Amid scrambles for teachers, some fear worse shortages ahead

By MARK SCOLFORO
Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — U.S. school administrators dealing with pandemic-driven teacher shortages are getting creative to keep their classrooms staffed. But some experts are warning there are longer-term problems with the teacher pipeline that cannot be solved with emergency substitutes, bonuses and loosened qualifications. Shortages are being felt much more widely due to absences during a pandemic that is testing educators like no other stretch of their careers, raising fears of many more leaving the profession. To address the problem, states are raising salaries, seeking more teachers outside formal training programs, and pursuing other strategies to develop more educators.