Several factors have led to our region’s teacher shortage

Another View, by Don Mooney

Weeks into the 2022-23 school year, school districts in Ohio and Kentucky are still struggling to put qualified teachers in classrooms. The teacher shortage is not just a local problem. Nationwide, there are about 280,000 fewer public school employees than there were prior to the pandemic. Estimates are that public schools needed 300,000 more teachers this year to fully staff their classrooms.

So what’s the problem?

I spent most of my legal career representing public school teachers in Cincinnati and around Ohio. In the best of times, teaching has always been a tough and challenging job, requiring specialized skills, dedication and tremendous patience. While most parents have teachers’ backs, a small but vocal number will challenge and even threaten teachers who dare to discipline. High stakes standardized testing, and the requirement at some schools that teachers simply “teach to the test,” have drained much of the creativity and joy from a profession that should inspire.

The stress of the pandemic—remote then hybrid instruction, struggling students, angry parents, enforcing COVID restrictions at school while fearing for their own families’ health—led to an unprecedented wave of resignations and early retirements. As recently reported in the Cincinnati Enquirer, “From 2019 to 2021, educator resignations in Ohio nearly quadrupled and there were five times as many retirements.”

Watching the ugly events in Uvalde, Texas, this summer made many teachers realize they can’t count on local police for protection. Nor do any teachers I know want to “pack heat,” the solution proposed by Governor Mike DeWine to make Ohio classrooms safer from gun violence.

Comparatively low pay in a tight labor market, along with the effort of some parents and school boards to limit what teachers can cover in the classroom, have discouraged a new generation of potential teachers from joining the profession.

Example: Recent legislation proposed in Ohio would threaten teachers with suspension if they did not teach “both sides of a political or ideological belief.” Both sides of slavery? The Holocaust? So says a co-sponsor, GOP Ohio Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur, who recently told a Cleveland TV reporter that students should be taught to consider the Holocaust “from the perspective of a German soldier.”

The Forest Hills School District is embroiled in controversy and litigation after the school board cancelled Turpin High School’s Diversity Day and adopted policies that many teachers and parents have denounced as divisive.

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, a former teacher, recently noted that “the teacher shortage is a symptom of a teacher respect issue … In order to address the teacher respect issue we have to provide better salaries, better working conditions for teachers and have teacher voices be a bigger part of reimagining education.” No doubt.

But what are states and school districts doing to cope with the shortage? Some are increasing class sizes. Another quick fix has been to dumb down the qualifications for classroom teachers. In Ohio, you can get a substitute teaching license with a college degree but without any specific teacher training. In many districts, including CPS, too many classes are staffed full time with so called “long term subs,” who lack the training required to provide a first-class education. In Arizona, college students are now allowed to teach. In Florida, veterans without college degrees are now able to lead classrooms.

During the pandemic, too many students, particularly those from low-income families, fell behind. Bigger classes, less specialized tutoring and reduced qualifications for teachers will hardly help them catch up.

Don Mooney is an attorney, a past member of the Cincinnati Planning Commission and is active in local politics.