LANSING – After Governor Rick Snyder signed HB 4465 , current high school seniors suddenly were required to have two credits of foreign language rather than one. But on Wednesday, the House Education Committee reported a bill that would fix the inadvertent change.

Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons (R-Alto), sponsor of HB 5793 and chair of the committee, said current year seniors were put in a tough situation with the error in the new law and the bill would correct the mistake.

“I would call it cleanup, but it really is sort of a high-stakes clean up if we don’t get this accomplished,” Lyons said.

Specifically, the bill would stipulate the graduation requirement of two credits of a language other than English would begin with students who entered the third grade in 2006. Schools are also strongly encouraged to ensure all students complete one of those credits when in elementary school.

During Wednesday’s full House session, the bill was advanced to Third Reading.

The committee also reported HB 5669 , which would allow a state-approved nonpublic school to provide teacher professional development for nonpublic school teachers and require the Department of Education to treat the nonpublic school professional development the same as it treats public school development.

That change applies if the professional development contained substantially the same content as the public offering and the nonpublic school submitted to the same auditing and documentation as a public school.

Rep. Rob VerHeulen (R-Walker), sponsor of the bill, said he was called by his son-in-law, who teaches at a private school in the state, who notified him of public school teachers being allowed to use professional development toward endorsement or renewal of teaching certificates while private school teachers were not.

“This bill levels that playing field,” he said.

Rep. Pete Lund (R-Shelby Township), a member of the committee, said he was also looking into the same issue after his sister, who teaches at a Catholic school, brought the issue to his attention.

“You beat me to it,” Lund said. “But this is definitely something that needs to be done.”

Brian Broderick, the executive director of the Michigan Association of Non-Public Schools, also spoke in support of the bill. Broderick was joined by Brian Koetje, the principal of Allendale Christian School.

“(A local public school) sends some of the shared time teachers at both schools, they send them to our professional development at Allendale Christian, and those teachers get credit for professional development toward re-certification, whereas my teachers sitting next to them do not,” Mr. Koetje told the committee, illustrating why the bill was needed.

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