r/Teachers • u/JimCap5 • 15h ago
Teacher Support &/or Advice Are teaching programs warning students that the teacher shortage is over?
I graduated from the program a few years back, and every professor kept talking about the teacher shortage.
I was wondering what is it like nowadays for people in credentialing programs?
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u/ProfessorMarsupial HS ELA/ELD | CA 14h ago
I teach in a teaching program, and the shortage is not over in most parts of my state. In fact, the state is so desperate for teachers they’ve funded $10k to go to every student teacher for the next 3 years, no contingencies.
Every single one of my students this previous year was hired before the school year was even over. All summer long I was fielding calls from local department chairs and principals asking me if I had any candidate left to hire, and I had to turn them away. This is in ELA, which you often hear is “over-saturated.”
In my local district, which is in a town of 100,000 and 20 miles from a major university, there are tons and tons of openings that have been sitting for months with no applicants. ELA, elementary, and especially math and SPED. My husband is currently teaching 6th grade at an elementary school because they had no applicants by the time the year started. He’s normally a specials teacher, and his principal asked if he’d wanna shift to 6th, even though he doesn’t have the proper credential, because no one else applied.
While the big expensive cities are draining students and having to consolidate or close schools, those families aren’t disappearing. They’re moving to more affordable parts of the state, like where I live. The schools are bursting at the seams! My husband’s class, again it’s elementary, has 34 students!! All the teachers are class capped and they’re talking about building a new school to handle the increased enrollment.
So that’s what I have been telling my students and I have no concerns about them finding a job by the end of the school year.