UMD Staff and Students Respond to Teacher Shortage

DULUTH, Minn.– “It is very important to invest in teachers,” Education Department Head at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Eric Torres, said. “Teacher deserve respect. Teachers deserve to be treated with dignity because the work that they do is hard and needs to be recognized and paid accordingly.”

The national teacher shortage was addressed on Wednesday by first lady Jill Biden along side the Biden Administration, and Education, and business leaders.

A decision that lead to the White House partnering with several job search firms, like ZipRecruiter, to help school districts hire more teachers. As well as expanding funding from last year’s American Rescue Plan to push states to consider raising teachers salaries

“For a long time now it has been very important to explain to all our teacher candidates that the job that they do is important and that it is not easy. Actually it is very hard,” Torres said.

Education leaders at the University of Minnesota-Duluth see the new efforts made by Biden as a chance to give future teachers the ability to stay in the profession long term. Overall making the job more attractive to students at UMD.

Current educators hope this will get education majors at UMD excited to not sit in the classroom, but to stand in front of it.

“It’s not exactly the most sought after job opportunity for a lot of people,” UMD student studying education, Kevin Jaap, said. “The pay has never been that good and the hours have always been super high, but with this new bill it seems like we might be going in the right direction.”

By raising wages and more hiring opportunities in the northland, there is hope that local classrooms will no longer feel the effects of this shortage.

“That is a very good first step in the right direction,” Torres said. “The actions to strengthen the teacher profession. If we do not invest in quality education then that formative process is not going to be completed as best as it should be.”