Bill advanced to end human relations teaching certificate requirement

Prospective teachers, substitutes and administrators no longer would be required to complete human relations training in order to be certified in Nebraska under a bill advanced from general file Feb. 10.

Glenvil Sen. Dave Murman, sponsor of LB1022, said he introduced the measure after receiving a call from a Nebraskan hoping to become a substitute teacher. In spite of a long career in the armed forces, he said, the individual had to complete a human relations course before earning their certification.

Such barriers exacerbate the state’s teacher shortage and are redundant, Murman said, because a college degree also is a precondition for certification and university general education requirements already include courses about interaction with diverse cultures.

He said the Education Committee has been “laser focused” in recent years on creating incentives and removing state-level barriers that keep qualified Nebraskans from entering the teaching profession.

“Our schools need more teachers,” Murman said. “There’s no doubt about it.”

Supporting the proposal was Seward Sen. Jana Hughes, who said she obtained a substitute teaching certificate during the pandemic to assist her local school district when many teachers had to be absent due to coronavirus exposure.

Hughes said the human relations course did not help her prepare to manage a classroom and that such requirements are barriers to individuals who want to serve their communities.

Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha opposed the measure. Human relations training leads to better understanding of the diverse society we live in, he said, and enables classroom leaders to address racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination.

Nebraska does not have a “pipeline” full of future teachers from diverse backgrounds, he said, and making sure that teachers understand the ways in which bias impacts educational achievement is critical, especially given the country’s current political climate.

“How is a teacher who doesn’t understand human relations supposed to connect with a student whose parent was just pulled away by ICE … who went to sleep hungry last night … a student whose parent is incarcerated?” McKinney said.

Bennington Sen. Wendy DeBoer agreed. She said her sister, who took a human relations course to earn her substitute teaching certificate, learned important insight into how students’ life experiences impact their learning styles.

Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha suggested that a means of demonstrating competency in human relations might be a better alternative than eliminating the existing requirement altogether based on the possibly mistaken assumption that everyone with a college degree already has been exposed to important human relations concepts.

Murman, however, indicated that he was not interested in amending LB1022 in that manner.

Lawmakers then voted 28-7 to advance the measure to select file.