Arizona still facing teacher shortages

The Arizona Daily Star reported that with more than a week into the new school year, students at a school specializing in science, technology, engineering and math still don’t have enough qualified teachers. Instead, students are saddled with long-term substitutes who aren’t required to have any training in STEM education.

Many school districts in the state offer incentives for qualified STEM teachers and a bonus for working at magnet schools. But even with that incentive, nearly every district in the state can’t find enough qualified, certified teachers to fill its classrooms.

For years lawmakers have been deregulating the teaching industry, making it easier to get a teaching certificate, and declaring anyone can be a teacher, so long as they have a bachelor’s degree and some relevant work experience.

This year, lawmakers and Gov. Doug Ducey increased teacher salaries from near the bottom of the rung nationwide, and promised to continue increasing pay for the next two years until Arizona reaches roughly the median teacher pay nationwide.

Several local school officials say it has been easier to fill vacancies this year than in previous years, which they attribute directly to the RedForEd movement’s success in getting the governor and Legislature to back teacher salary increases.

But Arizona’s teacher shortage remains at crisis levels. And experts warn that the teacher crisis was a decade or more in the making and that the problem could take a generation to solve.

A study by Morrison Institute for Public Policy, a think tank out of Arizona State University, found that 42 percent of new teachers leave the profession after just three years.

The study showed that compensation was the largest factor in teachers’ decisions to leave the profession, followed closely by the heavy workload.

READ: Despite pay raises, teacher vacancies remain a problem for Tucson schools