“I am an assistant principal at a high school, and the shortage is real. This is my 28th year in education, and there are not people entering our field at the same rate as those retiring or those deciding that this is not the career for them. We are about to hit the critical precipice where we simply will not have enough teachers for our students, and we have to do something, or we will be in trouble.”
—Tanya Snook, Keller, Texas, LinkedIn, Jan.2024
In recent news, numerous reports have highlighted the critical shortage of teachers in the United States with a staggering 55,000 vacanies. It is evident that new avenues to bridge this gap and ensure our children receive the quality education they deserve must be considered now. The following is a sample of states with a documented teacher shortage crisis:
- Texas: Over 54% of new teachers hired in Texas over the past few years lack teaching credentials.
- California: Rural schools need help now. They are starting to look at the state community colleges in the more rural areas as a way to help.
- Oklahoma: The state of Oklahoma announced in September of 2022 that their teacher shortages had once again grown to 1,019 in school districts representing 77% of the student population in the state. There were no encouraging signs that things were going to get better anytime soon
Constant Carroll, former chancellor of the San Diego Community College District, is credited with starting the baccalaureate degree programs in California community colleges. She is still working hard to have these baccalaureate degrees expanded into the many teaching areas that the state is short. She has been quoted saying:
“I will continue my efforts to ensure that, just like Florida, California can have its community colleges offer bachelor’s degrees without limitation. I will not rest until the state allows the community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees in education.”
Light at the end of the tunnel. Several states pass legislation
Legislation has been passed in Florida allowing 27 of their community college to offer baccalaureate degrees in education. Maricopa County Community Colleges in Arizona are now given approval to offer both elementary and special education baccalaureate degrees. The state of Indiana is firming up legislation to allow the 19 Ivy Tech Community Colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees and education is near the top of the list.
Where are the national and state community and technical college leaders?
There are K12 school districts throughout each state struggling to open every new school year due to severe teacher shortages. The Hobbs School District in New Mexico opened their 2023 school year 45 teachers short. By May of 2024, the district was nearly 60 teachers short. Fall semester of 2024 looks to be about the same as a year ago.
Strengthening the pipeline
A recent report suggested ways needed to evaluate the profession of teaching. Cost barriers were one of the most important ones mentioned that keeps many persons from entering the profession. The following are some of the main concerns highlighted in the report:
- When schools lack adequate staffing, students with the greatest needs suffer disproportionately.
- Students with disabilities and English-language learners cannot access required specialized services.
- Students from impoverished families, and those in rural areas who live far from their school building, lose essential transportation and crucial learning time in school.
- Above all, students who need extra academic assistance, miss out on instruction when teachers and support personnel are stressed, demoralized or absent (Runcie, 2024).
- It highlights emerging challenges, including unfavorable working conditions, diminished professional regard, deep-seated national political divisions, and a need for more teacher diversity (Runcie, 2024).
Advantages of community-technical colleges preparing teachers
The following are areas of high importance to draw in new and often neglected potential teachers:
- Students are paying less than $11,000 in tuition and fees for their four-year degrees.
- Adults beyond the age of traditional college students already enroll in their local community and technical colleges.
- Approximately 60% of students in the baccalaureate programs come from communities of color.
- Many adults work and/or have families which make it very difficult to travel to a university or four-year college.
Bonding: The time is now to work together
Bonding between the K-2 school systems and the community and technical colleges for these proposed changes could be accomplished in a matter of weeks. The community and technical colleges have already ‘bonded’ for some years in offering dual-enrollment / dual-credit programs.
Will a K12 superintendent, community or technical college president make the first call? Will a regional superintendent, state K-2 superintendent or principal’s group leader take the lead? Can a state board of education and a community college trustee leadership organization take the lead?
As K12 school districts throughout the United States prepare to open during August and September of 2024 the teacher shortage persists. Progress has been made in just a few states in the past few years toward overcoming these shortages. Hundreds of thousands of students have been left in classes staffed by non-credentialed persons.
There are nearly 1,200 community and technical colleges that could be activated very quickly to become the pipeline that is presently lacking across the country. How much longer will it take to get political leaders to listen to their K12 boards and administrators and teachers to help overcome what is looking like neglect in solving this ongoing crisis?
Reference
Runcie, R. (2024, April 11).New Resource Release: “Strengthening the Pipeline: Landscape Analysis Supporting and Elevating the Teaching Profession” Tackles Educator Shortage in the United States. Chiefs for Change. Washington, D.C. Retrieved May 24, 2024 at https://bit.ly/landscapeanalysis244
