Governor JB Pritzker signed four new bills Wednesday designed to address the states teacher shortage.
Governor Pritzker joined a few state lawmakers at the Springfield High School Library to sign legislation to help fix the teacher shortage in Illinois.
The bills reduces the fee for retirees to reinstate their license from $500 to $50, college students close to graduation can get a substitute license, triples the time short term substitute teacher can spend in a classroom and dropping the minimum age of paraprofessional educators to 18.
Frankfort Community Unit School District Superintendent Matt Donkin says says these measures are a good step toward dealing with teacher shortage issues.
“Having somebody with at least some minimum standards. Being able to cover a classroom in a pinch is very important. And it's become more so as people have exclusively tried to manage through the pandemic.”
Illinois has more than 2,100 open teacher positions across the state.
