Future teachers lend their voice to Advocacy Day at the State Capitol

A group of Commonwealth University-Lock Haven education majors did their part this spring advocating for several key issues facing teacher education, including fully funding student teacher stipends, during Advocacy Day at the State Capitol in Harrisburg.

A decade ago, according to the Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators (PAC-TE), Pennsylvania prepared 19,000 new teachers ready to enter the workforce. That number has declined to fewer than 7,000 for the past eight years and has been as low as 5,000 new teachers.

“My goal for the day was to help students realize our voice is important and that representatives and senators work for and need to represent our needs when they vote on issues,” said Priya Poehner, professor of education at Lock Haven. “We spend a lot of time talking about the impact of local, state, and national politics on our work in classrooms, and I wanted students to have the opportunity to share their stories of hope and concern with policymakers.”

This school year, at least 9,000 teaching positions went unfilled or were filled by someone working on an emergency permit.

“It’s easy to villainize and stigmatize modern public education, and we must do all we can to help show how fallacious those images are,” said Ron Timko ’25, a secondary education major at Lock Haven. “One of the most effective ways to do that is to meet and interact with the very people who pass legislation aimed at PA's education system.”

Another key issue the education majors advocated for was the need for more teachers of diversity in Pennsylvania. Less than 7% of the educators across the state are people of color even though nearly 40% of students are people of color, according to the PAC-TE.

“Growing up, during my years in education I only had two teachers who looked like me," said Anijah Lucena ’26, an early childhood education major at Lock Haven. “One in second grade, and one in seventh grade, because of that I deem those two years as some of the most important years of my education. Having teachers who understand what students of color are going through, is something that’s always been important to me.”

Lucena feels the lack of teacher diversity is one of the main causes of issues in the education world today.

“Students are more likely to listen to those who look like them and understand them,” Lucena said. “Having support from a teacher of color can change the way a student looks at education completely, it changes them for the better. The government is working on a solution for this very problem but because the gap is so large, it will take a while to fill that hole.”

She added, “I’m a part of the solution to gaining more teachers of color for our students out there. It also inspires me to go tell my story of why having teachers of color is so important while also inspiring other people of color to get into the world of education and make a difference in someone’s life.”

Timko felt his experience at the Capitol generated a lot of positive momentum for the future of education in Pennsylvania.

“I found the majority of legislators we met to be understandable and downright sympathetic to our causes,” Timko said. “I don't need to tell you how critical it is that we as a community work to address the challenges posed to teachers and teacher retention. In fact, I'm in this place right now to do my part in addressing it. I know that many futurists see a future controlled by AI (artifical intelligence) educators, but any researcher worth their salt will tell you that the intrinsic value of human interaction cannot be overstated.”

Lucena agreed and felt the importance of having her voice — as a future teacher — directly heard by state legislators.

“A big takeaway from this experience is the realization that there are many people out there who care deeply for education and want to make a difference out in the world,” Lucena said. “Their push for bettering education has only made me more passionate about my future profession and has only made me yearn more for a change in the education system. An experience like this helps make me a better teacher by giving me an opportunity to take part in fixing those issues out there.”