GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — School administrators across Michigan are preparing their budgets for the next school year with hopes of securing additional funding for teachers as the state continues to address an ongoing teacher shortage.
A recent report from Michigan State University shows there has been a boost in the overall supply of teachers, but schools still face challenges finding educators who match their specific needs.
"We found that there are fewer and fewer people going into teaching, and we're trying to do more and more to bring more teachers to West Michigan and also to the state of Michigan in general," said Dr. Steve Matthews, Rockford Public Schools.
Watch: Budgeting for next school year, schools hope state provides more funding for teachers
Matthews noted that certain teaching positions remain more difficult to fill than others.
"Some of the more focused areas, math and science, are more difficult to recruit, and one of the reasons is that they can find jobs that pay much better than teaching with a math or science degree," Matthews said.
State grants aimed at retaining teachers and encouraging more to join the field have been awarded to both Rockford Public Schools and a Grand Rapids nonprofit called K-Connect. These grants provide assistance with housing, relocation, job placement support, childcare, and mental health services.
"We are trying to increase the number of educators in various fields in west Michigan, and so our teachers here pilot aims to recruit and retain talent by way of a $200,000 grant that we were granted through the MEDC, we're hoping the majority of that goes towards teachers themselves," said Salvador Lopez, President & CEO of K-Connect.
Michigan lawmakers are currently working on education budgets for next year, with the House, Senate, and Governor's office all proposing to raise the per-pupil funding above $10,000, which would give schools more money to invest in teachers.
"My hope is that we continue to look at budgets in a way that we invest in educators, that we invest in students and therefore we're investing in our future," Lopez said.
While advocates and educators acknowledge that conditions aren't yet where they would like them to be, they note significant progress over the past few years and express optimism for the future.
"There's a lot of hope in education that's what education is built on. We believe our schools are a vital part of the community and can really make a difference and so they need to be funded so they can continue to make a difference," Matthews said.
State lawmakers aim to have the budget finalized by July 1, though the process could take longer. The next fiscal year's budget will go into effect October 1.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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