BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – With dozens of open educator positions, some in the field are planning how to keep recent education graduates working in the state.
Data from the US Department of Education shows Vermont has the second lowest recovery rate in the country when it comes to returning to pre-pandemic staffing levels.
A little under 200 Vermont graduates earned their teaching license between 2022 and 2023 – a steep drop compared to the 500 in 2016-2017.
“As much as we really appreciate, you know, literally thousands – probably over 1,000 – people the last couple of years that have stepped up through provisional and emergency licenses. We are concerned about the level of preparation. So there is certainly a need to bolster, more enrollment and educational prep. programs, but we also need to support things like registered apprenticeship programs,” said John Castle of Vermont Rural Education Collaborative.
Castle says rural operations see lower applicant pools – but notes oftentimes, educators end up working within a twenty-mile radius of where they grew up.
“Recruitment efforts that are at home, I think are really important. So encouraging young people to pursue a career education,” he said.
Castle says more and more people are entering the field through non-traditional pathways – as shown by 144 emergency licenses issued since June.
VREC is developing an apprenticeship program that would help students earn their degrees and licenses while learning the field.
Castle said, “They would be an individual who already has their bachelor’s, but they’d be able to work on a master’s have that paid for, and we think that’s a very attractive pathway.”
On the education side of employment, UVM’s Patrick Halladay says they have roughly 150 students graduate a year from their education prep program, a third of which stay in-state immediately following graduating.
UVM, along with state officials and field experts like Castle, are collaborating on a job fair next month for incoming graduates and currently employed educators to scope out what else is available in the state.
“By creating this opportunity, maybe we can get more folks who are thinking about going to Massachusetts or Connecticut or Colorado or wherever to stay in Vermont because they have an opportunity,” said Halladay.
Halladay says historically, recent grads would work as paraeducators because full-time positions would be filled. Now, there are jobs of all levels available.
He said, “We have an older population in Vermont, so you know that there are fewer younger people coming in to take those jobs that might have previously existed. But schools have had a lot of challenges from COVID as well.”
Halladay says there is hope on the horizon. A recently implemented teacher loan forgiveness program incentivizes people to work in Vermont, where loans are paid every year you work in the state.
The educator job fair is at Middlebury Union High School on March 22.