Georgia public schools were short 5,300 teachers as of December, an ongoing problem state lawmakers have been unable to fix.
They have a new proposed solution, but it would take awhile to put in place: let more retired teachers return to the classroom with both pay and pensions.
Senate Bill 150 would allow former teachers to return to the classroom 60 days after they retire following 25 years of service.
It would expand on a current, but temporary law, that lets teachers return to the classroom after a year of retirement following 30 years of service.
That older law restricts this post-retirement service to a handful of high-demand academic subjects in high-vacancy parts of the state. About 450 retired teachers have been re-employed under that law, which is in its third year and expires next year.
The proposed law would expire in the summer of 2034.
“We’ve got a real issue that we’ve got to deal with,” Sen. Billy Hickman, R-Statesboro, said Tuesday of the teacher shortage. He is the chief sponsor of SB 150, which he said would address the problem “on a temporary basis until our schools can gear up.”
A Senate committee voted unanimously to pass the bill on for a cost analysis. However, it likely won’t come up for further action until next year’s legislative session.
