Quantifying an "alarming" teacher shortage

Two-thirds of U.S. public school superintendents say overall vacancies — including teachers and non-instructional staffers — are higher this year than last, a survey by AASA, The School Superintendents Association, found.

About 15% report a lot more openings, saying vacancy rates are 11%-30% higher than last year.

And 85% of superintendents in the AASA survey say they don't have enough applicants.

Why it matters: COVID-19 has accelerated a relentless national teacher shortage that has school districts taking desperate measures to fill classrooms even as students play catch-up from pandemic-era learning deficits.

Des Moines is offering $50,000 pay incentives to teachers; states like Florida and Arizona are waiving degree and experience requirements.

The big picture: A slow leak of teachers from the nation's public schools was starting to reach crisis proportions before the pandemic, and COVID-19 made things worse.

A seminal 2019 report by the Economic Policy Institute called the teacher shortage "real, large and growing, and worse than we thought." It found that high-poverty schools suffer the most from the shortage of credentialed teachers.