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October 29, 2024
LANSING – Michigan’s successful efforts to address the teacher shortage were highlighted today during a U.S. Department of Education event.
State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice shared Michigan’s significant progress during the Supporting State Action to Advance the Education Professions event.
“Each year, in the school life of a child, nothing is more important than the quality and caring of the teacher before the child, in the classroom, each day,” said State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice. “Our efforts to address the teacher shortage, in Michigan and across the country, are efforts not simply to restrengthen the teaching profession but to restrengthen the education of our children.”
Goal 7 of Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan, approved by the State Board of Education in August 2020, is to increase the numbers of certified teachers in areas of shortage.
The event was held in Washington, D.C., at the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Rice presented virtually and shared the many aspects of Michigan’s work to address the teacher pipeline, with an emphasis on the state’s Grow Your Own initiatives. The event included remarks by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. Dr. Rice noted, “We appreciate the U.S. Department of Education’s support and convening of states doing noteworthy work to improve teacher recruitment, diversity, preparation, quality, mentoring, and retention and appreciate Michigan’s opportunity to contribute to and learn from this work.”
Michigan is addressing the teacher shortage, a national challenge, through a wide range of efforts, including Grow Your Own initiatives for support staff and students who aspire to become teachers.
Teacher preparation program enrollment in Michigan declined from 23,203 in 2011-12 to 9,512 in 2016-17, a 59 percent decline, but rebounded to 16,260 in 2022-23, a 71 percent increase from 2016.
The U.S. Department of Education selected Michigan to present because of Michigan’s strong and growing work in support of the teaching profession. Michigan was one of three states to present during a session on high-quality and affordable pathways to the teaching profession, along with New Mexico and Tennessee. Maryland and Nevada presented on increasing teacher compensation, while Massachusetts, Colorado, and Illinois presented on increasing teacher diversity.
The state’s efforts to address the teacher shortage and encourage more people to pursue a teaching career in Michigan include, but are not limited to, scholarships to future educators; stipends for student teachers; student loan repayments; Future Proud Michigan Educator EXPLORE grants; the Future Proud Michigan Educator LAUNCH program; Grow Your Own grant programs; Talent Together; expedited reciprocity for teachers and counselors certified in other states; a rural credentialing hub; and tuition reimbursement for special education teachers.
In fiscal year 2020 and earlier, Michigan’s state school aid act included no funding to address the teacher shortage. Since then, funding to address the educator shortage increased to $575 million in fiscal year 2023, $448 million in fiscal year 2024, and $140 million in fiscal year 2025.
Significant investments to address the teacher shortage and the outstanding fiscal years 2023 and 2024 state school aid act budgets for local schools came after more than two decades of underfunding of Michigan public schools, an underfunding that helped create the shortage that Michigan’s school, political, and community leaders are now working to address. From 1995 to 2015, Michigan’s total revenue growth, inflation adjusted, was the lowest in the nation, according to a 2019 Michigan State University study led by Dr. David Arsen. During the same period, Michigan’s per pupil revenue growth, inflation adjusted, was the third lowest in the nation.
In addition to the U.S. Department of Education, other sponsors of today’s conference were Teach.Org and The Hunt Institute.
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