Teacher Shortage - A Major Crisis

As if there aren't enough concerns with education given numerous districts facing all sorts of testing mandates and budget deficits, you can add one more item, sadly, to the list. There is a very real crisis brewing and its effects will reach deeper than the testing and deficit issues. Many universities are seeing very significant drops in the enrollment of students who want to major in Education.

The NEAToday has recently reported that a 2016 National Survey of College Freshman which indicates just how few students are intending to major in Education. Just 4.2% of those surveyed said they intended to major in Education. That figure is a 45 year low. A full 11% of students in 1971 and, as recently as 2000, said they would major in Education. This spiral downward has been steep and ongoing ever since the turn of the century.

The causes are many and I will get into a number of them in the coming days but, one thing is certain, at this rate many K-12 schools will have to make class sizes bigger and they will undoubtedly cut back on courses offered as well as the numbers of available sections. I don't think it is a stretch to say that some schools will simply have to shut down or will face consolidation.

Not a happy sight.

Dick