ROCK HILL, S.C. — Next month, students in North and South Carolina are returning to school but across the country, schools are facing a shortage of teachers.
"I can tell you that nationally, there is concern about the amount of teachers that are even available," Lindsay Machak, spokesperson for the Rock Hill School District, said.
To combat shortages, the Rock Hill School District is hosting a job fair on Thursday, July 14, to fill about 150 different openings within the district, including teachers, bus drivers, food services staff, and others.
The job fair will be held at Clinton College at 1029 Crawford Road in Rock Hill.
To recruit more people, it’s also increasing pay for teachers and bus drivers. All teachers in the district will receive a pay increase of $2,279 a year, and starting pay for bus drivers will go up to $17.50.
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“I think it's critically important right now because teaching has been a tough job to be in, especially in the last two years," Machak said. "COVID did not make it easier on anyone who was involved in the school system. And, you know, our educators really just rose to the challenge.”
Districts are doing what they can to recruit as data shows fewer people are graduating with teaching degrees.
According to the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the number of undergraduate education degrees awarded every year peaked in the 1970s at 200,000.
By 2018-19, the number had dropped to 90,000.
“The biggest drops, however, have been in the last two years with COVID," Beth Costner, Dean at Winthrop University’s College of Education, said. "I think it’s compounding the issue where you have teachers leaving the profession at a higher rate and you have fewer people coming into the profession – at least at a traditional age.”
Costner said she wants people to know the state has programs that will help pay for prospective teachers to go to college, and districts are trying to offer bonuses and higher salaries to get more people to apply.
“I’m worried about our future," Costner said.
Contact Indira Eskieva at ieskieva@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.