LINCOLN- As many know, the teacher shortage is increasing and poses a major threat to the future of education. Senator Ben Hansen has a solution to help aid that problem with LB188. The bill places veterans with mentors who would be assigned to help them work with students. Veterans would have to pass a test on the subject they would teach before they could enter the classroom.

“This bill fits the time,” Hansen said of his proposal. “It’s not just a teacher shortage, it’s a crisis now.” Hansen’s bill ran into a wall of opposition from past and present teachers, some with military backgrounds, during a public hearing before the Legislature’s Education Committee. Many pointed out that the training of soldiers and children is not the same.

Nicole Hochstein, an Air Force veteran, a former special education teacher and now a substitute teacher, said that even after obtaining her degree in education and her experience in student teaching, she felt unprepared when she finally got into the classroom full time. “We are essentially saying anyone off the streets can teach,” Hochstein said, of LB 188.

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