“I personally lost some really good teachers to Mobile County Schools,” said Tenesha Batiste, human resources director for the Moss Point district. Some teachers realized they could make $30,000 more by working 30 minutes away in Mobile, Alabama. But other districts nearby have done the same. The school system in Moss Point, a small town near the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, has increased wages to entice more applicants. Jenikka Oglesby, a human resources officer for the district, says the problem owes in part to low salaries in the South that don’t always offset a lower cost of living. In Birmingham, the school district is struggling to fill around 50 teaching spots, including 15 in special education, despite $10,000 signing bonuses for special ed teachers. A federal survey found an average of 3.4 teaching vacancies per school as of this summer that number was lowest in the West, with 2.7 vacancies on average, and highest in the South, with 4.2 vacancies. Schools in the South are more likely to struggle with teacher vacancies. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters last week that creative approaches are needed to bring in more teachers, such as retired educators, but schools must not lower standards. The number of unfilled vacancies has led some states and school systems to ease credential requirements, in order to expand the pool of applicants. “It’s become a financial competition from district to district to do that, and that’s unfortunate for children in communities who deserve the same opportunities everywhere in the state,” Superintendent Daniel McGarry said. The district has warned families it may have to cancel school or switch to remote learning on days when it lacks subs. The Upper Darby School District in Pennsylvania has around 70 positions it is trying to fill, especially bus drivers, lunch aides and substitute teachers. Some neighboring schools are competing for fewer applicants, as enrollment in teacher prep programs colleges has declined. Many schools indicated plans to use federal relief money to create new jobs, in some cases looking to hire even more people than they had pre-pandemic. Hiring has been so difficult largely because of an increase in the number of open positions. Quit rates in education rose slightly this year, but that’s true for the nation as a whole, and teachers remain far more likely to stay in their job than a typical worker. National Education Association union leader Becky Pringle tweeted in April: “The educator shortage is a five-alarm crisis.” But a Brown University study found turnover largely unchanged among states that had data. Fields like special education and bilingual education also have been critically short on teachers nationwide.įor some districts, shortages have meant children have fewer or less qualified instructors. Since well before the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have had difficulty recruiting enough teachers in some regions, particularly in parts of the South. Schools flush with federal pandemic relief money are creating new positions and struggling to fill them at a time of low unemployment and stiff competition for workers of all kinds. But the challenges are related more to hiring, especially for non-teaching staff positions. In reality, there is little evidence to suggest teacher turnover has increased nationwide or educators are leaving in droves.Ĭertainly, many schools have struggled to find enough educators. News coverage has warned of a crisis in teaching. A teachers union leader has described it as a five-alarm emergency.
education secretary has called for investment to keep teachers from quitting. (AP) - Everywhere, it seems, back-to-school has been shadowed by worries of a teacher shortage.
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