Colorado is lowering teacher qualifications amid staff shortage a year before expanding preschool

Colorado is lowering teacher qualifications amid staff shortage a year before expanding preschool access


Tens of thousands of Colorado children will be eligible to enroll in the state’s expanded preschool program come fall of 2023, but as an educator shortage has swelled to “crisis” levels, pressure is mounting to find enough teachers to staff classrooms.

One solution the state implemented in December: lowering the bar on credentials to become an early childhood educator.

That has stoked some fear among early education leaders and providers that the quality of the state’s universal preschool program, which offers kids 10 hours of free preschool per week, will suffer.

“You’re really, truly pulling new people off of the street and having them go work in your classroom, and that’s a whole different kind of pressure,” said Dawn Alexander, executive director of the Early Childhood Education Association of Colorado. “Where you used to be able to trust that someone could be in that classroom, there’s a lot of work to be done before that feeling of trust is really there.”

Read more: https://coloradosun.com/2022/01/14/colorado-education-universal-preschool-teacher-shortage-schools/