Just ten years ago, when Stan Maziejka was a superintendent in Saratoga County, he says they almost under-advertised open jobs.
"We didn't want to have to sift through 1000 applications," he said. "So it was easier just to put an ad in the paper or on the website and deal with 100 or 200 applications."
These days, he says they’d be grateful for 10 applications.
This is a nationwide problem. According to a recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics, 86% of public schools report that they are still struggling to hire educators.
And they've been struggling with staffing since the fall of 2020, because of COVID-era retirements, and fewer new teachers entering the field.
That means everyone is fighting for a smaller pool, and inevitably luring teachers away from other districts.
"Unfortunately, it turns into a bidding war," said Maziejka. "You know, if I have a math opening, and two other districts have a math opening, that person's probably going to go where they can make the most money."
That’s driving starting teacher salaries up across the North Country.
But often, districts are competing with a suburban or urban district outside Northern New York. In that case, Maziejka says the richer district almost always wins. "Not all districts are alike. Some districts have greater capacity to pay higher wages than other districts."
That tracks with what the Education Statistics survey found, which is that overall, poorer, rural districts are having a harder time with hiring.
Most North Country Districts fall into that camp.
A Los Angeles Times story about teacher shortages in rural California is here.
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