By Jon Delano
/ CBS Pittsburgh
Teacher shortage crisis prompts a number of possible solutions
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Pennsylvania has a teacher shortage that could impact schools this fall and in years to come, and it cuts across all different kinds of school districts.
Point Park University professor Linda Hippert, a former South Fayette and Fox Chapel superintendent, said the shortage is acute in a number of critical subjects.
"Mathematics, physics, biology, the sciences, even some English certification areas are difficult to find, and then our foreign languages, as well as the arts, music, theater," Hippert told KDKA-TV money editor Jon Delano on Tuesday. "Very difficult to find teachers."
Baldwin-Whitehall superintendent Randy Lutz said it's worse than just a shortage.
"I'd say we have a teacher crisis because we are absolutely at crisis level with the staffing in many of our certification areas," Lutz said.
Lutz said he gets hundreds of applications for grade school teachers, but the specialized teaching fields in middle and high schools are much harder to fill. For example, it took a year to find a German teacher.
"We had a pool of one. She was fantastic. We hired her, and she was not even done with her program at the University of Pittsburgh," Lutz said.
Eric Haggerty, Pennsylvania's secretary of education, said the numbers tell the story.
"Over the last 10 years, the number of new educators entering the field has dropped from around 20,000 teachers a year to just 6,000 new teachers last year," Haggerty said.
There are many reasons for fewer teachers, including low pay, more responsibilities, lack of student discipline and public safety issues, and parental harassment. But educators said it boils down to a lack of respect.
"There's a general sense that there's just not enough respect for the profession," Haggerty said.
"Today, the respect is not there that once was," Hippert said.
"Whether it's teaching, police, fire, and even in the medical field, we've done such a great job of bad-mouthing these professions for so long, it's no wonder that the best and the brightest are not heading into these professions any longer," adds Lutz.
What can be done to attract more young people and mid-career folks into teaching? One solution is to raise teacher pay, so those really good teachers can make in the six figures.
But that can be tough for already over-taxed property owners.
"It's a challenging and difficult profession, and as we know teachers' salaries are not where salaries are in other professions," Hippert said.
In addition to special grants to train new teachers, Secretary Haggerty said the state is streamlining the teacher certification process.
"It takes 10 weeks to process your certification process, and that is just unacceptable," Haggerty said.
He hopes to process certification in just 15 days.
There's also a new program to let out-of-state teachers get certified quickly, along with a state-approved program being offered at Point Park University to quickly train mid-career people to become teachers.
"Last year. we certified 100 teachers at Point Park University," Hippert said.
More controversial is a state plan to attract more into teaching by waiving a basic skills test required for all potential teachers in reading, writing and math.
"I do have some concerns about lowering standards. I think we need our best and brightest to become teachers," Hippert said.
Haggerty said it's a three-year pilot project not to lower standards but to open up the profession so teachers reflect the diversity of their student body.
Whatever the cause of the current shortage, there's no doubt that if it's not solved, it will impact quality in the months ahead.
"In some instances, schools are being forced into accepting candidates for employment that are less than what they would desire," Lutz said.
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