Viewpoint: Supporting Indiana’s teachers during ongoing shortages

Teachers are the backbone of our society, and they need our support more than ever. Often with limited resources and small classroom budgets, nobody is asked to do more-with-less than K-12 teachers. Yet every day, our teachers show up for our kids at schools across the U.S. where districts are combatting the current teacher shortage that has reached nearly 36,500 teacher job openings.

Currently, more than 2,000 teacher and teacher support positions statewide remain open, according to the Indiana Department of Education, including critical classroom roles like substitutes and paraprofessionals. Unfortunately, this often leads to larger class sizes and less individualized student support, which is needed especially in special education. We can even pinpoint the subject areas in Indiana that are being affected most by teacher shortages: science, math, language arts, special education, career and technical education, and computer science.

For young learners especially, they’re at a disadvantage if our current educators are stretched too thin in the classroom due to lack of support. And school systems have found themselves resorting to hiring educators not fully qualified in certain subject areas, which again only hurts a learners’ progress. So how do we best cultivate the next generation of teachers, and lift up those who are currently in the classroom, dedicating their time to our kids?

This is a great time to reignite the conversation about the importance of education as a whole, and how to make pursuing a career in education a reality. And not just for our young learners. But for our current and aspiring teachers, many who are working full-time, have families, feel like higher education needs to be put on the back burner. And this isn’t the only profession that feels this way; according to a LinkedIn study, the main reason employees felt they couldn’t pursue learning opportunities was due to time. Financial constraints are also a huge barrier for many potential students.

Fortunately, our state offers flexible, affordable and accessible pathways to higher education for current and aspiring teachers. Assistants, paraprofessionals and substitutes may have the goal of pursuing a teaching degree, while tenured teachers may want to advance or expand their area of expertise. I encourage school systems to continue breathing life into the value of employee education, as it’s often a key retention factor that benefits all parties involved: teachers, students and the overall community.

I’ve been in the field of higher education for nearly 20 years, and it’s invigorating to see the impact education can have on a person, no matter the age, background or where they’re at in life. For teachers, classroom formats, lesson plans, etc., seem to be changing by the minute due to technology advancements and tools in our school systems (i.e., educational apps, AI-powered educational tools, interactive LCD smartboards, etc.) — many that were created or greatly progressed during the pandemic. To keep up with these advancements, and the educational needs of our next generation, it’s important teachers know there are accessible higher education opportunities and resources available to them.

As we look ahead to the 2023-24 school year, let’s support our teachers and their educational goals. Indiana’s educators demonstrate their value daily, and their roles are key to developing our future workers – many who will want to become teachers themselves.

Alison Bell is chancellor of WGU Indiana, a nonprofit, online university.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Support Indiana educators in midst of teacher shortages.