How We Address California’s Teacher Shortage and Create a New Pathway for Educators

California currently ranks 49th out of all states in teacher-to-student ratio, largely due to the ongoing and persistent teacher shortage in our state. The high costs of earning a teaching credential, a lack of training and support (particularly for new teachers), and burnout leading to high turnover rates have all contributed to a chronic shortage of educators across California.

This teacher shortage has understandably had a profoundly negative impact on students, as well as the implementation of critical new programs like universal transitional kindergarten, with school districts forced into making difficult decisions that are not in the best interest of students’ academic experience and success. According to a recent report from The Learning Policy Institute, teacher shortages have impacted student learning due to districts relying on a revolving door of underprepared and substitute teachers, increasing class sizes, and cutting course offerings altogether. Students of color and students from low-income backgrounds have then bore the brunt of these decisions, as teacher shortages have been most severe in schools serving more of these students. 

As further evidence of a reliance by schools on teachers with extremely limited preparation, recently updated teacher data dashboards with data from the 2023/2024 school year showed that for the third year in a row, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing issued more provisional internships and short-term staff permits. These sub-standard credentials show that educators teaching our students are increasingly underprepared. 

AB 291, authored by  Assemblymember Mike Gipson  and sponsored by Children Now, would help solve this issue. The bill would help create teacher apprenticeship programs that provide mentorship and compensation while opening up opportunities for many more qualified candidates to become teachers. In fact, this recent EdSource article pointed to expanding access to apprenticeships as one of the efforts by state lawmakers that have already contributed to an increase in the number and diversity of new teachers. 

This bill would establish the framework for credentialed educator apprenticeship programs in a few distinct ways: 

• It would provide opportunities for local education agencies (LEAs), alongside labor and community partners, to leverage state and federal funding to mitigate barriers such as the high cost of preparation, unpaid student teaching, and minimal support in the early years of teaching, as teacher apprentices would be compensated for on the job preparation and mentored throughout the program 

• It would enable LEAs, institutions of higher education, and their consortiums of labor associations and community partners to address key shortages and growth areas, such as science, math, special education, early childhood education, bilingual education, and school counseling. 

• It would direct the Commission on Teacher Credentialing and the Division of Apprenticeship Standards to partner in the dissemination, approval, and monitoring of the credentialed educator apprenticeship programs.  

AB 291 will provide a compensation and recruitment strategy that facilitates preparing candidates with a stronger foundation early in their career path. The credentialed teacher apprenticeship program can assist in recruiting a more diverse pool of candidates, provide a financial incentive to enter the profession, and offer high-quality, ongoing professional learning for candidates to help ensure they are supported, effective, and persist in the profession. 

California must be innovative and strategic to ensure our schools can recruit and retain many more teachers. We must strengthen the preparation process, provide financial incentives to enter the profession, and require professional support so our educators have the tools needed to help our students succeed. There are no “silver bullets,” but AB 291 is a step in the right direction and a foundation on which the state can build a more robust system of teacher preparation and support.