Teacher shortage is getting worse, and it is easy to see why. In 1975, 22% of all students in college were majoring in Education. By 2015, it was down to 10% and a recent poll of students going to college found only 4.6% want to major in education.
And it is getting really hard to find teachers, even for alternative teacher certification programs like ours. This is always true during times of “full employment.” The chart below shows that as we approach full employment the number of articles on teacher shortages skyrocket.
At the same time, the number of K-12 students continues to increase – from 50.7 million students last year, to a forecast of more than 51.4 million by 2025 – according to the National Center of Education Statistics.
Less teachers + more students = critical shortage.
We now work in 8 states and have met with education leaders from many more on where the shortages are the greatest.
Florida started school with 4,000 openings, Las Vegas started with 400 teacher vacancies, Oklahoma started school with more than 2,000 teachers on emergency certification, Detroit still has more than 400 teaching positions to fill, and the list goes on.
Special education teachers are critically right now – no one can find them. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) are also really high-need areas.
Is it getting better? The Learning Policy Institute says no. It is going to get much worse. They forecast a shortage of more than 500,000 teachers during the next 5 years.
At Teachers of Tomorrow we say that every child deserves a great teacher. It is more critical than ever that we find those great teachers and help them get into the classroom and be successful with their students. Our mission has never been more critical.
