Arizona teacher shortage persists, but there are some positive signs

PHOENIX - Many Arizona teachers got a raise over the past year, after lawmakers allocated more than half a billion dollars toward education in the state budget.

"Arizona invested in education in June 2022, something I’ve never seen in my 28-year career in Arizona," said Justin Wing with the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association. "That provided increase in salaries, teachers and all staff."

However, the state is still facing a severe teacher shortage, now for the eight consecutive year in a row.

According to the latest schools personnel survey, about 2,200 teacher openings remain vacant, and about half of the teachers who are currently filling in do not meet the state’s teaching certification requirements.

There are, however, some good news when it comes to the shortage, in that there are 2,500 fewer vacancies this year, when compared to last year.

We have previously reported on efforts by some school districts in the Phoenix area to recruit teachers. Tolleson Union High School District, for example, only had five openings at one point, after they increased starting pay for some new teachers to $64,000 per year.

Meanwhile, Cartwright School District started the school year with three teacher openings, after changing to a fou-day workweek.

Overall, however, Arizona still ranks 49th in the nation when it comes to teacher pay.

Another problem, according to Wing, goes beyond pay-related issues.

"The not-so-positive is we don’t have that teacher pipeline" said Wing. "Knocking on our doors to fill the teacher vacancies, we still have."

At Arizona State University's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, enrollment has gone up in the last five years, but not at a rate high enough to keep up with attrition.

"You can’t just look at it as a pipeline problem. It's a leaky bucket," said Paul Gediman with the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. "Compensation is part of the picture, but not the whole thing. If not enough people want the jobs, and not enough people are staying in the jobs, we should probably consider changing the jobs."

One way to do that, Gediman says, is to implement new models of teaching.

"The way we staff schools - here teacher, here’s your group of kids and here’s your room - that’s a 19th Century model. That’s a long time ago," said Gediman. "The economy is different. Society is different. The jobs we are preparing kids to do is ultimately different."