Sen. Doug Jones: Teacher shortage is 'very complicated' [View all]

Sen. Doug Jones heard from educators on Saturday afternoon about the multiple ways Alabama’s teacher shortage is causing problems and what might be done to improve it.

Jones said the teacher shortage problem here and nationwide is “very complicated,” and there are multiple things communities need to consider in addressing the problem.

“Teachers are really one of the backbones of society,” Jones said in opening remarks to around 50 people at the University of Montevallo. “We’ve got a shortage not just of teachers,” he added, but also the problem that there are 1,700 uncertified teachers in Alabama’s classrooms.

There is a long-standing, chronic teacher shortage in areas like math, science, special education and foreign language, Birmingham Education Foundation’s J.W. Carpenter said. Increasingly, he said, the shortage is extending to teachers of English learners, too.

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2019/08/sen-doug-jones-teacher-shortage-is-very-complicated.html