Schools statewide see increase in teacher vacancies

740 positions unfilled, more than a third in special education, study finds

The number of vacant positions in New Mexico’s public schools has increased significantly this year to nearly 1,200, a new report says, including 740 unfilled teaching jobs.

More than a third of those open teaching positions — 267 — are in special-education classrooms.

The report, issued this month by New Mexico State University’s College of Education, said the educator shortage likely means long-term substitute teachers are leading hundreds of classrooms and that student-teacher ratios are growing in many schools.

In addition to the hundreds of open teaching jobs, there are 430 vacancies for other school positions, such as librarians, nurses, counselors, social workers, and math and literacy coaches, bringing the total number of vacancies to 1,173.

That compares with 831 vacancies last year, including 476 teaching positions, the study says.

“This report continues to show the crisis that we are in, not only in not finding teaching personnel, but the educational support personnel for our children,” said Stan Rounds, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition of Educational Leaders.

Lida Alikhani, a spokeswoman for the state Public Education Department, sent an unrelated statement from the department’s director of educator quality, Chris Eide, saying student achievement and teacher pay have increased in the state, and that “more New Mexico teachers are staying in our classrooms than their national counterparts.”

The NMSU report cites a steep decline in enrollment in educator preparation programs in the last few years, which is lowering the potential pool for newly trained teachers. NMSU, for instance, saw a 42 percent drop in the number of students completing such programs from 2010-17.

The state data mirror a national trend

highlighted in an August report from the American Association of Colleges for Teaching Educators, which said the number of people enrolling in teacher prep programs dropped by 23 percent from the 2007-08 school year to 2015-16.

“People are finding teaching less and less attractive as a profession,” said Karen Trujillo, director of the NMSU Alliance for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning.

Some of the reasons, said Trujillo, one of the authors of the report, are low pay and more stringent teacher evaluation programs.

The report cites efforts to address the problem, including recruitment of teachers from other countries — some 200 foreign teachers are working in the state this year — and district-run initiatives to help instructional assistants earn a college degree to transition into the classroom as teachers.

The state Public Education Department has started a Troops to Teachers program to give incentives to retired military personnel who pursue careers in education, and invested $450,000 to support the recruitment and retention of “high potential” students for educator preparation programs around the state.

Given that a new governor will take office in January and the Legislature will convene for a 60-day session shortly after, Trujillo said it’s a good time for those parties as well as state superintendents and the deans of colleges and universities with educator preparation programs to get together to address the problem.

Stephanie Ly, president of the American Federation of Teachers, agreed.

“Unless there is a drastic change in approach to educator respect, recruitment and retention by the next administration, we fear vacancies will continue to rise and another generation will opt out of pursuing education as a meaningful profession,” she said.

The NMSU study did not break down the vacancy rate by each of the state’s 89 districts.

Jeff Gephart, a spokesman for Santa Fe Public Schools, said the district now has 28 teacher vacancies, two administrator vacancies and 11 open positions for educational assistants.