Group Seeks Increase in Minority Teachers

Decrying what they called an appalling lack of minority teachers in the public schools, educators from across the state gathered in Newport Beach on Monday to seek ways to increase the number of minority instructors from kindergarten through 12th grade and on into college.

“We predict that we will need more than 80,000 new teachers in this state over the next 9 years,” said William L. Rukeyser, special assistant to State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig. “The majority of the students in many districts are minorities and it only makes sense that we get an equitable number of minority teachers into the teaching pool.”

But many of the nearly 200 educators who gathered at Hotel Meridien agreed that the obstacles to minority recruiting are substantial.

“Right now, our number (of minority teachers) is abysmal,” said Paul B. Gussman, a spokesman for the state Intersegmental Coordinating Council. “It’s largely because we have no pipeline. We have no system that says teaching is honorable and is something that is terribly important to our society. We have lost any sense of idealism (about teaching) that we once had.”

Gussman said that one of the council’s main goals in the recruitment of minority teachers is to try to instill the notion that teaching is of prime importance, has a powerful effect on society, and improves it as a whole.

“Once someone has got his or her degree, coming up with reasons for them to (accept) a huge salary sacrifice--a choice that they are often confronted with--is very tough,” Gussman said. “(We) have to appeal to their higher instincts.”

The 2-day conference, entitled “Increasing Faculty Diversity,” is sponsored by the coordinating council, an agency of the California Education Round Table which is affiliated with the State Department of Instruction.

The council is made up of representatives from the state’s kindergarten-through-12th-grade school districts, community colleges, the University of California, the California State University system and various private universities and colleges.

“It’s really about educational quality and social fairness. Hispanics, blacks and Asians are often radically under-represented in the teaching ranks,” said council Executive Director Mark G. Edelstein. “This needs to change. These kids need positive role models for their success.”

The educators formed about 30 teams from the council to carry the message throughout the state. The mission of the teams will be to meet and develop methods on the local level to improve the numbers of minority teachers. The group also called for a corporate-sponsored center to coordinate statewide recruiting of minority instructors.