teacher shortage

Education reporter Liz Schlemmer recounts her experiences covering the teacher shortage that has been hitting North Carolina schools over the last several years — and why it matters so much for students to have teachers physically with them in the classroom.

Many North Carolina schools are still dealing with a critical bus driver shortage months into the school year. Some days it reaches the worst-case scenario, and districts have to outright cancel bus service on some routes.

“Although on paper, it looks like we have a vacancy, we don't have a void,” says superintendent Michael Sasscer. Edenton-Chowan Schools is pairing a new or substitute teacher with an experienced teacher in a co-teaching relationship to fill its vacancies.

Over the past decades, state funding for schools has fluctuated. To understand what that looks like, WUNC's education reporter Liz Schlemmer spoke with two veteran teachers.

Superintendents from 98 of 115 school districts reported their district's current vacancies to the North Carolina School Superintendents Association this month.

Teaching vacancies are not unusual in North Carolina, but shortages appear to be hitting some higher-paying school districts harder than usual. That doesn't bode well for less wealthy school districts.

Every former teacher had a breaking point. A high school teacher from Orange County, a special education teacher from Forsyth County and an elementary teacher from Wake County describe the stresses of a career in teaching and how the pandemic led them to examine their priorities.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools has advantages when it comes to hiring teachers and staff that Edenton-Chowan Schools does not. But superintendents from both districts say they're struggling to find qualified applicants for open positions in time for fall.

Enrollment at public teaching colleges in North Carolina dropped over the past decade. The NC Teaching Fellows loan-forgiveness program once attracted education majors to colleges across the state. After the General Assembly ended and then resurrected the program, some participating schools are now seeing a rebound.

Students may be on summer break, but school principals are hard at work using these months to find a qualified, well-prepared teacher for every classroom come fall. Teacher turnover was higher than usual in some North Carolina districts this past year.