Mark Raymond knows that Minnesota teacher licensure is structured so Minnesota students have the best and brightest teaching them in their classrooms.

But Wisconsin and Iowa are convinced their licensure is best for their teachers too.

So, who is right?

That was just one topic knocked around during a joint meeting between administrators, teachers and other staff who met with House District 27B Rep. Jeanne Poppe and District 27 state Sen. Dan Sparks, both DFL-Austin, on Thursday at Austin High School. The educators discussed different areas they hoped would be addressed in the new 2017 session.

Raymond said each state is “right” on licensure.

“They (the requirements) don’t match up identically,” and each state’s departments of education aren’t willing to give up the odd piece that they feel is critical to teacher success, said Raymond, head of human resources for Austin Public Schools. That doesn’t mean the odd pieces are wrong — they just don’t match. And that often forces teachers to go back to college to meet the outstate licensure requirements.

In turn, that cuts down on the number of outstate teachers willing to cross into Minnesota.

That’s a problem, said Raymond. It’s hampering teacher hires and leaving administrators scrambling.

The inability to easily hire out-of-state graduates — or teachers with experience — is crippling efforts to fill teaching spots, they told the legislators.

For the first time, Superintendent Dave Krenz said he only had candidates applying “in the single digits” for a position that in the past would have brought out hundreds.

“I’ve been doing this a long time … and I’ve never had that happen,” he said.

But outstate teachers interested in teaching to Minnesota often have to take additional coursework if they are to teach in Minnesota.

“These graduates don’t want to go back to school, they want to go to work, they want to teach,” Raymond said. So they go to another state.

As critical are the areas that have historically been hard to find teachers for, such as special education.

“They will give us a Minnesota graduate with a four-year degree, no experience — but we can’t take someone with experience from out of state without making them go back to school to meet Minnesota licensure, said Krenz. “That is skewed.”

Raymond said the state was in a good position to capitalize on the situation, since other states often have the same issue.

“It’s a great time for Minnesota to say, OK, we’ll give you our licensure, if you give us yours,” said Raymond.

Other items brought before the legislators included a hope for a continuation of the maintenance revenue and lease levies, both of which provide financial help to school. A maintenance levy works to support capital expenditures; lease levies provide help when the district is renting space. Voluntary pre-kindergarten was also discussed. English Language Learners (ELL) funding is needing a boost.

“We’re adding an ELL teacher every year and the funding is nowhere near what we’ve been spending,” said Mark Stotts, executive director of finance and operations.

Hitting the highest on the “useless” scale is a beefed up requirement for ethnicity surveys students must fill out upon enrolling each year. There was a time when one of five choices was all that was required for answer. Now, there are 100 questions posed that take time — but more importantly, said Krenz, provide “totally useless data.”

“This is completely irrelevant at a district level,” he added.

“Now we’re asking minority parents to answer even more questions — which makes them distrust and anxiety,” he told legislators. It is hoped that requirement be eliminated, he said.