Scrolling through Twitter today, I saw a post from Mississippi Professional Educators that showed that for the 22-23 school year, Mississippi has 2,593 teaching vacancies statewide. 2,593? Yes, you read that correctly. Are you having the OMG moment? The breakdown: 822 elementary school teachers, 376 middle school teachers, 811 high school teachers, and 584 K-12 teachers. To throw some more numbers at you, there are 202 K-12 licensed educator vacancies, 82 administrator vacancies, and 2,111 K-12 support staff vacancies. The good news is that these numbers are down 443 from the 21-22 school year.

Now, let’s not forget that the Mississippi Legislature provided an unprecedented salary raise to public school educators last year. While that may have enticed some to stay in education and some to go into teaching, with 2,593 vacancies, more is needed to solve the teacher shortage problem. Think on this also, according to the Economic Policy Institute, teachers make about 20% less than other professionals with similar education and experience.

In a great opinion piece, Mississippi Must Continue to Invest in Its Educator Pipeline, by Toren Ballard in the Magnolia Tribune, Mr. Ballard makes this statement, “The 2022 pay raise was a promising development for enabling upward mobility in K-12 education, but its impact was stymied by record inflation over the last year: if we account for inflation, the $4,500 increase to the starting salary only boosted pay in ‘real dollars’ by $1,346 from the year before.” Quick math equates to $112 a month.

So, is money still the answer to solving the teacher shortage? I don’t know. It would certainly help, but… the value we place on ourselves differs from what others will place. Another good read by Toren Ballard on the teacher shortage is Eyeing the Exit: Teacher Turnover and What We Can Do About It. That said, we must give those who are even remotely thinking about becoming an educator a reason to be one. However, if our future teachers are in our schools today, and they are, how do you think they look at the teaching profession when they see us and what we do? It’s a question worth asking and, more importantly, answering.

Helping someone discover a reason to want to do something creates an intrinsic value that becomes personalized. When that happens, good things happen. We must give teachers hope, for we are the only model future teachers see. At the same time, a value will always be or not be placed on us as educators by others.

Let’s go fight the good fight of leadership. Someone has to…

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2023 J Clay Norton

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