Dr. Hans Andrews is a distinguished fellow in community college leadership through Olney Central College (Illinois) and a former college president. He started the first dual-credit program between community colleges and secondary schools in the country.
Dr. Greg Rockhold, a former Superintendent, has served on the National Association of Secondary School Principals board as president of the New Mexico Coalition of School Administrators and executive director of the New Mexico Association of Secondary School Principals.
What is needed now is a new long-term solution!
Entering the 2024-2025 school year in the United States over 55,000 teacher shortages were in existence. In addition, some 300,000 other teaching positions were being staffed by non-credentialed personnel. According to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions this number represented 10% of all of the teaching positions in the country.
The teacher shortages in Australia and Canada are similar in a number of ways to that in the U.S. The executive director of People for Education reported that learning how extreme the teacher shortages were across the country was a major surprise
The number of traditional pathways for training teachers with bachelor’s degrees in the U.S. has declined by about 50% compared to the previous decade. Furthermore, approximately 60 teacher preparation programs at universities and four-year colleges have shut down, with many others at risk of closure due to a significant drop in student enrollment for teacher training programs.
How can we stem these shortages and improve the pipeline system to prepare future teachers?
A sampling of the teacher shortages in the United States as reported in the past two years
All 50 U.S. states have been reporting their shortages of qualified teachers as well as other support personnel necessary to run their schools. The following is a ‘sampling’ of states:
Virginia: There was 4.5% of teaching positions still open starting the 2023-24 school year. They were 3.9% short of teachers the previous year.
Michigan: “Unfilled” teaching positions are recorded yearly. These teaching positions are considered in the reporting if they have a designation status code as being funded but with no one assigned to fill them. The following shows the vacancies reported in each of five years:*
- 2019-20: 801
- 2020-21: 599
- 2021-22: 875
- 2022-23: 1,228
- 2023-24: 1,351
* The total number of vacancies is likely underreported across the state.
Texas: The state has been working on various initiatives to address their shortages, but the challenge remains significant entering the 2024 school year. Major areas of need include (1) Bilingual/English as a Second Language, (2) Career and Technical Education and Mathematics in the secondary schools and Special Education. The rural areas have had to hire nearly 50% of persons who were not qualified teachers to fill classes.
California: One in five teachers indicated they will leave the teaching profession within three years. The top two reasons reported include burnout from stress (57%); and political attacks on teachers.
Illinois: In Illinois during the 2022 school year, 5,300 classroom positions went unfilled. This was the largest unfilled number of positions on record in the state.
Some international shortages
Australian shortages: In January of 2024 it was estimated that some 2000 overseas teachers were granted visas to teacher in Australia. The education minister Jason Clare referred to the shortages which continue to persist with the following concerns:
- There are 12% less persons pursuing teachers as a career in the past decade
- It is a crisis: The schools opening in the new year of 2024 are facing crippling staffing issues
Canadian shortages: The Canadian provinces see their large teacher shortages continuing in a similar manner as in the United States. The following are the teaching shortages crisis as it continues to exist in three of the provinces:
Ontario In its annual school survey titled People for Education reported 24% of their elementary schools and 35% of their secondary schools had severe shortages in their schools. It was reported as even a greater crisis in staffing for support staff (Ontario People for Education, 2024).
Quebec has had a large growth in students in recent years which has created a number of teacher challenges:
- It has become more difficult to attract enough teachers due to rising housing costs
- More teachers have elected to retiring early
- School leaders and teachers have found a lack of funding and poor working conditions as growing concerns
- The Education Minister in August of 2024 found that the province was short 5,704 (The Canadian Press, 2024).
British Columbia continues recruiting more persons who are lacking certification for teaching:
- Letters of Permission (LOP) are issued which allows uncertified persons to teach
- The LOP’s issued has tripled since 2019 (Kshatri, 2024).
What can community and technical colleges offer?
United States has nearly 1,200 community and technical colleges in the country:
- They are strategically located and near every elementary and secondary school
- Students being recruited to obtain their teaching credentials at community and technical colleges will have access near their homes
- The costs to attend are a fraction of the costs of university, private and senior four-year colleges
- A more diverse student population of future teachers will become trained as a diverse population of students exist presently in the community and technical colleges
The state of Florida has approved 27 of their community colleges to offer teaching baccalaureate degrees within their districts. These degrees offered are a reflection of the teaching shortage areas most in need within each of the colleges’ districts.
Canada: This country considers itself having 150 public institutions meeting the designation as community colleges. These are spread out through the three provinces above as follows:
Ontario: 25 Quebec: 50 British Columbia: 10
Australia: There are 68 community colleges listed in the country in 2024-25
Some of these community colleges already offer some select baccalaureate degree and a few offer postgraduate programs.
Closing Comments
The traditional pathways for training teachers with bachelor’s degrees have declined nearly 50% in recent years. Other teacher preparation programs have been shut down due to low enrollments.
We have proposed the community and technical colleges as the long-term answer to overcoming teacher shortages in both the United States and Canada and other countries that have other options than the diminished university pipelines. This is the time to reach out to get it accomplished. Hundreds of thousands of students in many countries should not have to wait before they are being taught by certified teachers.
References
Hammond, L. D-H. (2024, July 31). Where do teachers want to teach? And why? Learning Policy Institute. Retrieved August 28, 2024 at Where Do Teachers Want To Teach? And Why? | Learning Policy Institute
Kshatri, S. (2024, March 22). Spike in number of Letters of Permission issued ‘shows how bad the teacher shortage is,’ union president says. CBC News. Retrieved September 16, 2024 at: https://www.bing.com/search?q=spike+in+number+of+letters+of+permission+issued
Campbell, E. (2024, January 30). Australia’s teacher shortages a ‘crisis’ says education minister. Retrieved September 23, 2024 at: Teacher shortage hits Australia as Term 1 2024 begins | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site
The Canadian Press (2024, August 16). Quebec short more than 5,700 teachers with the school year weeks away. Retrieved December 10, 2024 at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/
Ontario People for Education (2024, March 24). Staff shortages a daily issue for many Ontario schools. Retrieved January 3, 2025 at: Staff shortages a daily issue for many Ontario schools – People for Education