Oh.

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Hi and welcome to Louisiana Spotlight.

I'm your host for tonight's show, Cara Saint here.

The United States is experiencing one of the worst teacher shortages in the country's history, and Louisiana is no exception.

Prior to the 2022 school year, Louisiana had more than 2500 teaching vacancies with few candidates.

COVID 19 school safety issues and inflation have exacerbated the problem.

But there is one other factor creating the shortage, and that's the value we place on our teachers.

Tonight, we'll talk exclusively with educators and future educators to better understand the issues teachers face.

And here are some causes and solutions to the teacher shortage.

But first, we'll hear from one class at the LSU School of Education and their take on why teachers are leaving the profession.

Hello.

I'm Mohammed.

My name is Margaret Weston Pickling.

I am a professor of professional practice here at the LSU school of Ed.

The class that you observed in the focus is world language methodology.

So all of the methods of how to teach in the the theory of Second Language acquisition.

And in the class, I have one student that's going to be teaching Spanish, one that will be teaching French, and then a science teacher.

But she has lots of English learners in her classroom, so she is taking that to learn all of the methods of how to scaffold and differentiate her instruction for her English learners in her classroom.

So we're already having a teacher shortage, but even more so is that evident with our world language teachers?

If there is not a time in place in history that we need individuals that speak multiple languages, I don't know what is.

I mean, we are a global society.

And the fact that I have three students, what is that saying about us and what is that saying about our future?

My name is Alexa Walton, and I'm a fourth grade science teacher here in Baton Rouge.

This spring, I graduate with a master's in education, in curriculum and instruction.

It's very important that we get more teachers that do work with ELL students because the state of Louisiana, every day, we're having more and more people migrate from outside of the country.

So it's important that we know how to service those students.

Getting my master's is definitely been difficult just because not only am I a master's student, but I'm also working as a full time teacher in the classroom.

And I also volunteer in the athletic department at my school.

And so I think the most difficult part about getting the Masters has just been like the time constraints.

In Alexis case, where she is a teacher, she is a student, she is a coach.

I could probably go through all of my students.

And even though they're not, you know, out in the field, you know, teaching, they're already I work 20, 20 hours a week and I do this and I do that.

And they do it because they're passionate about the profession and about their content, about their students.

And they're always going to go above and beyond.

But are we asking too much of them?

Because then we have the problem of once they're out in the field and this is something that the state's working on a lot is teacher retention of keeping them in the profession.

So instead of it piling it on their plate and giving them more and more responsibility, we really need to be saying, how can we support you?

What resources do you need?

And unfortunately, education is frequently one of those that get cut.

I wish I knew what was that moment in time that changed that narrative and why is teaching no longer an honorable profession?

It just I would like to go back in time and stuff that.

I've seen a lot of people leave the profession.

I've seen a lot of people change professions.

And I think the pandemic is the thing that kind of like kickstarted everything because the demands were even higher.

They had us teaching, you know, virtual classes.

They had is doing hybrid, they had is doing in-person and stuff all at the same time.

So how can you meet the needs of all of those kids to the best of your ability when you barely have time to make it through the day?

And so I feel like that pressure caused a lot of people to leave.

Teachers telling me, you know what, I'm counting the days till I retire.

My classroom started out where I had 15 students.

I'm talking at the elementary level, and now I have 25, you know, almost 30 students.

That's not sustainable.

You know, you can't you're creating an environment where you can't even teach anymore.

And but again, that's all because of the the teacher shortage.

And and if if we don't have that that that talent in the classroom and value those those teachers, what are we saying to society?

What are we doing to our next generation?

Who's going to be teaching our children?

Joining me to help us get a better understanding of the causes and solutions to our state's teacher shortage is Barry Irwin, president and CEO of Council for a Better Louisiana, which co-chairs the state's Teacher Recruitment, Recovery and Retention Task Force.

Thank you so much for joining me, Barry.

Great to be here.

All right.

So let's start.

Tell me about your organization's work with the task force.

Why was it created and what's the goal here?

Well, Cable is a public policy group that focuses a lot on education issues.

So we get asked to serve on a lot of different task forces as a sort of an outside group.

We're not an educator group per se, but we're kind of outside citizen group.

The point of the task force is really to address the teacher shortage that we've been talking about.

It's a profound issue, not only in Louisiana, but across the country.

But one thing we know for sure is that in our state, we have fewer and fewer teachers who are choosing to go into the profession, going into our colleges of education.

They're retiring early or they're just retiring because they're at the age of retirement.

And somewhere in between, a lot of them are leaving the profession for a variety of different reasons.

So the point of the task force is to try and understand some of those reasons.

Look at the issues that are surrounding the shortage, not just here but around the country, kind of look at best practices for trying to retain and recruit teachers and hopefully make some recommendations to the legislature and other policymakers for how we can address what is really a very urgent need in our state.

And by looking at the name, I take it that teacher retention and teacher recruitment are also very important to the program.

They are.

They're absolutely vital.

You know, we have done a lot in our state in terms of, you know, education reform efforts that have really improved, you know, student performance and a lot of good things with policy.

But one of the things that's really at the heart of that that we've learned is that the thing that makes the biggest difference or a huge difference is really a quality teacher in the classroom.

And if you have a shortage of teachers, that by its nature means you're having a problem with quality teachers in the classroom.

I'll give you just a quick example.

If you look at kind of the layout of what we have right now in terms of teachers in our state, about 75% of them are certified to teach in their area of expertize the class that they're teaching the classroom.

That means that 25%, a whole quarter of our teachers are either not certified to teach, but they're in the classroom or they're certified to teach, but not to teach the class that they're teaching.

So maybe you have a math teacher who's teaching English or an English teacher that's teaching social studies.

That's not an ideal situation.

We also know that the shortages, at least for the largest part, are in math, in science and in social studies and in, you know, a state like Louisiana, like anywhere where we're trying to, you know, improve our efforts in terms of innovation, technology.

We want more kids into STEM related areas.

You know, that's a bad thing when we have, you know, teachers who are not fully qualified having to teach those classes.

So the task force conducted listening sessions with teachers all around the state.

So are there any reoccurring themes that you heard from teachers that kind of contribute to the shortage?

Yeah, we heard a few things.

I mean, I'll start by saying we heard some encouraging things and that's always good.

One of the things we heard overwhelmingly from teachers is that they're in the profession because they want to make a difference in the lives of kids.

We heard that across the board.

I think another one of the good things we heard is that teachers feel confident in their roles.

They're confident in their classroom being able to manage the classroom and feel like they have the tools and resources, by and large to do that.

And they also feel like they're effective at what they do.

They feel like they're making that difference for kids that they want to make.

But on the flip side, you know, there are some issues that, you know, are part of this teacher shortage, issue three of them, that stand out is, you know, teacher pay.

We know that, you know, to start with the status of the teaching profession and also working conditions.

So we know about teacher pay in Louisiana.

It's below the southern average.

We just had a 1500 dollar pay increase, but that still doesn't really get us that much closer to the average because some of the other states, including nearby Mississippi and Alabama, have raised teacher pay higher than that.

So we know that's an issue and we can talk about that forever, I suppose.

But the other thing is about the status of the teaching profession.

We heard over and over again that the teachers don't feel respected as a profession the way maybe, you know, not just doctors and lawyers, but CPAs and bankers and others are seen as a profession that somehow teachers don't feel they're appreciated or recognized in that same way in terms.

In fact, I'll make a reference to a chart that we saw, and this is really disconcerting.

We saw a national chart.

This isn't just Louisiana, but it showed that back in the seventies, if you asked individual, would you want your child to be a teacher?

75% said yes.

Today, that number is 35%.

So the esteem that the teaching profession has is not the way it used to be.

But the last thing is working conditions.

And I think if teachers don't feel totally appreciated, you know, from people outside, they don't always feel appreciated, you know, from their leaders, you know, within the schools.

And the other part is there's a lot of pressure on teachers, you know, things that aside, or totally different in so many ways than they used to be years ago.

There are challenges with kids coming from totally economically disadvantaged families, their mental health issues.

They have to deal with discipline issues, a lot of paperwork and a lot of pressure to perform.

So when you put all of those things together, those are some of the concerns that teachers kind of expressed to us over and over.

But, you know, speaking of working conditions, the teachers that we just heard from, Dr. Piccoli and from Alexa when they did say they felt undervalued and underappreciated.

But COVID also was playing a role in this.

Has that been a catalyst for the teacher shortage?

Absolutely.

We had the teacher shortage before COVID happened, but it certainly has exacerbated things.

If you think about it, teachers are made to teach in the classroom.

That's what they're trained to do.

And what happened with COVID is they had to kind of relearn how are you going to teach kids if you're not going to be in the classroom for some periods of time?

They went almost a whole semester where it was either virtual or not much instruction at all right when COVID hit.

But after that, even, you know, when they got back into the classroom, it was a totally disrupted atmosphere.

I mean, some kids were there, some were not.

Some were virtual, some were not.

There were quarantines, teachers were quarantined themselves.

They had health and safety protocols to deal with.

All of this is not the way teachers are typically trained to do things.

And so if you're in that kind of pressure cooker environment to begin with, you know, your kids are struggling, you're under a lot more pressure that's certainly sent, you know, more teachers, I think, into the area of reconsidering whether they wanted to stay in that classroom.

Dr. Pickle, this class had just three students in it.

So here are the enrollment numbers for the LSU School of Education over the last 15 years.

So what recruiting recommendations has the task force made to turn this trend around?

Well, we've made a few, but I'll kind of highlight a couple of them.

And one of them are a couple of more things that the legislature has always already done to help us this year.

One of the things we found and it kind of shows up in these numbers of kids not going into the colleges of education or the teacher preparation program is that there were some obstacles to getting in.

One of them was a test that students have to take once you're enrolled in the university, that's one thing.

But then you had to take another test to get into the College of Education.

A lot of states don't have that, and a lot of states are actually getting away from that.

If you're going into the nursing school, you don't have to do that.

If you're going into the College of Engineering, you don't have to do that.

But you did in the College of Education.

So we've gotten rid of that requirement and that obstacle.

And to be clear, I don't think we're lowering standards by doing that, which is kind of always the concern.

Teachers are still going to have to be able to perform at the back end and pass all the tests that are required to become certified at the back end.

We just remove that obstacle of getting into the college and we know from at least past data that could be as many as like a thousand students a year going into colleges of education that weren't doing that before.

So that's a really good thing.

One of the other things we did was pass a program called Go Teach, and basically it's a scholarship program for aspiring teachers.

So if you're going into a college of education or another teacher preparation program, the legislature put up, I think, $5 million to help teachers with, you know, financial aid so that they can actually go into the teaching profession.

So what legislation do you hope to see passed in the next session that can bring more support to schools and also to teachers?

Well, a couple of things.

One, I think we have to keep banging the drum about teacher pay.

We know it's an issue.

Part of the issue there is that we all know it is, but we need to do more to get that out there.

And I think maybe help it become even an election issue so that the politicians know that there is a sense of urgency around that.

Another thing that the legislature can do during this upcoming session is make it easier for teachers who are teaching out of state, who are moving into Louisiana to get a teaching certificate.

Teaching is one of the most regulated professions in the country, and people don't know that we can make it easier for those qualified teachers to come in from other states and teach in our state.

And I think the third thing is we'd like to see the work of our task force continue.

We're supposed to go away in July of this year, but this is a big, important issue for our state.

We feel like we need a group that's really targeted and focusing on these things.

So we would like to extend our work for another couple of years to hopefully, you know, continue to elevate this issue in Louisiana.

Well, thank you so much, Barry.

This has been very interesting.

I think you've given everybody some insight into the teacher shortage in Louisiana.

So coming up, I'll sit down with three future educators to discuss their paths to becoming teachers and what changes they hope to bring to the teaching profession.

But first, let's listen to the moving words of educators rising class at a really high school where Kim Ecker teaches her students about the power of being a teacher.

So we were talking about like like inequitable situations and what a teacher can do because, like you said, teachers are not superheroes.

And that's actually something that we need to, like, disappear.

Like teachers are super.

No, we're not.

Because it diminishes the skills and it diminishes the work and it diminishes the trying.

We're not born special.

We work really hard to be good.

Right.

And so everything that we're learning.

You were studying these court cases.

You were studying history.

You were looking at current court cases.

But it always begs the question, what are we going to do differently?

What are we going to do next?

How are we going to always continue to make a classroom better?

I am Kimberly Eckert.

I work for West Baton Rouge schools, so I teach educators rising and really high school in the morning.

Educators Rising.

It's a national organization and its sole job is to really recruit the next generation of teachers, for students to be able to come together and really understand what the profession is, what it means, and exactly why they've got the skills and the dispositions and the potential to be a great teacher.

We started it here, was actually piloted first in really high school.

We spend two years really opening their eyes to teaching as a means to social justice, to teaching as a means to community impact, and then our teaching as a means to really affect change.

And I don't think that a lot of the current generation are really all of the people alive on the planet understand exactly what it means to be a teacher or exactly the impact that we can have.

And also, I think people tend to forget the impact that teachers make.

Most of the time, sometimes it gets overshadowed by bad teachers.

But when you really look deep into your journey throughout your whole education and you look at the good teachers, you realize how big of an impact it makes for.

Like, for me, I always feel like ever since I was a kid, I knew I was going to be a coach when I got older and I knew like in order to coach in high school, you have to also have to be a teacher.

And so, like when I first got in the classroom, like that's what I was mainly thinking about.

Like I was going to be teaching in order to be a coach.

But now that I'm thinking about it, it's like to be teaching.

I'm like starting to take it serious and like is starting to become like some like true to me, like the kids that I've been teaching at the internship at other school, like they mean a lot to me and they, they, they really impacted me a lot, especially after my injury and stuff and knowing that they were all there for me, that those kids mean a lot to me.

So yeah, I'm starting to see how I can affect kids and like do the same thing that my dad's been doing.

I really just reach out to kid making the best I could possibly make.

Thank you so much for that.

Oh, my gosh.

The human beings in my class, I'm so lucky.

They teach me, I think, way more than I teach them and they won't know it, because part of my skill is to be able to make sure that they're the stars of the show.

But I'm deeply affected by them, always like the joy, the emotions.

And I think it's pretty cool to get to model that, to be a vulnerable person and you have no questions about whether I'm professional or strong.

I'm strong as all get out strong doesn't mean that I'm not affected by you and that you aren't equally strong enough to have the power to affect me.

And I think that especially young people, they don't feel enough of that, that the ripple that they cause is going to ever turn into anything.

So I think it's really cool that we've got these opportunities and they happen all the time, really in any class that is such a gift to be in a space where that many people are being human and it's okay and it's encouraged, I think that's cool and really affirming.

Joining me now to discuss the future of teaching in our panel, John Foster Benn was a junior at Berkeley High School.

And in his first year of the educators writing program with Miss Eckert, Mike Allen is a junior at the LSU School of Education, where she majors in early childhood education and is also an ambassador for the School of Education.

Cameron Stewart is a senior at the LSU School of Education, where she graduates in the spring in elementary education.

She is also an ambassador for the School of Education.

All right.

So why did you guys decide to pursue a career in teaching?

Mr. Bowen well, let's start with you.

Yeah.

Ever since I can remember, I've always wanted to be a leader.

Now, my goal, my purpose on this earth was to make change.

And due to society's view on the teaching profession, I didn't know what an impact it made until I took the educators writing Rising Course with Miss Eckert at Broulee High.

Going into that course really helped me realize that being a teacher is the way that I'm going to make the most change in the world.

And make the most change in the world.

And also with you, I mean, you switched majors to pursue teaching.

Why did you switch?

So I am very blessed to have a path set before me by my family.

My father was a teacher at one point.

My mother was a principal in East Baton Rouge Parish schools, and my sister is also a teacher.

And he spent his career schools.

And so I was always in the classroom growing up, and I thought that I wanted to be a doctor one day.

But I really heard the advice that find something you love and then figure out how you can make money from it, not the other way around.

And so I realized I was a gymnastics teacher when I was in high school.

And being around kids was just it just brought me great, great joy.

And I think that was kind of my driving force.

And I also am fueled by purpose.

And so I know that while teaching, I am making a purpose.

And so I was happier with being an education major, and I've been happier since.

So I kind of see it as like a message and kind of a testimony to all people to follow your purpose, not just what society tells you to do regarding what they think success is.

So.

Yes.

All right.

And Michael, what about you?

So I am originally from New Orleans.

It's not like a secret that the prison system there isn't what it should be or where it needs to be.

So I kind of took it as like, let me be the change that I wish to seek.

A lot of my family members, my friends were not able to go to schools that were like the better of New Orleans schools.

So I just wanted to make the difference in the schools that, like, people didn't really want to go to.

So I guess like just being the change, kind of like what he said, like being the change I wish to see like make a difference, find something that I enjoy and like paying it forward in that aspect.

So yeah, and in some way all of you really just want to make a change, but to do that, you know, it's a difficult path ahead.

What are your fears about becoming teachers?

I think a fear I have is definitely burnout because I think sometimes a battle that I think a lot of teachers have is we you love the kids, you love being there, you love making the change.

But also sometimes you have to take care of yourself.

And being a teacher requires a lot.

I'm currently a student teacher and just the things that I've seen, I just wish I always say this.

I've been saying this.

I was wish people could spend a day in the classroom and they could see how much it requires.

And so I think a fear that I have is just burnout, because you don't want to leave because you love the kids, you love the impact you have, but also you want to take care of yourself and and to find that balance is kind of something that's not that easy.

So.

Yeah.

What about the rest of you?

Well, my greatest fear is that the public will continue to be uneducated about education in general, because if I'm a teacher and they continue to be uneducated, you know, they're not going to vote for what they need to vote for.

They're not going to be advocates for and they're not going to respect us.

We're going to be still hold as we are now in the shortage of teachers.

And similar to what Cameron said, we'll be environment.

All right.

And I would just say like a teacher is an educator, but a teacher wears many hats.

You're a mother, guardian, social worker.

There's a lot of aspects that go into that.

So I think I'm most fearful of like being put in tough situations that aren't academic that I really have to deal with.

And leaving that at school, it's hard for me to hear something about a child not having this at home, going through this at home and leaving that only at the school.

Like, I feel like I would definitely take that with me home.

So I guess like finding a way to tear the two apart, but also like I feel like that makes you more of a strong teacher.

So and a lot of you, I mean, most of you, all of you are very young going into this field.

Why do you think more of your peers don't want to become teachers?

I think I'm just going to say it.

I think it's pay.

It's definitely pay from being in college and being around my peers and hearing the things that they say.

I hear a lot of them say, Oh, my gosh, I would love to be a teacher, but I just don't want to take that pay cut.

I don't want to.

I want to be able to afford nice things.

And and I think a lot of people try to dance around.

The fact that that's the driving issue, I feel, is why people my age don't want to become teachers is because they don't want to they want to be able to afford the lifestyle that they want to live in.

And a lot of people, like I said, they feel like success isn't being a teacher, you know, they feel like success is other things.

And so I think that kind of drives people away.

But that kind of comes of between picking your choosing your purpose over choosing what society tells you to do so.

Value and pay go hand in hand.

And this is what Miss Eckerd had to say about value, valuing teachers, skill and time.

I always tell people I'm really cocky as a teacher, like, I'm so good at this job and I know that I would dominate a lot of other fields because I'm so good at my job because I know what it takes to be a great teacher.

And I think that the more aware we are of that, the more vocal we are, the more agency that we develop, which is a lot of what this new generation has, the more we're going to demand and the more we're going to help people understand we're not martyrs.

I love children.

I don't work for free.

And if anybody had a knee jerk reaction whenever I just said that, that's a problem that you would hear a teacher say, I'm not working for free now.

I'm not doing that now.

I'm going to do my job and I'm really good at it and I'll do anything for my students.

But it is my it is my career.

And I too would like to go to dinner.

And teachers, too, would like to break cycles of poverty that got them to where they are.

I don't think that anywhere on the docket there should be the idea that teachers should have to sacrifice their dreams to make other people dreams come true.

And I think that we need to be very vocal about that.

It is very difficult to look someone in the eye who's saying, this is what I'm worth, this is what I'm able to do.

Come watch what I do, come watch my craft and tell me that that's what it's worth to you.

Cameron That echoes a bit of what you said earlier.

And so to her point, I mean, do you think that this generation of teachers will have the agency to make their value and their skills appreciated?

I think that we are definitely a generation of change.

I think that a lot of things can get jumpstarted, like out of kind of old beliefs.

I think that there is like a little stigma, but I feel like if more people are encouraged to be educators, then, you know, more talk will happen.

And since we are the generation of social media, a lot of things are able to like be pushed out that way.

So if people are unhappy about what they want, if so many people talk about it and so many people do like voicing their opinions, hey, this is not okay, then I feel like that's how the change can get jumpstarted.

Yeah, I, I have solid evidence of the, of the lack of education towards teachers in my parish specifically.

Recently, I think it was back in March, my parish had a vote for a tax renewal.

It wasn't even a new tax.

974 people voted against this tax while only 1973 voted for it.

So it actually didn't get passed.

It's going to be back on the ballot on November the eighth, but it just really showed and it hurt.

It took a toll on teachers and specifically on students, too, that are invested in the teaching profession, because it told me that my public, my parish doesn't value 20% of my budget.

They don't think that I'm worth that renewal.

I mean, it wasn't even a new tax.

So just to think that they're that ignorant towards the actual importance of our teaching profession is it's a problem.

That's the reason why we don't have enough teachers.

Well, Alexa had this to say about the doubts she's had about becoming a teacher.

I've definitely had doubts staying in the profession, especially with the situation that happened in the world.

It was a very triggering situation for me, just because I teach fourth grade and the tragedy happened in a fourth grade classroom.

And especially like working in education, I see that school for, you know, some kids don't like school, but for the most part, most kids, they love coming to school because they see school as like a safe haven, like a safe place where they know that they're going to get fed, where they know that there's going to be at least one trusting adult in the building that's going to talk to them, ask them about their day and, you know, show them extra love.

Children should not be afraid to step foot into a school building.

That should be their safe haven.

That should be their safe place.

That should be a place of learning, not not other things.

So teachers today are asked to wear a lot of hats.

They they need to be educators.

They need to be therapists, social workers.

And now they're asked to be security for their students.

Do you think that teachers are being asked for too much?

I definitely I definitely do.

Being a student teacher, I'm in the classroom Monday through Friday all day, every day.

And you know, my views last year have changed completely from they are now because like I knew that teachers were asked of a lot then, but just to see it in person, what they're asked of, it's so much behind the scenes work, so much differentiating between between everything, so many details that are asked into it that I don't think a lot of people value you.

They're just personal being, you know, that they're they are not just a teacher, they are also a person.

So I definitely do believe that teachers are asked of a lot and I think it definitely can be too much at times for sure.

We definitely because the problem here is that okay, you say teacher, right?

Teacher, period.

You can be a mediocre teacher.

You can go into a classroom, you can put information on a board or you can give it to your students.

But if you are a true good teacher, like I believe you know us on this panel to be and people that are inspired to help others, you're going to assume the roles that that lack you're going to be the therapist for that for the student that needs it.

You're going to be the coach.

You're going to be whatever you need to be.

If you really are invested in that and you don't have a paid off, you can't say, okay, I've provided therapy to the student because that's voluntary.

And that just shows the passion towards the kids that our teachers have and it shows why they need to be paid more than they do.

Michael, you have anything to add?

I think that a lot of people think that that's just expected of teachers like you're supposed to educate, you're supposed to do this, you're supposed to do that.

But it's like that has to be if you're going to expect me to do that, that has to be acknowledged.

There has to be, you know, taking account of for whether it be financially, emotionally, like given the right resources.

If you're going to ask me to do all these jobs and you have to provide me the right resources to do those things, I feel like just acknowledging that is the biggest part.

So given all your answers, I mean, what do you want to see change in the teaching profession?

What do you hope to change whenever you become teachers?

Our our problem in society today is that we're not respecting teachers.

We don't look into their lives and we don't know what they really go through and what they really do.

If we do educate the public, which is what we need to do that to answer your question, then we will start seeing people vote and we will start seeing people taking respect.

We will start seeing people acknowledging that this is what they do.

So it's all about education, not only education of the student, but education of the public, of of the government, of the people of our nation.

Right.

And I would definitely say, even as a student, whenever I tell people, oh, I'm an education major, I'm sure Cameron can attest to this, too.

It's like, oh, bless your heart or, Oh, you have so much patience.

Like, thank you for that.

Like, I couldn't do that, but it's like, well, why not?

And I also think it's kind of a career that's looked down upon.

People definitely put doctors over teachers, but it's like, who are creating your doctors, who are creating your lawyers.

It has to start somewhere like the world needs educators.

And I feel like people don't see that in a broad spectrum view.

They're just kind of like, Oh, you just like to play with kids?

Or, Oh, that's just something that has to happen.

But it's like if you're going to have policemen, doctors, firefighters, like I would put teachers right up there to like, we are all here for a reason.

It would serve like a good purpose.

So I think definitely educating the public, like you say, like getting people aware of like what we do and why it's relevant.

Why is it important?

Yeah, like Michael said, teaching is the profession that creates all other professions.

And also, like he said, the foundation of, I think the issues that we have regarding the teacher shortage is because the public has no education of what goes on in the classroom, what we deal with day to day.

And also, I think like sometimes even administration at the schools, you know, I think they were teachers beforehand, but sometimes they kind of just shy away from like sympathizing with teachers and so the support isn't there in some schools.

And so that also drives teachers away.

And so I think just being vocal about everything, just like I love social media at this, like in regarding this situation because you can like shed light and show other people what goes on in a classroom or what teachers are actually dealing with that may not ever have the chance to know.

And so then action can take place.

So yeah, well, thank you all so much for all of your input.

And I mean, I'm hopeful for the future just from talking to the three of you.

So we'll continue this conversation with our final panel.

But first, we'll go back to Ms.. Eco's classroom, where her students discuss the issues further.

So let's go back to the articles if you have any more ideas that you want to just sort of bring to the group from what you read.

I read the eight ways to implement equity in your classroom, and the whole time I'm reading it, I'm thinking about the flipside of it, about unequal practices.

And I really have, you know, the whole big idea of teacher shortage.

And I really do believe that inequitable classrooms are a huge part of our teacher shortage because people are brought through this old system of learning that was created in the industrial period where everyone is given the same textbook, the same desk at equal pay access, but not equitable practices.

So they have this negative connotation and idea of what the school system is, and the minute they graduate, they want to get out of it and never have anything to do with it again because they were treated inequitable.

We always remember teachers and we don't just remember the greatest ones.

We've ever had, right?

It would be a lie that we tell ourselves to think that we forget about a bad experience we had at school.

Those things stay with us forever too, because the truth is, teachers have an impact and it's not just the best teachers that have that impact.

So I think that whenever it comes to that, those sort of perceptions and I see this with my students too, sometimes they had a really bad experience and they never want to return to the scene of the crime.

They can't see themselves going back to school.

If school was a place where they were fundamentally unhappy or not, in a position where they felt valued.

And that's something that we have to talk a lot about with the current generation as well.

But I think.

The main thing that has impacted me was the internships being able.

To work with kids that immigrated here.

And have the same experience as me.

And when I was small, when I first moved here, I had a teachers that would make.

Fun of my English and I think teaching is about taking those bad teachers and those bad experiences and knowing what you don't want to do and how to make it better.

You know, we're not here to uphold status quo, whatever it is that makes you not want to.

Don't you think the next generation deserves better?

And so I think that there's a big opportunity for us to sort of look within and not just within teachers, within society, within communities, within all the reasons that have perpetuated the cycles that make people not want to become teachers.

So I think it comes from within.

And without that, we have to spend all the plates, we've got to recruit, we've got to make sure that we're preparing people well.

And we've got to make sure that the conditions exist.

Where people want to stay because we are very difficult to replace.

A great teacher is almost impossible to replace at any given time because it takes years to be a great teacher because again, they don't just fall out of the sky.

We are fortunate to have teachers here from all around the state right here in our L.P studios.

Dr. Henderson Lewis has been an educator for over 25 years and is currently an assistant professor in educational leadership at LSU's School of Education.

He came to LSU this year after being the superintendent of New Orleans public schools for seven years.

Janay Montgomery is a paraprofessional for the West Baton Rouge School System, where she teaches special needs students.

She's currently attending Reach University, which allows her to work in the classroom while also getting her teacher certification.

And Jamie Wong is a former teacher and the former state director of special education today.

She is the founder of Spread Strategies, which aims to create stronger, more resilient, special education systems.

So I'd like to start off asking you guys the same questions that I asked the students earlier.

So why did you become teachers?

You know what?

I just think of my professional career and becoming a teacher I believe my entire life.

The only thing I thought about becoming it was before me.

I respected the teachers that were in my school.

So it was something that I grew up wanting to be.

And then for me as an educator, I knew if I became a teacher, I was going to be helping the future generation to to be kind of whatever they desire.

And so, again, it was always a dream of mine.

And I know that's the reason why I'm on this earth as well.

Same for me.

Like I always knew that I wanted to be an educator growing up, but I also think it's really great how educators have firsthand experience, like in impacting the students lives on a daily basis, and that we have the firsthand experience with impacting the kids for the future.

So I feel like that's really important and it's like the best joy and gift that I could think of as being an educator.

My journey to education is a little bit different than my colleagues up here.

I didn't always know I wanted to be an educator.

I grew up in New Orleans and right out of college.

About three days after I graduated, I moved up to Washington, D.C., and found myself working on Capitol Hill, an education policy.

And through that work, I actually had an opportunity to come back home to New Orleans and the post-Katrina education, really the beginning of the post-Katrina education reforms and saw firsthand schools that I drove by every day, communities that I lived in, the total transformation that was happening inside the school buildings and in the communities as a result of strong and strong educators and was truly inspired and went back up to DC the next day called DC Teaching Fellows, which is a transition to teaching, and said to them, I want to be a part of this and I want to be a part of it in a ways.

Tell me, tell me what you're having the hardest time staffing.

And that's how I ended up in special education and haven't looked back since.

So, Dr. Lewis, you've worked in education for over 25 years, which is a long time.

Does this teacher shortage feel any different from the shortages in the past?

Totally different.

As I just reflect on my years as a novice teacher and you hear about this teacher shortage always has been a teacher shortage.

But in the class where I was, in the school where I work, we always had a certified teacher in every single classroom.

And even when someone would end up maybe quitting the the district will actually find a replacement.

But today, when we talk about a teacher shortage and even as I reflect on my time as superintendent, you have a situation where students are in a math class and for the last two years they never had a permanent teacher.

Students are going through situations where they may have five teachers in that same subject for an entire school year.

To get them through a school year.

It feels different.

It looks different and whether you are talking about the school that never had an opening to the school, they always have openings.

All of them are experiencing the teacher shortage right now.

So for me, it feels truly real right now.

So you recently just became a professor at the LSU School of Education.

So this is the enrollment at the school over the past 15 years.

What do you think is causing this trend?

Yes, it's tough to see, first of all.

But when you think of some of our other panelists, even today as they talk about the lack of respect for educators, I believe that's a huge factor for many individuals who are making the decision to go into other professions at this time.

When we you you heard the gentleman talked about the renewal of the millage and so when you look at your community and your community is not standing up with the educators who are actually educating all those individuals in that community, all those things are major factors, I believe, that are going into individuals who see I'm going to try something else that I also can also look at my my lifestyle.

Right, because as a teacher when I started, which is was 1996, it was 22,500.

I probably could have left high school and went and found a job and made 22,500.

But for me, it wasn't about the money.

And for educators it's not about the money.

However, we should not expect our educators to want to do a vow of poverty that is not fair because they educate the entire world for every single profession that we know that's on this earth.

So, Miss Montgomery, what do you think?

Why do you think fewer people are becoming educators?

So I can remember just like years and years ago, like how high teachers were put on a pedestal and how much respect and honor teachers people have for teachers.

And that is just like gone down.

Like there's little to no support in a lot of areas and also pay like I know we always talk about teacher pay but it is like a big driving force of why people don't want to become educators because we have this big workload and all these demands and all these requests and take it homework and the pay is just bare like bear.

So I think that's causing a lot of people to not want to get into education at all.

And Ms. Wong, do you have anything to add?

What do you think?

I'd echo what we've heard up here already.

But I also think, you know, from my perspective, my career being in special education, this isn't really a new challenge that we've been facing.

Special education has had shortages for half a century, pretty much since since it became an obligation of school systems, there's been critical shortages in staffing.

And I think right now we're really well, it wasn't necessarily created by the pandemic.

I think it's amplified and that the workforce in general is seeing shifts.

Major companies and small companies are able to offer incentives like flexible schedules and virtual work environments and other things that are difficult for school systems to offer.

And they're very enticing to too young professionals.

I think education is a lot like the medical field where so much of what you do every day is based on care and human interaction, and you have to be present physically.

And that is not necessarily true with a lot of jobs that are out there right now.

And it's amplifying this this problem that we've we've already had.

And it's it's a real, real challenge in today's workforce.

You're in your final year at Reed University.

Can you tell me a little bit more about the university and the degree that you're going to graduate with?

Yes.

So each university is a nonprofit organization that involves job embedded learning.

So we're actually working to get the degree.

So it's like we're actually firsthand experience while getting the degree and it's very cost affordable.

So I'm a full time student and full time worker, which is great, and I will be graduating in May with a bachelor's general education and I'm going to get certified in speed and math.

It sounds like Rich removes a lot of the obstacles that are in the way.

You know, on the road to becoming a teacher and getting that teacher certification.

Do you feel that there are too many obstacles?

Yes, there are too many obstacles just from firsthand experience.

I'm working full time and going to school full time, and if I would have went another direction, I probably wouldn't have been able to work and go to school.

So There are a few like people in my class who have actually been like pairs for years and years and years and years because they can't just stop in the middle of that and go back to school and take care of their family and things like that.

So this program, this university really like helps take out some of those obstacles while we're working in our field, as well as going to school to get certified and getting our degree.

So yeah, it definitely does.

And Dr. Lewis, do you have anything to add?

I mean, what do you think about the obstacles?

So just like she mentioned, for those individuals who we are seeing in school buildings right now and encouraging them to go on to become teachers as a process there.

And again, as she mentioned, many of them, if there's not a program that is going to allow them to stay gainfully employed and go to school, at the same time, many of those individuals will have to just make a decision to really continue to be a paraprofessional because they cannot step away because they have family responsibilities.

And so any way that we can continue to look at in the state of Louisiana to really remove those barriers, give school districts more autonomy in figuring out how to support individuals to become certified teachers is something that is going to be very welcome.

So obviously all students are affected by the teacher shortage, but are there any students in particular that are most affected by it?

Absolutely, Leigh.

We talked about our special education students, as well as some of our most impoverished students.

And so students who are on free or reduced lunch and sometimes you have a school that's 100% of students in poverty.

Those are the always have been our schools that are the hardest to staff.

And so if you are looking at a critical shortage, this these particular schools have already been hard to staff especially education and some other content areas are hard to staff.

It just makes it even that much worse for those young people and think about their future and what is going to the impact is going to have on their future as well.

And Ms.. Wong, you work with these students.

What do you have to say?

You know, I think when it comes to special education, I absolutely agree that it is absolutely impacted.

But for really, I'd say two very unique reasons.

One is that there's more people involved that require advanced degrees and certification.

It's not just a special education teacher, but you need speech pathologist, occupational therapists, school psychologists, all of these professions are harder to make it through the programs.

It's more time consuming, but they're necessary and they're required for the full services to students.

The other thing I think that really challenges the special education shortage of of providers is that unfortunately, a lot of times in schools, special is operating in a silo.

Teachers in these places don't always feel like they're part of larger school communities.

You often see general education teachers feeling like a special education.

Classroom is a place where they can send students who might have struggles, learning or have struggles with behavior.

And the sort of perpetuate the separation and that sort of not being really immersed in the school community, coupled with the added layer of compliance that comes from the federal and state regulations around special education, it sort of amplifies the responsibilities and makes it very difficult to people for people to come in and once they're there, to stay in that that situation.

Right.

And not many people may know everything that goes into teaching these students.

And for you, I mean, the education seems to be changing a lot today, a lot more than it ever have in the past.

So with a shift from public to charter schools and learning pods, what do you all think the future of education will look like?

Even when you mentioned, like, learning pods, for example?

What it says to me is that we're on our way of choice for all, which will, in my mind, eventually see a day where, when we look at funding for public education here in Louisiana, for every single family that has a child, here's your money for your child.

Decide on what you want to do with it, to educate them and which is really, really concerning to me because, again, as we just talked about, our most vulnerable population, those are the students who are really going to suffer based on the things that I see that are happening in our state at this time.

And you guys are really you know, you're there.

You see this up close.

What is the future of education look like if this trend in the teaching workforce continues?

I honestly believe that if this trend continues and there will be more virtual classes and which is not always great because like our kids need one on one, like firsthand experience in the classrooms.

And like when COVID happened and how all of the kids were virtual or hybrid or things like that.

If the trend continues and we keep losing these teachers, they will basically.

I think, to give kids like an option of, do you want to come to school?

Do you not want to come to school?

Which I don't think is very great because we need to be in the classroom and we need our teachers teaching our kids in a classroom, one on one face to face.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

And I think, you know, the unfortunate reality is if this trend continues, we're going to continue to see the same things.

We're going to continue to see very large class sizes.

We're going to continue to see students in classrooms with multiple teachers throughout the year or long term subs.

And we're going to continue to see students over and over again not getting access to the curriculum and the skills and the things that they need to be successful.

And I think we really need to start thinking about this as not a new problem or a new challenge, but a new opportunity to think about what we're doing every day and how we're we're really challenging the structures and new opportunity to think about what we're providing in classrooms every day.

And what about you got anything to add?

Just really echoing the things that have been shared.

And again, we need to just make sure that as education continues, in my mind, to become politicized, that as a community, our voices are heard to make sure that the students who are attending schools in Louisiana, and especially porters of students, that their education is a priority, remains a priority as things continue to change in the future.

Well, Dr. Pixley has some ideas of what she'd like to see in teaching.

So here's what she said.

All too often, teachers, when we go out and teach, we're in our classroom.

Even though you think that you have all of these students around you that, you know, you're always you know, you're you're with other people, but you're not with your peers.

You're not with your colleagues, per se.

And and one of the things I think that we lose teachers is that they feel like they're all on their own.

And I would really like to see schools, school systems really trying to bring those opportunities where teachers are supported, not just within their profession, just just also, you know, mentally, just like I am struggling here, I need some help.

And again, I think COVID really highlighted that where we need to we really need to be supporting each other.

Being undervalued, underappreciated and under supported.

That's been a trend throughout this entire panel.

I mean, what do you think teachers need to feel like?

They're valued and feel like they're supported in this field?

I would say just to be heard, like the main thing is to just be heard, just to be respected.

And like, if someone will come in and just sit in your classroom for a day, like sit in their shoes and see how much is behind the scenes of what goes on.

All the planning that needs to be done, all the work that we take home to try to give the kids the best education that they can get.

I feel like just the support, as I say, support is needed.

You know, when you think of her as early as well with the other panelists around individuals who were once teachers and principals.

Right.

And seem as though they may have forgotten that when they came from the classroom.

And even in my course at LSU right now, leadership for learning.

I'm teaching aspiring principals how to lead teachers.

And so we need to make sure that teachers who are in the classroom are supported by their principals and administrative team and teach those individuals who are in that role what that looks like, what it sounds like and what it's not.

Because I think for many of those individuals, they are leaving schools because of their administrators.

Right.

So give me some more support to those people who are leading school to make sure that they can actually corral their staff and keep those individuals in the classroom.

Right.

Yeah.

So really just, you know, management and everything, all of those teachers where they are making them feel like they're part of the team.

Yes.

And what about you?

I would I'd say all the weight is on Dr. Lewis, his shoulders.

I think the most powerful thing for a teacher is a strong leader in their building, someone who has their back every day, all day, understands what they're doing and is there with them side by side in the trenches and really builds that sense of community that brings everyone together in service of kids.

Thank you so much.

This has been a really enlightening and a really important conversation that a lot of people would be interested in hearing about.

And we also want to thank Mr. Irwin, Mr. Benoit, Ms.. Allen, Ms.. Stewart, Ms.. Montgomery, Dr. Lewis and also Ms.. Wong for sharing their knowledge of these issues.

So what do you, our viewers, think?

We encourage you to comment on tonight's show by visiting Lpv Dawgs, Louisiana Spotlight and clicking on the Join the Conversation link.

We'd love to hear from you and thanks again for watching and goodnight.

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