A new report is emphasizing how the shortage of educators in Nevada appears to be impacting our schools. It touched on several issues and recommendations over how to make things better for our schools.
The Washoe Education Association said the short staffing of the education system is one of the most pressing issues in the state of Nevada. They emphasized that public education is the corner stone of our entire community, and the staffing shortage is something they've been struggling with for years.
"Overarching in Nevada, just the retention of educators on average, an educator doesn't make it past their 5th year of teaching,"Â Calen Evans, the President of the Washoe Education Association said.
But the constant recycling of staff could mean less people being interested in education as a profession.
"The number of people going into education is more of a challenge than getting teachers into the classroom,"Â Wanda Washington, the Recruiting Project Coordinator for the Washoe County School District said.
But Evans points out that one of the biggest factors to retaining staff is providing competitive wages.
"That's been even more pressing as costs of living continue to increase, so we're not going to be able to attract and retain quality educators unless they're able to live in the communities that they serve," Evans said.
Washington said they just got approved to increase wages. Several educators who had transferred out because of cost of living are now coming back.
"We also have incentive pay and you're also looking at teacher retention incentives, but having the opportunity to collaborate with different coalitions across the state is how do we make the cost of living affordable for people in education," Washington said.
Evans mentioned that we have among the largest class sizes in the country, which has a tremendous impact on learning conditions for students and working conditions for educators.
He also said Washoe County is in the bottom 5% of districts funded nationally.
"This last legislative session we did see some historic funding efforts, but those are down payments and a single session isn't going to make up for decades of under funding," he said.
Evans said the most important part of funding is making sure the money is getting into the classrooms.Â
Washington also mentioned to make this possible along with affordable living for teachers, they need to keep working with the state and legislature.Â
