The leader of SUNY is projecting a high need of new teachers in the next ten years. WBFO's senior reporter Eileen Buckley has more on remarks made by SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher.
“SUNY graduates about 5,000 teachers a year. It is largest, professional program,” stated Chancellor Zimpher.
Zimpher made her remarks as she met with down with New York State School Boards Association Executive Director Timothy Kremer for a recording of the association's program called https://youtu.be/w2yd8BV-dqQ">Newsmakers. That's when Zimpher made a bold statement about the teacher shortages.
Zimpher said the teacher shortage is finally catching up with the state.
“And we may need – maybe as many as 180,000 new teachers in the next ten years. We are looking at the way we partner with your schools. Do we have the time and the supervision for our student teachers that we need and importantly, do we have the teachers we need,” stated Zimpher.
New York has lost more than 26,000 teachers since the 2008-09 school year, according to the State Education Department. There has been no increase in the total number of classroom teachers since that same school year.
"We are having teacher shortages already, not just universal, but by region and by discipline. So, we need more second language teachers. We need more special ed teachers. We need more STEM teachers. We've known this, but it is finally catching up with us," Zimpher remarked.
Audio in this story is courtesy of NYSSBA News.
