Idaho school superintendent addresses teacher shortage
MADISON COUNTY, Idaho (KIFI) - Idaho's new superintendent of public instruction, Debbie Critchfield, made a stop in Madison County ahead of the new school year. We caught up with her to ask about the teacher shortage facing Idaho and the rest of the nation.
"We really have more of a distribution problem than we have a supply chain issue," Critchfield said. "Our teachers graduate from our colleges and universities around Idaho, many times they stay in those same neighborhoods or don't go much further away. Particularly in Eastern Idaho, we see students that are graduating from Brigham Young University here that go back to a home state."
She said it's become more difficult to provide quality educators to the more rural part of the state, especially in the border communities where many Idahoans prefer to commute to a school in Oregon or Washington for higher pay.
One of the way's they've combated the issue is with more competitive salaries.
"We've seen a lot of investments coming from our legislature the last couple of years," Critchfield said. "In fact, the legislative representation from over in this part of the state (Eastern Idaho) is who brought forward many of the programs that we have that are able to help districts provide better insurance for their teachers."
The superintendent believes the pay increase shows Idahoans are putting more value on education.
She said the increase as well as the introduction of Idaho's recently adopted teacher apprenticeship programs will go a long way towards keeping quality educators in Idaho schools.
"I think that it is going to be one of those motivating factors that will help satisfy some of those distribution issues that we have so that we can get our teachers into the more rural and remote parts of our state," Critchfield said. "It allows them the opportunity to go and have a professional experience in a place they might not have chosen because they're able to financially support some other needs."
