Louisiana continues to be plagued by a significant teacher shortage, but today State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley laid out just how many more teachers we would optimally need, and it’s a big number.
“We have made some estimations and we believe that we have about 2,500 certificated vacancies across the state as of today,” Brumley told WWL’s Tommy Tucker.
While it’s hard to quantify exactly what the impact of a 2,500 teacher shortage is Brumley said back of the napkin math can give you a general idea.
“If you just do some simple math, which is not necessarily exact, but you can assume that impacts about 50,000 kids every day that do not have access to a high-quality teacher,” said Brumley.
Brumley, BESE, and Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards all back a $1,500 teacher pay raise this year, but it remains to be seen if the Legislature will include that in a final budget. Brumley warned that while the state bears some responsibility for raises, local school districts need to step up by funding more of their own.