(The Center Square) – Amid declining test scores and “teacher shortages,” California Superintendent Tony Thurmond announced a statewide teacher hiring initiative, including continuing the $20,000 Golden State Teacher Grant to attract more teachers to the state.
“Addressing the educator shortage is one of the most important things we can do to support student achievement,” Thurmond said in a statement. “We must increase compensation, prioritize training, improve working conditions, and pursue all strategies that can help our schools add the staff needed to help our students thrive.”
According to an analysis by the Learning Policy Institute, California will need to hire an additional 11,900 to 15,600 teachers to meet rapidly approaching requirements that public schools all offer transitional kindergarten, a bridge between preschool and kindergarten. With $93 million proposed in funding this year by Governor Gavin Newsom for California’s public pre-schools, public enrollment is nonetheless down from pre-pandemic levels by approximately 13,000 students, coming in at 89,000 students in 2019, dropping to 69,000 in 2020, and rising to just 75,000 in 2021. With a continued exodus of child-rearing families out of California, and California’s births having fallen from a peak of 613,000 in 1993 to 420,000 now, universalizing preschool programming at public school districts could at least temporarily reduce this reduction in preschool enrollment.
By halving the number of students allowed per adult in preschool from 24 to 12, the state must significantly expand hiring to meet its new mandates, resulting in Thurmond’s new hiring push. While 75% of school districts report they have adequate space to meet projected enrollment increases for preschool, only 23% of school districts report having enough credentialed teachers to meet the new student to teacher ratio requirement for preschool, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
California expects to hire 22,143 teachers for new or vacated positions this year, up from 17,535 the year prior. While the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC), there were more than 10,000 teacher vacancies across California during the 2021–22 school year; it appears that vacancies are due to requirements for reduced student-to-teacher ratios. Unfortunately, it is difficult to assess whether or not California has been able to actually decrease its student-to-teacher ratios by hiring more teachers, or if there is a serious shortage of teachers due to a lack of data released by the California Department of Education, as data for the state’s student-to-teacher ratio only has been released up to fall of 2019.
Even if the real on-the-ground situation is up in the air, California has taken significant steps to increase the number of available teachers, first by producing a pending bill allowing recently retired teachers to come back into service, providing $20,000 Golden State Teacher Grants to those willing to come work in California public schools, and proposing increasing subsidies available for teacher candidates in residency training programs in California from $25,000 to $40,000.
