ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Education leaders say Missouri schools continue to suffer from a teacher shortage.
Webster University School of Education Dean Stephanie Mahfood joined KMOX's 'Total Information A.M.' Wednesday and says many districts are still struggling with vacancies and she has been getting regular emails from districts to see if they have any up-and-coming teaching candidates.
"What we say is that we will pass the word out and try to recruit as much as we can, however we are also mindful of the fact that teaching is a skill, teaching takes time," said Mahfood. "What we don't want to do is take some of our pre-service teachers early, put them in the field, have them field and have them leave, which is a cycle that is very real."
Mahfood says some districts are coping with dealing with a shortage of teachers across the state by using retired teachers and in some cases, teachers from different parts of the world to fill vacancies.
"It's both really exciting, but they are bringing those teachers in for all the wrong reasons," said Mahfood. "It's rather tragic we have a citizenry that we don't have enough educators to step up and teach our children."
Mahfood says there is an eight percent teacher vacancy statewide, and that's not including the 11 percent of courses that being taught by under-credentialed teachers.
"It means they are working on some kind of temporary certification, substitute certification, or some kind of work outside of their certification area," said Mahfood.
Mahfood says the combination of vacancies and under-credentialed instructors makes the shortage even more severe.
"(Eight percent) doesn't feel like a whole lot, but it differentially impacts lower resource areas and rural areas," said Mahfood.