Schools Experience Teacher Shortages

It’s Monday, January 10th, and this is your Morning Wire. Listen to the full podcast:

1) Schools Experience Teacher Shortages

The Topline: As businesses continue to feel the effects of a record-breaking labor shortage, schools nationwide are struggling to find teachers and other essential workers. 

Photographer: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg/Contributor via Getty Images

Schools

Schools in 11 states, including California, Illinois, and New York, have had to temporarily shut their doors because they can’t find enough teachers and other staff to keep things running. 

There were more teacher resignations in a two-week span in San Francisco last semester than during any one year period. 

In one San Antonio school, there were so few teachers available that hundreds of students spent hours last week sitting together in an auditorium during the day. 

In a Virginia school district, counselors and other administrators are being used as substitute teachers. 

The problem had already been bad coming into the New Year, but with the less deadly but highly contagious Omicron variant spreading, more schools are being affected as teachers call out sick — and there’s no one to fill in for them. 

The National Educators Association reported that one in three teachers are considering quitting or retiring earlier than expected this year.

Not Just Teachers

School districts nationwide are struggling to find bus drivers, nurses, and teachers aides. 

Many districts are running “substitute teacher sign-up drives” with increased pay, signing bonuses, and looser educational requirements for applicants. Many districts are also no longer requiring subs to have a college degree. 

There’s also a massive shortage of cafeteria workers, with one survey showing that 90% of school districts need extra help in that area. 

There’s also a bus driver shortage. In response, the Department of Education announced a joint agreement with the Department of Transportation allowing states to loosen requirements for school bus drivers, as long as they can pass the driving portion of the commercial license test. 

Potential Causes

There are currently 11 million job openings nationwide, and a lot of teachers nationwide aren’t happy in their current role. Many reported feeling stressed, overworked and underpaid, and that was before the pandemic hit. Now, they say the job has gotten even harder. 

There are also fewer people going into education. Since 2016, there’s been a dip in the number of college freshmen majoring in education. That number is now around 4%, which is the lowest rate on record, which means there’s a smaller pool of qualified teachers.

COVID is also playing a role. Since the lockdowns, industries that rely primarily on females for the workforce, especially nursing and teaching, have suffered, as many women were forced to stay home and offer child care when schools closed. As schools have reopened, data has shown that many women have been slow to get back into the workforce. 

Addressing The Problem

The main response so far has been to increase pay to lure new workers and retain existing ones. In New Mexico, where there are over 1,000 open teaching positions, the state has requested a quarter billion dollars to raise teacher salaries by 7% and increase the minimum salary from $50,000 to $60,000, while schools in California are offering a $6,000 signing bonus for new teachers. The Department of Education is also urging states to request more federal COVID funding to put towards hiring and training new teachers. 

Flavia Morlachetti via Getty Images

2) New Study Reveals Data On Babies Born During The Pandemic

The Topline: New research on the impact of the COVID era on pregnancy found that babies born during the pandemic scored worse on social and motor skills than those born pre-lockdowns.

Quote Of The Day: “We were surprised to find absolutely no signal suggesting that exposure to COVID while in utero was linked to neurodevelopmental deficits. Rather, being in the womb of a mother experiencing the pandemic was associated with slightly lower scores in areas such as motor and social skills, though not in others, such as communication or problem-solving skills.”

– Dr. Dani Dumitriu

The Study

Researchers at Columbia University discovered that babies born during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic received lower scores on a developmental screening test of motor and social skills at six months of age. 

The study included 255 infants born at hospitals in New York between March and December of 2020. The data came from questionnaires given to parents by their childrens’ doctors in order to look at the development of their baby. That data was compared to babies born at the same hospitals before the pandemic.

The researchers found that babies whose moms were pregnant during the pandemic had moderately lower scores in those motor and social skills, but not in other areas like communication and problem-solving.

The study included moms who got COVID-19 during their pregnancy, and moms who didn’t. It showed no

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