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PHOENIX — A scarcity of teachers in some Arizona school districts could be relieved with two proposed laws to reimburse university graduates for student loans if they teach in shortage areas.

"I was just tired of seeing classrooms without teachers," said Tempe Democratic Rep. David Schapira, sponsor of HB 2206 and a former high school teacher. "I was tired of seeing huge class sizes and schools not able to find teachers."

Schapira's bill would appropriate $3.5 million for the Teacher Shortage Student Loan Program. The program would reimburse a year of tuition and fees to as many as 300 education graduates from Arizona universities or community colleges for each year they teach math, science or special education in teacher-short areas.

The plan would provide loans to Arizona residents majoring in education to cover annual tuition and fees.

Students would have to begin teaching within a year of graduation, and would have one year of the loan forgiven for each year they teach in a qualifying position. If they chose not to teach in such a position, they would have to pay back the loan.

A second measure, HB 2331, proposes a similar program to fill teaching positions in schools on Indian reservations, which suffer especially hard from the shortage, said its sponsor Rep. Albert Tom, D-Chambers.

"It's an attempt to let the state know that there's a need out there for rural teachers," Tom said. "It's something that needs to be on the state's radar screen."

Education officials have no firm number for how many teachers are needed, but point to a 2003 study citing the number of jobs filled by people with emergency teaching certificates to show the shortage. An emergency certificate is given when a position can't be filled by someone with a regular Arizona teaching certificate.

The Morrison Institute at Arizona State University found that in 2001 in the Piñon Unified School District in Navajo County, 31 teachers had emergency certificates, which was 38 percent of the district's teachers. In the Gadsden Elementary School District, in Yuma County, 48 teachers, 36 percent of the district total, had emergency certificates.

Other districts with 15 percent or more of their teachers working with emergency certificates include: Nogales, Somerton, Bullhead City, Laveen, Ganado, Red Mesa, Higley, Dysart, Osborn and Murphy.