Published On: April 25th, 2016|

The Hechinger Report – Jill Barshay

“Alarm bells are sounding about teacher shortages across the country. I’ve been reading a steady drumbeat of articles on the topic for at least a year. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, warned in the Huffington Post this month that teachers shortages could soon become a crisis. At least a dozen sessions at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association earlier this month addressed the topic. I attended two of them, but was left wondering exactly how dire things are. Fresh national data are hard to come by. After talking to scholars who study the teacher labor market, and reading several statewide studies published in the past year, I gather that teacher shortages do exist in some regional pockets and in some teaching specialties. But at the same time, surpluses exist, and will likely continue to exist, in many school districts.”(more)