COVINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky schools are facing a major teacher shortage as Gov. Andy Beshear said the state ranks 44th in the country for teacher pay.
“What it means is we have 11,000 teacher and educator openings across our public schools,” Beshear said.
Eddie Campbell, president of the Kentucky Education Association, said teachers are struggling because of the critical shortage.
“They’re tired, they’re exhausted, they’re stressed,” he said.
Campbell said many have had to take on additional classes or more students within their classes.
“It's increasing their workload exponentially and this has occurred year after year after year,” Campbell said. “That workload is becoming very stressful on our educators.”
Beshear continues to push his “Education First” plan to help tackle some of those issues. The plan includes a 5% raise for every educator, student loan forgiveness and universal pre-K.
“If we want to be the best, and we want to stay on top, we've got to make sure we have the best workforce development out there,” Beshear said. “And that starts in our public schools.”
There have also been local efforts to raise wages. Last year, Boone County educators received a 4 % raise, but Boone County Education Association President Kelly Read said it’s not enough for Northern Kentucky schools to compete with wages across the river.
“Cincinnati pays a significantly higher entry rate. We have a lot of teachers who we don't get to see, that they automatically go to Cincinnati,” Read said. “Or in the case of some of our more established teachers, they crossed the river for that for that better pay.”
Campbell says the shortages are so critical that it’s no longer a public school issue, but a Commonwealth issue.
“We are training the next generation, the next workforce … the next leaders of the state of Kentucky are in our classrooms right now,” he said. “We need to make sure that we're investing everything we have and now's the time to do that.”
Beshear said the General Assembly can pass the plan, despite it not being a budget year. He said there’s money available, stating Kentucky has a $2 billion budget surplus. The General Assembly will resume on Feb. 7.
