With roughly six months left in office, the Wolf administration — aiming to recruit and retain educators, build a more diverse workforce, and reduce barriers to entering the profession — has released a three-year strategic plan to address the staffing shortage in Pennsylvania schools.

The , developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through with educators across the state, includes 50 steps to address the , which the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated, and outlines diversity and professional development goals to be achieved by August 2025.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who campaigned on and staked his legacy on education reform, has increased education funding by more than $3.7 billion since he took office in 2015. The most recent state budget, by the governor earlier this month, included a .

Wolf also approved an amended , which included a three-year waiver for the basic skills assessment for education candidates. The changes also helped establish a committee to develop programs of study for high school students interested in education careers and a grant program for colleges to increase participation in the profession.

Continued investments in education and the 20-page strategic plan are part of a series of steps to ensure high-quality classroom instruction in Pennsylvania, state officials and education advocates said during a press conference in Harrisburg on Monday.

And while the Wolf administration has until January 2023 before a new governor takes over, Eric Hagarty, acting secretary of education, said he is hopeful the strategy will get the next administration “off on the right foot.”

Workforce shortage

Though he could not quantify the educator shortage — saying each district “has unique circumstances” — Hagarty said the crisis is the “most urgent” issue facing Pennsylvania schools.

He added that the implication of leaving the crisis unaddressed will result in larger class sizes and fewer program offerings.

“We are going to work with each school district to partner with them to set unique targets for whatever their unique circumstances might be,” Hagarty said about how the administration measures success.

Since 2010, Pennsylvania has seen a 66 percent decline in Instructional I teaching certificates, the state’s most basic teaching accreditation awarded to graduates who pass their certification tests, issued to in-state graduates. also reflect a 58 percent decline in certificates issued to those planning to work out-of-state.

“For the last decade, we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in people entering the field of education. Ten years ago, roughly 20,000 new teachers were entering our classrooms each year,” Hagarty said. “But last year, there were only around 6,000 who did so. To make matters worse, the rate of teachers leaving the field is also accelerating.”

In a February from the National Education Association, which represents nearly 3 million educators, 99 percent of respondents reported burnout — an occupational phenomenon caused by exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy, as defined by the — as a “serious problem.”

Fifty-five percent said they are ready to leave the profession earlier than planned.

Society falls apart without teachers, Laura Boyce, executive director of the teacher-led policy group , said.

“That’s why Pennsylvania’s educator shortage is the biggest threat facing not only our educational system but our future prosperity as a commonwealth,” she said. “If schools are engines of educational and economic opportunity, then educators are the conductors who keep the train moving forward. And at this pivotal moment in our history, the train is dangerously close to going off the tracks.”

By August 2025, the Department of Education — through enhanced partnerships and recruitment efforts — hopes to increase the number of pre-kindergarten and K-12 educator candidates enrolled in approved preparation programs from 18,000 to 21,600. The plan also aims to increase the number of candidates of color enrolled in preparation programs from 14 percent to 25 percent.

State and education officials also hope to decrease the number of school vacancies by August 2025 but have yet to set a baseline in the plan. The plan also outlines efforts to increase the number of approved educator preparation programs that set and meet admission targets based on identified statewide or local workforce needs.

According to the strategy, the Department of Education plans to work with K-12 schools, colleges, universities, and intermediate units to develop recruitment strategies to attract and retain candidates for preparation programs. State officials plan to work with the State Board of Education and the General Assembly to make necessary policy changes to program entry requirements and identify the most effective pathways into education.

Increasing diversity

Of the 7,168 teachers of color employed in Pennsylvania during the 2019-20 school year, 6,160 remained employed at the same school in the 2020-21 academic year. And 660 of the 5,039 teachers in their first year of experience last year were teachers of color, according to state data.

“Our children in Pennsylvania deserve educators who look like them, who hail from their communities, who share their experiences, and recognize the rich assets that those children bring to their schools each and every single day,” Andrea Terrero Gabbadon, a visiting assistant professor at Swarthmore College and representative, said. “And all learners benefit from educators of color.”

The plan aims to increase the percentage of educators of color entering the profession from 13 percent to 25 percent by August 2025.

Officials also propose increasing the number of educators of color who have access to mentoring and support programs; however, a baseline has yet to be established. The strategy also aims to increase retention rates among educators of color from 80 percent to 90 percent.

“This strategy marks a necessary step in the right direction for our children, our schools, and our communities,” she said.

Hagarty said the state will develop a publicly available data collection and reporting system to measure progress on meeting diversity goals. The plan also includes proposed partnerships with nonprofit organizations working to develop recruitment, training, and mentoring programs for middle and high school students from diverse backgrounds to identify and recruit future teachers.

Certification process

In recent months, school administrators and education advocates have called for reform to the certification process, specifically to create a streamlined process for certification applicants.

The Department of Education’s plan proposes establishing an average processing time for instructional applicants of 15 days — except for applicants requiring clarification or further investigation.

By August 2025, the Wolf administration hopes that at least 80 percent of applicants will rate the certification process as “highly efficient” or “effective,” aims to identify whether there is a gap between the success rates of certification applicants by race, ethnicity, or linguistic background, and decrease possible gaps.

Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators President John Ward promoted the three-year moratorium on basic skills testing, calling it “a significant hurdle to many of our students in teacher education.” He added that the assessment also created a cost barrier for some students.

The plan also proposes codifying proven certification improvements through state law, regulations, or policy guidance to ensure an efficient process.

Preparation

The Department of Education has proposed that at least 75 percent of certified preparation program graduates self-report their program as “strongly prepared” or “adequately prepared” to teach a diverse student population by August 2025.

State officials also want at least 90 percent of educator preparation programs to implement a protocol for recent graduates and their job placement sites to provide feedback on the program’s effectiveness in preparing them for core aspects of their job.

To accomplish these goals, the Department of Education suggests expanding education preparation program providers, identifying data collection and reporting processes to measure success, and conducting reviews of partnerships between programs and hiring entities.

Professional growth, development

Wanting to ensure educators have access to high-quality professional development and leadership opportunities, the Wolf administration proposes enhancing the Department of Education’s existing database “to capture a wider range of professional development providers and offerings.”

The plan proposes soliciting feedback on improving existing training opportunities and discontinuing ineffective programs. The strategy also suggests developing data collection and reporting tools to measure progress on meeting goals and improving surveys that educators submit on their professional learning experiences.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John Micek for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on and .

Beginning Friday and , the trial centers on a state funding system that relies heavily on local property taxes that plaintiffs allege provides inequitable state money to districts in areas with low property values and less personal wealth in violation of the Pennsylvania Constitution’s equal-protection provision. The current system fails to meet the commonwealth’s obligation to provide students with a “thorough and efficient system of education,” their attorneys argue.

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The six districts who are suing will ask the Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg to declare Pennsylvania’s school funding system unconstitutional and order lawmakers to create a new one that directs more money to low-wealth districts. The non-jury trial of William Penn School District, et al. v. Pennsylvania Department of Education, et al., will include as many as 50 witnesses, who will present a dizzying array of statistics on school finance and its effects on student outcomes that could extend into January. 

“This trial is really important for children throughout the commonwealth who are going to finally get the opportunity to tell the story of how they have been deprived of the opportunity for an effective education that so many students in well-funded districts in the state have the opportunity for,” Michael Churchill, an attorney with the nonprofit Public Interest Law Center, explained during a press conference Wednesday. 

In addition to the six school districts, the lawsuit filed in 2014 is being brought by four parents,  the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools and the NAACP – Pennsylvania State Conference. Plaintiffs are represented by the Public Interest Law Center, the Education Law Center-PA and the law firm O’Melveny. 

Defendants include the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the speaker of the House, the president pro tempore of the state Senate and Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat. The defense has argued that the legislature, not the courts, maintains authority over school funding. 

“The question in this case is not whether Pennsylvania’s system of public education could be better,” Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, a Republican, , adding that lawmakers regularly pass bills to improve schools. “But imperfect is not unconstitutional.”  

The case was previously dismissed by the Commonwealth Court, which agreed that school funding decisions are the responsibility of the legislature, not the judicial branch, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the case must go to trial. 

“It is a mistake to conflate legislative policymaking pursuant to a constitutional mandate with constitutional interpretation of that mandate and the minimum that it requires,” Justice David Wecht wrote in a 2017 opinion for the court majority. 

In total, plaintiff districts allege the state’s schools are being shortchanged $4.6 billion a year, said Maura McInerney, the legal director at the Education Law Center-PA. 

“Many of our witnesses will tell a common story about the impact of entrenched inequities in resources in low-wealth school districts,” she said. “That takes the form of overcrowded classrooms, antiquated science labs, nonexistent libraries and a lack of staffing in the school buildings as well as unsafe schools.”

The trial is one in a long history of similar school funding equity litigation that has found varying degrees of success. In neighboring New Jersey, in 1990 — nine years after the case was first heard in court — the Supreme Court and required lawmakers to direct more resources to low-income districts. The most recent high-profile example unfolded in Connecticut, where in 2016 lawmakers were ordered to completely reconfigure the state’s school funding system only for the Supreme Court to overturn the lower-court ruling two years later in a 4-3 split decision.

It is not the function of the courts “to create educational policy or to attempt by judicial fiat to eliminate all of the societal deficiencies that continue to frustrate the state’s educational efforts,” Connecticut’s then-Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers wrote in a 2018 opinion. 

Even in some states where courts have found education funding schemes unconstitutional, the road to resource equity has been an uphill battle. In New York, for schools to settle a legal battle that stretches back decades. In 2006, the state owed schools more money to provide students a “sound basic education,” but the 2008 recession undercut state efforts to bolster funding, which is only just now being addressed.

Meanwhile in North Carolina, on Wednesday to increase education funding by $1.7 billion. The issue stems from a 1994 funding equity lawsuit that alleged students in low-income communities weren’t offered the same educational opportunities as those in wealthier counties, claims the court agreed with three years later. More than two decades passed, however, before this week’s edict finally forced state lawmakers to come up with the money to fully satisfy the 1997 decision.

A supports the notion that increased school spending leads to better educational outcomes for students. 

In the Pennsylvania case, plaintiffs include the Johnstown School District where the middle school’s library remains locked because it lacks a librarian. In the Panther Valley School District, attorneys have blamed high teacher turnover on low pay and difficult working conditions, leaving the teachers who stay to manage increasingly large class sizes. In the Shenandoah Valley School District, a school psychologist works as an assistant principal. 

Overall, in Pennsylvania is distributed at the state level, meaning districts have to rely on local property taxes for a larger share at 43 percent. That ratio ranks the commonwealth 45th nationally, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. 

On average, Pennsylvania’s wealthiest districts spend $4,800 more per student than its poorest districts, according to the Education Law Center, and that per pupil gap grew by more than $1,000 over the last decade after factoring for inflation. 

While the state has increased education funding in recent years — and federal pandemic relief funding added an influx in new education money — the plaintiffs argue the disparities and funding levels remain unacceptable. 

Critics have maintained, however, that Pennsylvania schools are adequately resourced and the “state share” is meaningless. Jennifer Stefano, the vice president and chief strategist at the Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative think tank, that Pennsylvania ranks within the top 10 nationally for overall education funding. 

“Total spending per student is thousands of dollars above the national average, thanks to ample state funding and local funding that is far above what most local taxpayers in the rest of the country provide,” Stefano wrote. “It’s only because of this outsized local tax haul that an objectively high state funding level can be made to look small — basic fractions.” 

But McInerney held that the state average funding is misleading. Pennsylvania is home to “many high-wealth communities and children are doing well in those communities,” she said. It’s the children in low-wealth areas, disproportionately youth of color, who are struggling. Half of the state’s Black students and 40 percent of its Hispanic students attend the 20 percent of school districts with the lowest wealth. Meanwhile, higher-income communities are able to raise more for schools through local taxes because they have a richer property tax base. 

“Pennsylvania has some of the largest gaps between low-wealth and high-wealth districts of anywhere in the nation and they also have some of the greatest disparities in academic outcomes,” she said. “For example, 94 percent of students graduate in four years at our high-wealth districts whereas in poor districts, that percentage is 74 percent.”