For the last decade or so, the Minnesota State Legislature has consistently returned to a discussion about Minnesota’s glaring racial and ethnic disparities in education and BIPOC teacher representation in the classroom.
According to a report from the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board, Minnesota’s teachers are, at minimum, 78.27% white. BIPOC teachers make up 5.64% of Minnesota’s teachers. 16.08% of the teachers surveyed did not provide race/demographic answers. According to the Minnesota Department of Education, Minnesota’s K-12 schools are made up of nearly 37% BIPOC students.
On Jan. 18, in the House Education Policy committee, that discussion was had again. Rep. Hodan Hassan (DFL - District 62B) presented House File 320 (HF320), the Increase Teachers of Color Act, which aims to increase the percentage of BIPOC teachers in Minnesota and appropriate money to support those efforts.
HF320 was “laid over,” which means that the committee will pick up the discussion, once more, at a future committee meeting that includes public testimony and member discussion.
“This bill is important to me and to many others because of the following, because we all know representation matters and our youth and families are yearning for a more representative teaching workforce.” Hassan said. “Research is clear that all students benefit from teachers of color and Indigenous teachers,”
Hassan also noted that the legislation arose from long-standing community collaborations and was vetted by 50 educational and community leaders. The majority of the bill has been presented at legislative hearings in past sessions and has few new additions in this version of the bill.
Several testifiers joined Hassan to advocate for HF320. The testifiers included rural and urban teachers, students as young as seven or eight, the 2022-2023 Minnesota Teacher of the YearSarah Lancaster, and several high school students from Minneapolis Public Schools.
“I think we should have more opportunities for students to be taught their cultural identity and in their general classroom curriculum. I feel passionate about this.” said Mariah Valenzuela, an Indigenous South High student “I have been advocating on the district and community level because students of color have internalized the racism that is pervasive in their education, thinking that they aren’t as smart and second-guessing their own answers.”. Valenzuela, who is part of the Intro to Educations course at South High, is planning on going into curricular design, but plans to become an ethnic studies teacher first.
That Intro to Education course was funded, in part, by Grow Your Own money, which is in turn funded by previous versions of TOCAIT legislation.
Angelica Torralba-Olague, licensed teacher in ESL and Social Studies, and the Coordinator for Education Pathways Program at South High also spoke up at the meeting.
Minneapolis Public Schools was one of the recipients of the Grow Your Own and Intro to Education grants for the last school year. The program has expanded in popularity - it began with 38 students enrolled and now 60 students are enrolled.
“There are several reasons why so many students are interested in our program. We have two teachers of color as instructors and we focus on culturally-sustaining practices, anti-racist pedagogies, and we center BIPOC experiences,” said Torralba-Olague
Torralba-Olague also urged legislators to think not just about TOCAIT recruitment, but also on retention, arguing that more focus had to also be put on retaining BIPOC teachers and on ensuring a healthy work environment for those teachers.
Due to both the requirements of the legislative process and the number of additional testifiers prepared to speak, the legislation will appear in House Education Policy again for future discussion. The exact date of that discussion is still unknown.
