With PA Teacher Shortage Crisis At Tipping Point, State Takes Action

HARRISBURG, PA — The pandemic as Pennsylvanians once knew it, the pandemic of lockdowns and school closures, of masking and distancing, may be receding into the past. But the impacts of COVID-19 on everyday life will be felt for a generation, and the shortage of workers in crucial frontline industries is perhaps one of the most grave and inexorable consequences.

Pennsylvania is now facing a 65 percent annual decline in new educators joining the workforce. According to lawmakers who plan to introduce a bill to address the issue, in 2010, Pennsylvania had about 20,000 new teachers certified each year.

By 2022, that number was down to 7,000 per year.

The pandemic only spurred more teachers to leave the profession, coupled with the decreasing number entering. But the teacher workforce was already decreasing before coronavirus hit. Combined with a growing population and a growing focus on improving the quality of education, the need for more teachers is increasing at the exact moment the availability is plummeting. Advocates for action say that systemic change is needed.

“We need to make it free to become a teacher to attract more people into the profession, but we can’t recruit teachers into a burning building," said Fatim Byrd, a Pennsylvania educator who works with the group PA Needs Teachers.

On Tuesday morning, the PA Senate State Education Committee held a special hearing on the shortages. And State Rep. Patty Kim (D-Dauphin) announced Monday that a package of legislation which she is co-sponsoring, long in the wings, would be introduced in the near future.

"Over the past decade, teacher prep program enrollment has declined nationally by one-third, while PA’s teacher prep program enrollment has declined by over two-thirds," Kim said.

Advocates say that increasing teacher salaries is paramount.

“Fixing the longer-term educator pipeline is going to take a sustained, multiyear commitment to address barriers,” Rich Askey, the president of the state's largest teacher's union, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said in a statement. “And the most significant of those are the cost of becoming a teacher and the salaries we pay.”

Askey called for a $60,000 minimum teacher salary, and $20 an hour minimum wage for education support professionals like bus drivers and cafeteria workers.

The forthcoming package of bills, named "Elevate Teachers," focuses on streamlining, simplifying, and making more affordable the process of becoming a teacher. Addressing Askey's concerns, it would raise the minimum teacher salary from $18,500 to $50,000 — not quite the number the union is looking for, but a substantial increase nonetheless. The bills would also create a grant program to recruit students, paraprofessionals,a nd parents to support high-need schools. And it would provide grants to colleges to create or expand programs to help certify more teachers.

Notably, the package also includes a proposal to forgive up to $40,000 in loans, and would offer $32,000 in scholarships to students in a teaching program at a state school.

This is not the first effort the state has made at addressing this issue, but it's the most well thought-out and by far the most comprehensive, and comes closer to addressing the root systemic issues at the heart of the current crisis than previous measures.

In the past, legislation allowed teachers to come out of retirement to help fill the gaps. In some cases, districts are turning to others in the school community. Principals and administrators are filling certain roles, while demand for substitutes have skyrocketed. In Pennsylvania, the Erie School District increased substitute pay by 110 percent to try to fill demand.

Elsewhere, universities are trying to help by offering new programs and certifications. Penn State Harrisburg announced a new post-baccalaureate certification program as a direct response to the shortage in 2021.

The National Education Association (NEA) called the situation "severe" when warning of it nearly two years ago.

"We face a looming crisis in losing educators at a time when our students need them most," NEA President Becky Pringle said at the time. . "This is a serious problem with potential effects for generations."

In an NEA survey of 2,690 members, 32 percent said the pandemic caused them to leave the profession earlier than they'd anticipated.

A cost estimate of the new package of bills is not yet available.