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Letter to the Editor: Critical K-12 teacher shortages in Missouri must be addressed

Dear Editor,

Missouri is facing a crisis when it comes to employing qualified teachers to fill open K-12 positions. To help understaffed school districts, legislation was recently introduced in the Missouri Senate that allows the State Board of Education to grant temporary teaching certificates for both hard-to-fill subject areas and schools that are being impacted the most.

SB 152 is a necessary — although temporary — solution to filling critical shortage areas, and I encourage our legislators to support it. However, more needs to be done to ensure this problem is resolved.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is stepping up with a new public service campaign aimed at attracting teachers to Missouri. That’s another positive step, but we also need to grow the pipeline of teachers.

Enrollment in teacher prep programs has been substantially declining for years, as has the number of teaching certifications issued. The challenges faced by teachers due to COVID-19 have only made matters worse, causing some to exit the profession.

To help combat these trends, colleges and universities in Missouri must find more innovative ways to attract residents to the teaching profession, including addressing the barriers preventing many working adults interested in a teaching career from taking the steps to earn their degree. Those barriers can range from lack of financial resources to not having time to sit in a classroom because they are working and raising families.

Making education accessible to adult learners can only aid in closing the K-12 education workforce gap in the future.