Addressing teacher shortages by bolstering pathways to classrooms

OPINION – Enough with the doom and gloom of California’s education system.

Countless articles have been published emphasizing the negative effects of school closures, which linger on years later: teacher burnout leading to teacher shortages, fewer young adults opting to teach in our classrooms, teacher salaries not rising with inflation, salary negotiations gone awry, the list goes on.

Every week, we are warned about the crisis of education in our state – but we need to move past alarmist headlines and to supporting real, tangible solutions happening right here in California that are strengthening our pathways to teaching. Despite the chorus of voices pointing out what’s wrong with education, there are undeniably things we are doing right, and we need to call upon our policymakers to continue supporting these measures, especially as we make difficult budget decisions.

The Governor of California is tackling a $26 billion deficit, but there still hasn’t been clarity on what our State leaders plan to cut. May I offer a suggestion: keep the programs that are visibly improving student outcomes and addressing our teacher pathway crisis. When budgets are tight, think beyond one year or the next and consider how we can invest in our youth, whether they are students in public schools or young adults figuring out how to contribute to society.

For a current countywide educational leader, and a former school principal, I can affirm that we are experts at maximizing resources for students and teachers. When budgets are lean, we must look at what’s working and maintain that as much as possible. For instance, this budget season, the Governor of California has the opportunity to continue funding California’s Student Success Coach Learning Network, a collaborative effort between eight organizations across the state that provides in-school mentoring and student coaches to more than 31,000 students across more than 200 school sites. These near-peer student mentors, not only serve as a resource for students needing academic help or mental health support, but they also provide critically needed support to our teachers.

If we are serious about addressing teacher burnout and creating pathways to teaching careers, programs like these should be getting our public funds: programs that support teachers by making their everyday work more sustainable over time, and programs that provide young people with on-the-ground experience that often translates to a career in service.

As one article after the next focuses on the crisis, let us instead consider Katie Schneidau, a young woman who graduated from college at the height of the pandemic. Katie, whose mother was a teacher, never thought she’d teach because of the stories she had heard over the years. All she heard was crisis, doom and gloom.

But at the height of the pandemic, wanting to serve others, Katie turned to student coaching as an option for her. Not only did she become a student coach, but the students made such an impact on her that she has continued serving in the same school, becoming a teacher herself. Now, as a teacher, it is deeply important to her that other young people see how student coaching can change their lives. To me, the link is clear: if we want to encourage young people to teach, we need to continue the programs that are creating pathways to the classroom.

It is not lost on me that college and high school students will be graduating soon. It is the season of next steps. While we congratulate them, we also need to create pathways for them to serve, and we need to continue funding what has gotten our students and teachers through the rocky road of reopening schools and to finally achieving this life milestone.

​​Dr. Ed Manansala serves as the County Superintendent of Schools for El Dorado County, California.