New Jersey Districts Still Face Teacher Shortages as New School Year Begins

This article was originally published in New Jersey Monitor.

When New Jersey students head back to classrooms this week, many will return to schools with too few teachers.

The state has for years faced a shortage of educators , with particularly troubling vacancies in subjects like math, science, special education, and instruction for English language learners. And those vacancies persist despite legislators’ efforts to smooth the teacher pipeline and steer more students toward careers in education.

Sean Spiller, president of the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, said schools are seeing the impact of the shortages.

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“We’re seeing class sizes increase. We’re seeing courses not being offered, and we’re seeing that the educators who are still remaining in the profession are being overburdened in terms of how to pick up some of the work because of unfilled classrooms. It’s a big concern,” Spiller said.

The exact degree of the shortages remains unknown despite recent efforts to quantify New Jersey’s educator workforce, but the number of would-be teachers has fallen precipitously over the last decade.

New Jersey’s teacher workforce has remained stable over the last decade at roughly 118,000 educators, according to a February report drafted by Rutgers University’s John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development.

Researchers examined 11 years worth of data and found that for every teacher that left the profession in the 2022-2023 school year, the state issued just 1.1 provisional teaching certificates, compared to 2.9 certifications in the 2013-2014 school year. Less than a quarter of those pursuing education degrees in the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years eventually became teachers, and only 43% earned a degree in education, the study says.

The study warns that a ratio approaching one departure for one new teacher could quickly lead to more severe shortages because at least 10% of teachers leave the profession within their first three years.

Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark) is a former education chair who has remained active in the space following her ascent through the ranks of leadership (she’s the Senate’s majority leader). Ruiz said the state should do away with its residency requirement for teachers, at least while the shortages remain dire.

“No one under any circumstance is saying ‘not New Jersey first,’” she said. “We always want to be New Jersey first, but when there isn’t enough New Jersey, as policymakers, administrators, and government entities, we should be responsible enough to say we need human capital in these spaces. Our students deserve better.”

Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth), the current education chairman, agreed lifting the residency restriction would help bridge schools’ staffing gaps.

The Senate in May approved a bill that would suspend the residency requirement for three years in a unanimous vote, but the measure has not advanced in the Assembly, where it has the backing of Assemblywoman Pam Lampitt, the lower chamber’s education chairwoman. A similar bill failed to pass in the last legislative session.

Gopal said he was considering legilsation to boost teacher compensation but said the legislation is still in very early stages.

A separate bill that would rework the state’s funding formula is expected to be introduced in mid-September, but Gopal cautioned that bill would likely see significant changes as it moves through committees to floor votes.

A reworked formula should include provisions to extend school budget timelines to prevent last-minute staff cuts and allow districts to better plan their budgets, Ruiz said.

Rolling back a Christie-era policy that doubled the state’s student teaching requirement from a semester to a full school year could also boost the state’s educator workforce, Spiller said.

“We had the best schools in the nation before. We have the best schools now. Why did we double the length of time? That is something that we could bring back in line to what it was before and not cost any money,” he said.

Policymakers said the state must also address teacher departures to stabilize the workforce. The Heldrich Center’s report found that while departures remained roughly level save for spikes during the pandemic, the share of teachers who left of their own accord — and not for budgetary reasons — has spiked over the 11-year period.

Gopal pointed to the increased politicization as schools, noting workforce trends had reversed somewhat after Republican attacks over school gender policy and library collections ebbed.

Gov. Chris Christie’s administration, which spurred school cuts amid the Great Recession and warred with teachers unions over health benefits and pensions, also slimmed the teaching candidate pool, Spiller said.

“From the vitriol that we heard before to the fundamental changes to the systems that we see financially now, that has led to less people engaging in the process to become a teacher, and certainly less people choosing to continue moving forward to become an actual teacher,” he said.

New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com . Follow New Jersey Monitor on Facebook and X .