There are over 5,500 teacher vacancies in Pennsylvania… and significantly less teachers getting certified compared to the past.

“10 years ago Pennsylvania certified about 20,000 teachers a year. Last year, Pennsylvania certified 5,600 teachers,” Governor Josh Shapiro said at a press conference this week.

Not all districts have a vacancy. But the teacher workforce shortage adds new pressures to districts, even if schools can fill their spots. For example, Shane Murray, Superintendent for Iroquois School District says when teachers take family or medical leave—

“To find somebody that certified to step in and fill those holes, that's next to impossible,” Murray said.

Murray also says the school sees higher turnover rates, as with so much demand, teachers can get recruited to higher paying districts.

“[You] Hire a new young teacher. They grow into being a very good teacher leader and then they get taken from you,” Murray said. "And so you're always replacing your teachers in that mid-level that are just getting their feet underneath him.”

This leaves financially-strapped districts with the task of training up new professionals… but rarely benefiting from the stability of veteran teachers.

Geography can also have an impact. Wellsboro School District, in the rural northern tier, said they are lucky to get 3-4 applications on each of their job listings. They have at minimum 6 teachers retiring that they will have to fill positions for in the 25/26 school year.

When only 3-4 people apply for a position, schools can be forced into “not thrilling” hiring decisions, as one school worker described it.

More schools are also using emergency permits to fill vacancies. Pennsylvania Department of Education has adapted programs to offer more paths to certification that include working while learning material.

“It paved the way for individuals who are maybe more nontraditional,” Dr. Joseph Jablonski said, human resources director for Millcreek Township School District.

Many of these non-traditional paths to certification target positions that require more specialization— like special education or STEM teachers. These are positions that even well equipped schools can struggle to fill.

“Where we have, you know, 44 [applications] for second grade, we might have four [applications] for, you know, tech ed,” Jablonski said.

Other than continued certification reevaluation from the Education Department, Pennsylvania’s General Assembly is considering expansion of the wildly popular student teacher stipend program.

“Students would take out a loan while they were student teaching, or they'd have to dip into their savings,” Shapiro said. "So we put together this teacher stipend initiative which has helped 2,240 student teachers all across Pennsylvania.”

Well over 4,000 students applied for the stipend last year. The application for this year also just opened up, with thousands of applications pouring in as of Thursday.

Shapiro has proposed expanding the program from $20 million in funding to $40 million, which would at least cover over 3,000 student teachers.