McCrory: Education bureaucracy slows filling needed teacher positions

“Too often the bureaucracy, and yes, the education bureaucracy, gets in the way of talented people filling job openings desperately needed in our schools and in our workplace,” he said. “Do you hear me? Sometimes we need to look in the mirror with the education bureaucracy and say, 'Are we blocking a potential great teacher from entering our school?'”

McCrory shared his thoughts during the summit, hosted by the UNC Board of Governors, to talk about ways to boost, strengthen and improve the quality of education in North Carolina.

More than 200 attendees heard a list recommendations from a special Board of Governors Subcommittee on Teacher and School Leader Quality, which over the past year has met with deans of UNC's 15 schools of education, faculty, public school personnel administrators, school superintendents, legislators, policymakers and others to find out what improvements are needed.

North Carolina's public university's education departments saw a 12-percent decrease in enrollment from 2013 to 2014. That number jumped to 27 percent over a five-year time period. Education leaders called it a crisis, saying North Carolina won't be able to produce enough teachers in the coming years.

Leaders say work has already begun on trying to change the trend, but the committee making the recommendations admitted it will take a lot of work to put them into action – more than a year for some.

One idea would be to speed up the teacher certification process, especially for candidates with expertise in subjects with teacher shortages, McCrory said.

“Why not let them do it?” he said. “Why put them through this educational bureaucracy maze when they have already shown they have the skills?”