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As students return to class, schools across the country continue to grapple with teacher and staff vacancies. The scope of the shortages, and what’s behind them, varies widely across America’s nearly 14,000 school districts. Carlton Jenkins, the superintendent of Madison Metropolitan School District, joined Amna Nawaz to discuss the struggle he’s facing to find and keep educators.
Amna Nawaz:
As students returned to class, school districts across the country continue to grapple with teacher and staff vacancies. But the scope of the shortages and what’s behind them varies widely across America’s nearly 14,000 school districts.
Carlton Jenkins is the superintendent of Madison Metropolitan School District. That’s the second largest school district in Wisconsin. He joins us now.
Mr. Superintendent, thank you for joining us. And welcome to the “NewsHour.”
You have seen, as we all have, all these headlines about a catastrophic teacher shortage, a crisis in schools. The details sort of seem to depend on where you live. So, paint us a picture. What’s the situation in Madison right now?
Carlton Jenkins, Superintendent, Madison Metropolitan School District:
Well, I will just tell you, in Madison, Wisconsin, we definitely are not immune to the teacher shortage or exodus, one would say, that we’re seeing across the country.
In fact, this year, we had a record number of vacancies. We had 571 that it peaked out at. And we have just been trying to do, as my colleagues, as we’re talking across the country, everything we can to make sure that we market our district. But we really have a great city here in Madison, Wisconsin, and our state, it’s different, but we have been doing a lot of things, like my colleagues, to try to get people to come to Madison, Wisconsin, where we know we have a great educational system that’s supported here by our community.
But it’s definitely a teacher shortage.
Amna Nawaz:
So, how are you doing in filling those vacancies? How many do you have today? And how have you done it?
What kind of case are you making? Are you having to lower qualifications or raise pay, as we have seen happen in other places?
Carlton Jenkins:
Well, one of the things right now that we’re looking at, it’s really an employee’s market.
Just the historical issues of teacher shortages continue to go. In 1970, we had 200,000, individuals coming out ready to go into the teaching work force. And now, today, we have less than 90,000. And we’re seeing more women leave the work force.
So, knowing that, we’re trying to be very strategic in trying to keep the talent, retain the talent. We know that’s very important. But individuals, after the pandemic, a lot of people want to go close to home. Some have come from far away, and some are trying to go back.
But we’re also trying to make sure that the conditions are welcoming within our schools and that our staff feel valued. And so, to do that, we have actually recruited a record number of teachers here in Madison, Wisconsin, over 500 staff here recently. We still have a shortage of, roughly, because some have gone in, and some have come out, about 134.
But we’re working diligently to close those gaps. And we haven’t lowered our standards. We have 275 highly qualified individuals sub staff ready to go, and a total of about 600 staff that’s out there. And we’re just working together to try to make it happen.
Amna Nawaz:
As you know and, as we have seen, it’s not just about teachers, even though there’s a lot of focus on teachers.
We saw a national Ed Week survey of principals and school districts from July that said 72 percent of them said they didn’t have enough applicants to fill teacher positions. But 86 percent said they didn’t have enough applicants for bus driver vacancies.
I have to ask you. You have been doing this for more than 30 years. Have you ever seen numbers like that?
Carlton Jenkins:
Never. This is totally unprecedented.
The pandemic has definitely increased what we’re seeing in terms of just the vacancies. The last 30 months or so, the whole socioemotional and mental health piece has taken a hold on all of us. We have never seen it like this. Last year, we started with the bus drivers shortage, like many of my colleagues across the country, but, this year, we’re in better shape with our bus drivers.
But we have to look at food service, all positions, and think about it differently and how we make everyone feel as if though they belong and create the best environment. We know this, and often know — our board chair says this every day — it’s not what we do. It’s who we are. And our budget must reflect that.
But it’s real challenging for all of us, because some states, as Wisconsin, have not invested as much, kept up with the pace of the cost of inflation.
But, today, I have to say we had a great surprise, as our governor took the big step forward in coming in here and announcing that he’s going to give $90 million to support this teacher shortage effort that all of us are going through. And he gave us great latitude on how we can use the money to help with the teacher shortage.
So we’re very excited today here in Madison.
Amna Nawaz:
Pay is one part of it.
But, as I’m sure, you have seen teacher burnout is so high after these brutal last couple of years. They’re under more scrutiny, more public pressure. They’re part of political attacks and debates now.
You have filled those spots for now. Are you worried about keeping them filled in the future?
Carlton Jenkins:
Well, first of all, we haven’t filled them. We’re still working up until the last moment. And we’re going to continue to try to recruit, even once schools start.
We have gone outside of the country. We have individuals who have come here from China,from Mexico, individuals from Spain, all across the country. But we do know this, that public education is just under such a brutal attack. The polarization is really impacting socioemotional and mental health well-being.
I’m asking everybody just to chill out going into this year, and really try to support your educators. I mean all the educators, the food service workers, to our SEAs in the classroom, teachers, administrators. That’s really impacted our ability to retain people in education, high-quality people, I must say.
So I’m looking for everyone to really support us in that way.
Amna Nawaz:
Carlton Jenkins, superintendent of Madison’s Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin, joining us tonight.
Mr. Superintendent, I wish you all the best of luck as your school year gets under way. Thank you for joining us.
Carlton Jenkins:
Thank you for carrying the story too. Thank you so much.
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Amna Nawaz Amna Nawaz
Amna Nawaz joined PBS NewsHour in April 2018 and serves as the program’s chief correspondent and primary substitute anchor.
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