White House Partnering With ZipRecruiter To Combat Nationwide Teacher Shortages
The White House is partnering with job search companies like ZipRecruiter to combat America's teacher shortage.
All across the United States, school districts, parents, neighbors, and the media discuss the American teacher shortage. As a new school year begins, districts everywhere are reporting a large amount of teacher and supporting staff vacancies. Even the White House has taken significant notice of this growing issue, and now they are partnering with well-known job search companies to help schools recruit employees.
The Biden Administration announced an initiative teaming up with well-known job marketplace companies like ZipRecruiter and Indeed to bolster the teaching profession and help both public and private schools fill vacant positions. The plan will allow these job search engines to create specific portals schools and employment-seeking individuals can utilize to fill positions. Additionally, the White House and the Department of Education laid out the groundwork for a plan to boost teacher pay in hopes to combat the growing stigma surrounding the profession that has increased the teacher shortage.
ZipRecruiter launched an exclusive online job portal just for schools. It allows teachers, nurses, guidance counselors, social workers, and more to search for openings near them specific to their interests. Additionally, the company is allowing schools to post their open positions at no cost. It even comes equipped with best practices for both schools and individuals to help combat the teacher shortage.
Indeed is establishing virtual job hiring fairs for schools throughout the nation. Also free for schools to take advantage of, districts can utilize the company’s hiring tools that make the search process run smoothly. Handshake is also helping in the teacher shortage effort. The company aids college grads in searching for jobs in their field. This October, they will host a free virtual event for undergrads interested in the education field. What’s more, they will also make available a list of schools looking for college students and recent graduates.
On top of partnering with these businesses, Education and Labor departments are urging states to use any available funds from the American Rescue Plan to increase pay to combat the teacher shortage. Across the United States, states received billions of federal COVID relief funds to distribute to public schools. Originally, they were to be used to ramp up school safety infrastructure and learning during the pandemic. Now, the federal government is encouraging these funds to be allocated to salaries as the mass exodus from the profession wreaks havoc in schools.
Now that the federal government is stepping in, many are hopeful that these new efforts will alleviate issues in the massive teacher shortage across America. However, some remain skeptical that these endeavors will be able to address the issues driving individuals away from the profession. Raising educator and supporting staff’s salaries are likely to help. But as for extensive tools to recruit potentials, the outlook is bleak. In a growing fashion, fewer Americans want to be involved with the teaching profession. In fact, there are one-third less people enrolling in teacher programs today than there were a decade ago.
Teachers are leaving the profession they sought out for one reason or another. With the issue getting worse each school year, the government can no longer ignore this growing issue. Whether or not this new partnering initiative will make a dent in the teacher shortage, however, is yet to be seen.
