1999-2

A resolution to promote quality instruction in Lutheran Day Schools (LDS) and to create awareness of the need for teachers and incentives to encourage students of education to seek employment in LDS.

WHEREAS, many LSM-USA students are education majors, and potential educators in LDS, but cannot afford to teach in LDS due to student loan repayment issues and the necessities of supporting a family, and

WHEREAS, the ELCA Department of Schools has recently made an attempt to recruit LSMers to be teachers in LDS,, and

WHEREAS, salary and benefits packages of Lutheran Day Teachers often fall far below that of their public school counterparts, and

WHEREAS, fewer opportunities exist for master's degree encouragement and reimbursement and sabbatical provisions; fostering lower staff morale, greater turnover, and reduced professional status for LDS teachers within the educational field, local communities, and society at large;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that LSM-USA encourages the Division for Higher Education and Schools (DHES) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to develop an overarching strategy comprised of the following facets to place these professionals on a level playing field with their public school peers and encourage young professionals to consider employment in LDS:

1. Encourage the ELCA LDS Coordination Office to develop a policy encouraging LDS Boards to bring teacher salaries and benefits up to par with their closest public school district guidelines within the next five years.

2. Develop a nationwide sabbatical leave policy for all LDS Teachers.

3. Create a LDS Teacher Program of Excellence Endowment Fund that would reward professionalism in the field.

4. Fund partial reimbursement for teachers' further education in the field.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this statement be officially distributed to the Executive Director of the DHES and the Director of Schools to be brought before the DHES Board of Directors.

Authors:            Nicole Prescia, Winona State University

Jennifer Slagle, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

' Fall 1999 New Frontiers, page 5