Let’s face facts: times are tough for K12 schools across the country. Public school enrollment is continuing its multi-year decline, putting pressure on funding in many states even as districts face rising costs and growing student needs.
Budget uncertainty is forcing difficult choices in statehouses and school districts alike. But even in this environment, one priority cannot be scaled back: sustained investment in the teaching workforce.
Districts continue to grapple with chronic teacher shortages, especially in STEM, special education, and bilingual education. Retaining educators, particularly early-career teachers, has become an equally urgent challenge.
Burnout, rising cost-of-living pressures, and limited access to affordable housing are driving a leaky pipeline, with too many promising teachers leaving the profession within their first five years.
The bare minimum?
Some states are still searching for answers, while others have begun testing new approaches to stabilize their teaching workforce and strengthen school systems. Here in California, where I work as a dean of a college of education, those challenges are especially pronounced.
Last fall, enrollment in California’s public schools fell for the eighth straight year, and the number of teachers continued to fall alongside it. The shortage persists even after adding about 3,000 net new classroom teachers over the past five years.
California has shown that recruitment alone will not solve the problem. In response, state leaders are now pursuing more creative solutions to strengthen the teacher pipeline and stabilize the workforce in the long term.
California policymakers recently passed two practical measures designed to attract and support new teachers. The extension of the Golden State Teacher Grant Program will provide college scholarships of up to $10,000 to prospective teachers who commit to working in a high-need school after graduation.
Meanwhile, the state’s Student Teacher Stipend Program provides $10,000 to each teacher candidate during their student-teaching experience. This not only addresses concerns about college affordability but also opens the teaching profession to non-traditional candidates.
Unpaid on-the-job teacher training—a core component of traditional teacher education programs—has long created barriers for adult learners who balance school, work, and family responsibilities.
At my institution, National University, we call students “ANDers,” as they are students and parents, students and full-time employees, or both. These learners cannot afford to leave their jobs for 16 weeks to complete the required in-class clinical experience before earning their teaching credential.
At a time of fiscal uncertainty, some may ask whether California—or any state—can afford these kinds of investments. The better question is whether states can afford not to make them.
Proactively investing in teacher pipelines is far more cost-effective than continually backfilling vacancies, relying on long-term substitutes, or absorbing the academic and financial costs of chronic turnover. To be frank, California’s efforts, as promising as they are, represent the bare minimum.
A thriving teaching workforce
Policymakers nationwide can build on these efforts by expanding the search for solutions that attract high-quality educators to the profession. Registered apprenticeship programs, for example, offer a strong model for building sustainable talent pipelines.
Apprenticeships have proven effective across multiple industries by allowing working adults, military-connected learners, and other non-traditional students to gain practical skills, work experience, and a paycheck all at once.
The model can be just as reliably applied to teaching, with high-quality registered teacher apprenticeships that align with state credentialing requirements, pairing rigorous coursework with paid, supervised classroom experience and structured mentoring.
In the three years since the U.S. Department of Labor approved the first federally registered teacher apprenticeship program, these programs have spread to 45 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
But improving the country’s K12 schools requires more than attracting high-potential individuals to the teaching profession. Addressing those challenges requires a more comprehensive approach.
Programs like the California Community Schools Partnership Program leverage the strengths of nonprofits, community-based agencies, local governments, and universities to help meet the complex needs of students and their families outside the classroom.
These partnerships also strengthen the teaching workforce. By providing wraparound services, mental health supports, and expanded learning opportunities, community schools improve school climate, reduce non-instructional burdens on teachers, and allow educators to focus on teaching and learning during the school day.
Too often, the legislative process pits government agencies and community groups against one another in a battle for scarce resources. The community schools partnership program takes a different approach by aligning these stakeholders around the shared goal of creating stronger students, families, and communities.
This model works across political and geographic lines, with research showing that community schools can improve access to high-quality education and reduce out-of-school barriers that slow learning.
Across the country, schools still need more teachers, stronger community partnerships, and better support for students. California has shown what’s possible when policymakers and institutional leaders get creative.
Other states offer similar bright spots and lessons worth building on. The task now is to finish the job: make these programs permanent, expand them nationwide, and give every community the educators it needs to thrive.
