BALTIMORE COUNTY — Schools all across the nation are experiencing a shortage in educators.
School union leaders in Baltimore County are speaking out about what leaders are doing to combat the issue ahead of this fast-approaching semester, which starts for students on August 29.
Still, hundreds of educator positions need to be filled.
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That’s why Baltimore County Public Schools are forced to get creative with how they plan to educate students this semester.
Exacerbated by the pandemic, Cindy Sexton, President of the Teacher Association of Baltimore County, said ever since students returned to in-school learning, the number of educators to teach them has significantly decreased.
“It is a national crisis and we’ve seen it on the horizon for a few years," Sexton said. "There’s over 282,000 fewer teachers than there were before the pandemic, like that many have left the profession."
Having job fairs, posting signs outside of schools and utilizing social media as a means to recruit teacher has been the mission for Baltimore County Schools, but it’s still not enough, causing issues for current teacher and administrators alike.
“We have seen Baltimore County Schools do all they can to advertise and hire people but we’re competing with surrounding counties and even states for the same pool of people," Sexton said. "When there’s a shortage, it’s a strain on the educators and the support staff and administrators but certainly on the educators because those students still need to be taught."
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Research shows the most effective sign of a good student is a good teacher and when there are not enough of them everyone suffers.
“Very often teachers will have extra students put in their class, or they’ll have coverage as in additional classes and it increases the work load which is already a problem for our educators,” Sexton said.
Sexton believes diversifying the pool of teachers could make a difference.
“We need to diversify the field," Sexton said. "It’s still largely white women and we need teachers who look like those kids. So, there’s a lot of work to be done around the whole education profession really to the benefit of our students."
Sexton also said that restoring the value of educators will in turn help shape our children’s future for the better.
“So, historically teachers are underpaid for the amount of education that they have," Sexton said. "Teaching is not respected in America as it is in many other countries, and we really just need to bring back the respect for the profession because it is really the heart of everything. We have to make sure that we are educating our students."
Although school leaders believe the pandemic is part of what exacerbated the shortage, they are hoping that by diversifying these teaching positions it will help them hire and retain more educators.
