Wyoming Teacher Apprenticeship Initiative seeks grant from state
Nov. 17—CHEYENNE — While applications have opened for candidates hoping to join the new Teacher Apprenticeship Initiative in the spring, funding is still up in the air for Wyoming K-12 school districts.
Officials from the Wyoming Department of Education and the Professional Teaching Standards Board who helped develop the initiative came before the Legislature's Joint Education Committee looking for solutions Wednesday. They proposed a four-year grant for school districts to reallocate funding to support the program, since the apprentices are not included in the current K-12 funding model.
The first year, the state would cover 100% of apprenticeship salary-related expenses, and the appropriation would decrease by 25% for the next three years. By year five, the district would cover 100% of the expenses.
There are currently three pilot school districts that were chosen to work with the education department. Laramie County School District 1, Teton County School District 1 and Fremont County School District 24 represent large, medium and small districts, respectively, and will help cultivate a solidified program for other school districts interested in the teacher apprenticeship model later.
"It's all about taking folks that are already in a community, giving them skills, giving them training, giving them the college courses — all of those kinds of things — to be able to be a really successful teacher," said WDE Student Teacher Resource Team Supervisor Laurel Ballard.
It was designed to provide a new opportunity to become an educator in the wake of the ongoing teacher shortage, and have years of training in the classroom, unlike a four-year traditional bachelor's degree.
Apprentices must go through what will likely be a three-year program to complete four components. They must complete an Education Preparation Program that leads to a bachelor's degree, have 2,000 to 6,000 hours of on-the-job training, receive intensive mentoring with experienced teachers and complete any other licensure requirements required by PTSB.
School districts are beginning phase one of the initiative by taking on apprentices that have at least an associate's degree before starting. Phases two and three will allow for applicants who have a high school diploma or equivalent, and eventually work with high school students to begin their preparation to become teachers.
The first phase will have a 30-apprentice cohort with 60 credit hours, but this requires a significant amount of funding outside of the model. Cost estimates show that there will be expenditures every year for apprenticeship wages, primary and secondary mentor stipends, multi-classroom leaders, a laptop loaner, books and supplies, as well as tuition and fees.
Ballard and PTSB Executive Director Brendan O'Connor said the expected cost for the 30 apprentices would be $3.8 million over four years, because one apprentice for four years needs $128,358 in funding. The grant proposal showed if there were 100 apprentices, it would be $12.8 million.
"We have been working really hard to find funding sources," Ballard said. "And I can find funding sources in a lot of ways to support the post-secondary education, but we have really struggled with finding anywhere where there is support for the school districts."
Despite arguments made by the education officials, legislators were wary of the state funding the grant. They weighed whether it would be more cost effective to expand the teaching program at the University of Wyoming, and how many apprentices would be funneled into a full-time position in Wyoming.
No vote was taken on the grant, but Joint Education Committee co-Chairman Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, said the teacher apprenticeship developers would have to strengthen their case if they wanted funding at a higher level.
He said when it came time to get the funding, they would have to answer whether their program would compare to the cost of a student loan forgiveness program or another "enticement method to get teachers from the schools of education and surrounding states."
"This has some advantages that would enable us to support something that was higher cost than some of those other methods," he said. "But you will be asked, and we'll have to have an answer to that to get anywhere in the Legislature."
Jasmine Hall is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's state government reporter. She can be reached by email at jhall@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3167. Follow her on Twitter @jasminerhphotos and on Instagram @jhrose25.
