School leaders say teacher shortage not solved by budget cuts

State and local education leaders say a statewide teacher shortage has persisted in spite of the elimination of teaching jobs through budget cuts.

Shawn Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, said preliminary results of a statewide survey that is due out later this week show a significant number of unfilled vacancies remain.

“There was some assumption that with a significant number of positions reduced across the state, that would somehow alleviate our shortage,” Hime said. “What we’re seeing from our preliminary data is that schools are still having a difficult time finding teachers — and the combined number of eliminated and unfilled positions will be significantly higher this year than the last couple of years.”

For context, OSSBA reported 1,000 unfilled teaching positions at this time last year and the elimination of about 600 others during the summer of 2015.

Read more: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/education/school-leaders-say-teacher-shortage-not-solved-by-budget-cuts/article_ff292280-0430-56c3-943a-dcc666073a11.html