Would you urge someone to become a teacher today? Fewer than one in five Americans would encourage a young person to become a K-12 teacher, according to a 2022 survey by the nonprofit National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.
This is just one sign of a persistent challenge we’ve been facing in K12 districts over the past decade, and one with which our progress will have significant implications for education in 2025: the teacher shortage.
Although this problem has improved lately, teacher shortages persist, with one recent example being that while there were 290,000 job openings in state and local education jobs in June 2024, only 152,000 hires were made, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The teacher shortage is driven by multiple factors, each with varying levels of urgency and complexity. Read Charlie’s recommendations on the most critical issues we must address to help school districts tackle this challenge.
