VCC Summer-Fall 2021

V irginia C apitol C onnections , S ummer /F all 2021 19 private hospitals, the greater the pressure experienced by the state facilities. Virginia’s state psychiatric hospitals were not designed to provide the short-term acute care of TDOs, but the “bed of last resort” obligation requires them to accept each TDO patient denied admission to a private hospital. This obligation is unique to Virginia. All other states have found other ways for their public and private hospitals to collaborate in the best interests of persons in crises. The recent allocation of some of Virginia’s federal COVID relief funds to the public mental health system is promising, and it is important to remember that ARP funds are one time funds. This is not a problem with a one time solution. If Virginia did not have a public mental health system, and we were charged with creating one from scratch, no reasonable person would design a system that looks anything like the system we currently have. To build a system worthy of the tenth wealthiest state, we must do the following: • Modernize Virginia’s tax code to create a progressive system that recognizes consumer services, not goods, are the greatest proportion of personal expenditures. • Double the per capita spending on public mental health services so that the tenth wealthiest state becomes the state with the tenth best funded mental health care system. • Require this new spending to go to evidence-based community services and supports proven to reduce the need for hospitalization. • Increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for mental health services to the same rate paid for comparable services for substance use disorder. The current rates for mental health services are a fraction of the rates for substance use disorder, even though the intensity of the service and credentialing of service providers is essentially identical. This lack of parity is discouraging community providers from serving people with mental illness. • Better incentivize private hospitals to accept more TDO patients. • Require private hospitals to provide the Commonwealth with comprehensive and transparent information regarding the circumstances of each denial to admit a patient experiencing a TDO. • Launch initiatives such as the “Health SciencesWorkforce Highway” developed by former Secretary Hazel and the Claude Moore Foundation to create long term capacity in the mental health care workforce. • Invest the resources necessary and safely and appropriately discharge patients from state hospitals as soon as their treatment team deems them clinically ready for discharge. At any given time over 200 people have been clinically ready for discharge for more than two weeks, yet remain in state hospitals at the cost of almost $1,000 per day per person. Whether the Commission has the statutory authority to freeze admissions is questionable. However, history teaches that nothing changes until something changes. Commissioner Land’s willingness to “when in charge, be in charge” is commendable. Hopefully it will be the change that catalyzes more change. If it isn’t, Virginia’s mental health system will continue to victimize and traumatize people who are already experiencing severe distress.Virginians with mental illness, and their loved ones, deserve better. The question now is whether or not the General Assembly will give it to them. Anna Mendez is executive director of Partner for Mental Health, a nonprofit advocacy and service organization in Charlottesville. She also is a fellow at the University of Virginia Equity Center, where her research focuses on the decriminalization of mental illness. Virginia’s Mental Health System from page 17 We are all quite familiar with the teacher shortage that threatens the strength of our Commonwealth’s public schools. Two statewide summits, the creation of undergraduate majors in teacher education, multiple recruiting efforts across more than 30 college and university teacher preparation programs, and school divisions offering signing bonuses have failed to yield the number of teachers we need to adequately staff our schools. Once thought of as a localized problem (perhaps only some subject areas or under-resourced communities), the staffing challenges are now felt in every content and endorsement area, across grade levels, and in every Virginia school division. Only one- third of first year teachers in Virginia complete a teacher preparation program inVirginia 1 .As this school year begins, divisions have multiple unfilled positions, as well as large numbers of first-time teachers and substitutes who haven’t taken a single course in child psychology, pedagogy, or assessment design. This begs the question, what obstacles do potential future teachers encounter when they consider entering the profession? And, most importantly, how can we remove these barriers while ensuring strong preparation so that all ofVirginia’s children learn from highly effective teachers? While the majority of college students take out loans, work, or rely on family and friends to support them financially, teacher candidates’ expenses are greater than undergraduate students who choose a liberal arts or sciences major. In order to graduate, teacher candidates must take and pass Virginia teacher licensure exams, totalling over $400 for an average elementary school teacher, find transportation to and from local schools for practicum and student teaching, then pay another $100 for their teaching license. These costs can be prohibitive, as can the time requirements for unpaid student teaching requirements when other college students have more flexibility in their schedules to work. More than half of students enrolled in college and university teacher education programs work over 20 hours a week and those without financial support from their programs carry a median loan amount of $20,000 for their current academic year. 2 Weighed against Virginia’s salary discrepancy (the largest in the nation) 3 entering a teacher preparation program without substantial upfront financial support isn’t a wise decision. As I mentioned, two-thirds of new teachers hired in Virginia come from out of state or via alternate routes; they don’t complete teacher preparation programs. We shouldn’t then be surprised that our teacher shortage hasn’t been solved; teachers who don’t complete teacher preparation programs leave the workforce at much higher rates 4 than those who do. Legislation that created more ways to hire teachers sorely needed to fill positions yielded an increasingly leaky bucket. This chronic instability in the teacher workforce leads to lower student achievement and educational attainment. 5 Given that the long-term goal is to strengthen Virginia’s public schools so all students have high quality teachers, we must refocus our efforts on long-term solutions, even as we manage the short-term needs. To do this, we must reallocate financial resources to provide up-front funding to teacher candidates during their teacher preparation degree programs. The Virginia Commonwealth University RTR Teacher Residency 6 provides a strong example. Teacher candidates receive funding towards tuition and living expenses as they complete their degrees. In exchange, they commit to teaching in an RTR partner school for three years after completing the year-long residency, exceeding the most common amount of experience for new teachers. Most continue in education beyond this point, serving their communities as classroom teachers, mentors, instructional coaches, and school leaders. Over the past ten years, RTR has demonstrated a measurable impact on teacher retention and quality. Last month, Congressman McEachin helped pass H.R. 4502, a Government Funding Package Removing the Teacher Workforce Barriers By ADRIA HOFFMAN See Removing the TeacherWorkforce Barriers, continued on page 20 V