Teachers' union has threatened to strike after rejecting the district's offer of a 5 percent salary increase. Both sides must first participate in a fact-finding with a three-member independent panel.
New state funds, available through The Bilingual Teacher Professional Development grants, are helping more school districts and county offices of education to increase the number of bilingual teachers in the state.
The teacher shortage has worsened in recent years as state funding for education improved and districts began lowering class sizes and bringing back programs, increasing the demand for teachers, according to new studies.
A new report from the Learning Policy Institute says new state initiatives to recruit and retain teachers will take three to five years to yield results.
Enrollment in the state’s teacher preparation programs has declined more than 70 percent over the past decade, according to the Learning Policy Institute.
If schools could improve their work environments, and stop the flood of teachers leaving the field, the teaching shortage would go away, according to a report from the Learning Policy Institute.
