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HARRISBURG, PA (Feb. 25, 2025) — In testimony before the Pennsylvania House Education Committee today, PSEA President Aaron Chapin called for reforms to the state’s teacher certification system that would reduce the costs for new teachers, better align certifications with the roles and demands of actual school professionals, and address certification grade spans.

He also praised efforts made by Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration to reduce the wait times for new educators applying for certification from 12 weeks to about two weeks.

Reducing costs

Chapin voiced appreciation to the committee for its bipartisan efforts to address crisis-level educator shortages, including the creation of a new program that provides $10,000 stipends to student teachers.

“This committee deserves tremendous credit for prioritizing and leading the effort to establish the Student Teacher Support Program,” Chapin said.

But Chapin said that more state funding is needed in the FY 2025-26 budget to ensure that every student teacher who meets the eligibility criteria can receive a stipend.

“PSEA estimates that the program requires at least $50 million in total funding for FY 2025-26 to ensure all eligible student teachers receive a stipend and to implement bonuses for eligible student teachers who perform their student teacher experience in a high-vacancy school entity,” Chapin said.

Chapin also urged the committee to address the high cost of teacher certification in Pennsylvania, and cited examples, which show certification costs can range from $390.95 to $690.95, depending on the specific certification sought.

“After completing their student teacher experience, aspiring educators might graduate with jobs for the following school year, but they can incur hundreds of dollars in initial fees to receive their Instructional I certificate before they even prepare their first classroom,” Chapin said.

One suggestion Chapin made is to reduce the $200 fee that the Department of Education charges to process certification applications.

Improving efficiency and fairness

Chapin also urged the committee to rethink instructional grade spans in existing certification categories.

Under the current system, teachers can be certified to teach students in early childhood (Pre-K-4), middle grades (4-8), or secondary grades (7-12), but Pennsylvania is experiencing a severe shortage of teachers certified for grades 5 and 6.

Chapin recommended that the state either reinstate the K-6 instructional certificate while maintaining the early childhood, middle, and secondary instructional certificates, or revise the existing instructional certificates by extending the Pre-K-4 certification to include fifth grade and lowering the secondary instructional certification to include sixth grade. “This would better align certification grade spans with how grades are structured in most schools,” he said.

Chapin made several other recommendations to improve the efficiency and fairness of the teacher certification system, including:

• Updating the 50-year-old definition of “professional employe” in the Public School Code to include professionals working in schools, such as school psychologists, who are not currently included in the definition.
• Establishing an objective, timely, and transparent process for evaluating certifications to provide better alignment between the current roles and demands of professionals working within our schools.
• Improving the pathway for previously certificated people to return to the classroom.

Ensuring high-quality preparation

Chapin emphasized in his testimony that, above all, it is essential that lawmakers continue to ensure high-quality preparation for public school teachers.

“Teachers today face increasing training requirements from the General Assembly; more and more students with diverse and complex mental, emotional, and physical needs; intense pressures of high-stakes standardized testing; and the need to keep our students and themselves safe from violent threats. It is essential that any solutions proposed by policymakers maintain high-quality preparation and do not lower standards for certification nor undermine the certification requirement.”

Read Chapin’s full testimony at www.psea.org/testimony.

Chapin is a Stroudsburg Area middle school teacher and president of PSEA. An affiliate of the National Education Association, PSEA represents about 177,000 active and retired educators and school employees, aspiring educators, higher education staff, and health care workers in Pennsylvania.