SAN FRANCISCO—California is facing a teacher shortage, in lieu of the depression of educators, San Francisco Unified School District will need to fill 500 open positions for the start of the 2015-2016 school year. Board members are fearful that they will not be able to fill that quota and will be short again as they were the previous year, falling short of the 440 teachers they needed for 2014-2015 school year.
The number of open teaching positions to fill are due to retirements and a lack of new graduates entering the public education arena.
Last year, San Francisco hired 15Teach for America Interns: the program entailing the job placement of college graduates without credentials into low-income areas for a two-year duration.
To solve the shortage, Superintendent Richard Carranza proposed an implementation of 24 Teach for America Interns this year. A divided school board took two weeks of debate before making a decision. Opponents of this program discourage hiring people without proper credentials and are concerned of the instability of Teach for America Interns being on a time sensitive contract.
