“On Tuesday, the Maryland State Board of Education tried to provide relief for school systems by waiving the requirement for the term of a conditional teacher certificate. This would give those certificate holders more time to get teacher’s licenses.
While this offers short-term relief, the Baltimore Teacher’s Union said there are other challenges.
“It’s really great that the state is providing more flexibility for conditional certificate holders, but at the same time, it falls on Baltimore City to process certificate requests, and there is a huge backlog in our certification office,” said Cristina Duncan-Evans, chairwoman of the teacher chapter of the Baltimore Teachers Union.
The union said the teacher shortage is not a new problem.
“We are not surprised by the magnitude of the situation. Maryland, for years, has had to import teachers just to keep classrooms at the levels they were at. What we are surprised by is the district’s lack of a plan to deal with these vacancies,” Duncan-Evans said.”