GUEST VIEW: Alleviating teacher shortage should be a priority

ALONG with being first lady, Jill Biden is also a teacher, and she once observed, “Teaching is not a job. It’s a lifestyle. It permeates your whole life.”

And it seems to be a lifestyle fewer and fewer young people are willing to adopt.

The United States is in the midst of a teacher shortage, and in Pennsylvania the situation has been described as “dire and worsening.”

There has been a 67% drop in the number of new educators who have become certified over the last decade, and in the 2020-21 school year the number of emergency permits issued to individuals to take teaching jobs exceeded the number of new teaching certifications from in-state programs.