The teacher shortage is real, large and growing, and worse than we thought
By Emma García and Elaine Weiss • March 26, 2019
The teacher shortage is real and has serious consequences
U.S. Teacher Shortages per State
State | Year | Minimum Number of Teachers Not Fully Certified | Unfilled Vacancies | Data Description |
Florida | 2019-20 | 59,117 | 4,489 | Florida Board of Education puts the number of teacher vacancies at 4,489. The data, found in the the board’s Identification of Critical Teacher Shortage Areas for 2022-23 annual report, projects the vacancies will surpass 9,000 by the end of the year. |
Arizona | 2019-20 | 3,180 | 2,600 | There are 3,180 (5% of all teachers) teaching without certification. The Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association, there are more than 2,000 general teacher vacancies in Arizona along with more than 800 special education teacher openings. |
Texas | 2019-20 | 75,217 | 10,00 | Currently, there are more than 10,000 job openings to teach in Texas. The state has faced a teacher shortage for years, but it became worse during the two-year pandemic. |
U.S. Teacher Shortages will ONLY get worse
In 2019 Education enrollments dropped from 691,000 to 451,000 — a 35% reduction.
Only 5% of the students in were interested in pursuing a career in education, a decrease of 29% between 2010 and 2014.
New teachers leave at rates of somewhere between 19% and 30% over their first five years of teaching.
US Certified teachers are 25% more likely to leave their school due to lack of administrative support, lower salaries, dissatisfactions with testing and accountability pressures, lack of opportunities for advancement, and dissatisfaction with working conditions.