to a bachelor’s degree. Students must also spend at least 600 hours in the classroom, often unpaid. As a result, many teachers carry student debt for years, according to analysis from the Learning Policy Institute, a nonprofit education research organization.

Although cheaper education and training programs exist, and some teachers in high-need areas are granted temporary work permits without a full credential, it can take years to pay off college debt. Starting salaries for teachers are low, often approx $63,000 a year. Lots of new teacher attrition and retention rates are particularly low for those who do not have the appropriate credentials.

Nationally, both Democrats and Republicans have supported teacher apprenticeship programs. In his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, Gov. Gavin Newsom promised that he would create 500,000 apprenticeships over the next 10 years, many of them in areas where apprenticeships did not exist before, such as teaching. President Donald Trump said he would expand apprenticeships as well.

However, to be recognized as an apprenticeship program by the state, employers and local agencies must go through complex planning and verification. Tulare County and Santa Clara County Education Departments spent roughly two years creating the first teacher apprenticeship programs, which will serve just eight students in the first year.

A program to train teachers with “divisive” ideologies

In 2024, the Biden administration awarded the Tulare County Office of Education approximately $18 million to expand and improve teacher education, including designing future residencies and apprenticeships.

The Trump administration abruptly cut that funding last year, saying the grants encourage “divisive ideologies,” such as diversity, equity, and inclusion, which no longer meet the “priorities” of the US Department of Education.
The Hanford Joint Unified School District, about an hour south of Fresno, was one of many school systems affected by the federal cuts. Hanford has about 55,000 people, surrounded on all sides by dairy, nut and fruit farms or the growers who support them. Most people in Hanford have never graduated from collegewhich makes it especially difficult for the district to find qualified teachers.

The district often temporarily waives education and training requirements for new teachers, in some cases allowing them to take over the classroom on their own without prior experience. These emergency-style denials or permissions are especially common for teachers in math, science and special education.

The federal grant would have provided a pipeline for Hanford’s teacher residents. Residents receive full training and mentoring before they take charge of a classroom and, as a result, have significantly higher retention rates than teachers with emergency-style permits or waivers, said Melanie Leung-Gagne, a researcher at the Learning Policy Institute.

Of the teachers who started in the Hanford school district without proper training during the COVID-19 pandemic, about half have since left, according to local teacher data reviewed by CalMatters.

Easier to hire, but at what cost

Hanford West High School is a collection of long, one-story concrete buildings near the railroad tracks that run north-south through town. In Luis Garcia’s special education classroom, long chains of colored paper and posters cover his wall — his students recently decorated the classroom to celebrate his Teacher of the Year award.

But Garcia’s excellence is an exception in more ways than one. When he started teaching in 2018, he did not have the necessary qualifications. For the first few years, such underqualified teachers are often called interns, but are treated the same as regular staff—handling an entire classroom by themselves—along with a full-time salary. They are expected to simultaneously enroll in a program to obtain their teaching license.

“In a pinch, it’s a lot easier to hire an intern, but at what cost,” said Brooke Berrios, who oversees some teacher preparation programs at the Tulare County Office of Education, including many at Hanford West High.

In retrospect, Garcia said more robust training, such as a residency or apprenticeship model, would have better prepared him for the job. “It was hard because I was alone,” he said as he set up the decorations before class one morning last month. He now mentors both residents and interns, and said he sees clear differences in the quality of their training.

Trump’s cuts put the student’s future in flux

Unlike Garcia’s internship, local teachers are not responsible for the classroom during their first year. Students co-teach with the help of a mentor while enrolled in a teacher preparation or graduate program. Residents receive a stipend of up to $40,000 in their first year of study. The new apprenticeship program will operate in a similar fashion, at least in its first year. The main difference is that apprentices will also have jobs as substitute teachers, allowing them to earn more money on top of their stipend.

Hayden Pulis was finishing his bachelor’s degree and helping coach football at the University of Central Oklahoma last spring when he decided to come home to Hanford and become a teacher. “I had no teaching experience before,” he said, stepping back from his class and letting his mentor supervise the students. “Personally, I wasn’t ready to take over a classroom.” He applied to join the residency program at Hanford High School, 2 miles across the railroad tracks from Hanford West High, where Garcia teaches.

But a few weeks later, he learns at a meeting that the money has been cut, putting his future in flux. On an average year, the Tulare County Office of Education assists about 20 residents, Berrios said. With the federal grant, the office planned to serve nearly 100 students, including Pulis, in cooperation with other district offices.

For weeks, the district struggled to find a solution for its new class. By using other state funds, Berrios said the school district was able to fulfill its commitment to Pulis, even though his stipend was reduced to $35,000.

It was “a weight off my chest,” Pulis said. If the program hadn’t happened, he said he probably would still be coaching football.

Opportunity to build wealth

Overall, California spent approx 2.1 billion dollars over the past decade to address teacher shortages, often through grants to make credentialing programs cheaper and improve instruction. The largest portion of state funding goes to residency programs, including scholarships.

There’s also the Golden State Teacher Scholarship, which gives students up to $10,000 toward the cost of their teaching credentials. In exchange, aspiring teachers commit to working at schools like Hanford West High or Hanford High, where most of the students are low-income English learners or foster youth. Pulis used the money to cover much of his education. The grant program is set to end this year unless state lawmakers approve new funding in the upcoming budget.

Starting this summer, the state launched a new grant that pays student teachers $10,000 for the hundreds of hours of classroom work during their training.

For Pulis, just thinking about the impact these programs have had on his life makes him emotional. The grants allowed him to start amassing wealth, he said, speaking for himself and his wife, who worked as a waitress while in nursing school. In the past year, Pulis got married and moved to California — major expenses that would have been much more difficult to cover, he said, if it weren’t for the Golden State Teacher Fellowship and the $35,000 residency stipend.

Many of those scholarships and programs didn’t exist when Garcia started as a teacher in 2018. The internship was the only financial avenue possible, he said, because other programs required him to study or work without pay.

Internship programs, like the one Garcia did, often pay more than more rigorous training programs, like residencies, though Berrios said he intends to continue to reduce those costs.

Garcia still has about $30,000 in debt from the graduate program he enrolled in as an intern. He also has another $50,000 in debt from his undergraduate degree at Sacramento State.

Still, he said he has no regrets and is proud of his recent Teacher of the Year award. “Am I rich? No. But it’s nice that your colleagues see your hard work and your students praise you.”

When asked if the award comes with a cash prize, he laughed and replied in the negative. “I’d be happy to take a donation.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.