Harrisburg – Over one hundred teachers, students and education advocates from across the Commonwealth gathered at the Pennsylvania State Capitol today to highlight the urgent need to attract more educators – particularly those of color – to the teaching profession. Organized by education advocacy organizations, the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium (PEDC), the Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators (PAC-TE) and the Pennsylvania Council of Administrators of Special Education (PaCASE), the group urged lawmakers to fully fund the Student Teacher Stipend program to support emerging educators and help address Pennsylvania’s significant educator workforce shortage, particularly the in the most vulnerable districts in Pennsylvania.

Ten years ago, Pennsylvania prepared 19,000 new teachers ready to enter the workforce each year. Today, that number has declined to fewer than 7,000 with schools facing major staffing crises. To make matters worse, less than 7 percent of the educators we do have are people of color despite the fact that nearly 40 percent of students are people of color. And more than half of our teacher vacancies are in districts where at least 80 percent of students are people of color. This is especially important because research shows that students of color are more likely to graduate from high school, be prepared to do well in college, and get ready for the workforce when they have the opportunity to learn from someone who looks like them and has shared life experiences.

“Make no mistake about it – PA is facing a severe educator workforce crisis,” said PEDC Co-Executive Director Dr. Donna-Marie Cole-Malott. “This is a crisis that has been brewing for a long time and is now at the point where we must act. With a 66 percent drop in education majors in Pennsylvania and only 6,600 new teachers being certified annually – despite having between 9,000 and 10,000 teaching positions that remain vacant or are staffed by individuals on emergency permits – we are in a workforce crisis. Over the last 6 years, for one out of every 10 new teachers, the first year they taught was the last year they taught. Our call to action is simple: fully fund teacher stipends and invest in programs to keep Pennsylvania teachers in Pennsylvania schools”

To begin to reverse this troubling trend, PEDC, PAC-TE and PaCASE are calling for lawmakers to allocate $55 million to fully fund Pennsylvania’s Student Teacher Stipend Program and  to invest in Talent Recruitment Accounts that support district and educator prep initiatives to recruit and retain teachers.

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