DETROIT (WXYZ) — As we head into the school year, there is a major problem looming. That's the teacher shortage.
Carolyn Clifford is out in the community today for our back-to-school coverage and she's looking for solutions that may be on the horizon.
On any given day there are 100,000 people teaching in Michigan Public Schools.
But that number is not enough to keep up with the critical teacher shortage the state of Michigan is facing in all districts and the pandemic only made matters worse and created a perfect storm.
However, we do want to highlight a bright spot in the city of Detroit. For the first time in years, DPSCD will begin the school year fully staffed. When Superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti first took over, the prospect of that was daunting.
“We had anywhere from 400- 500 teacher vacancies, that's a strategic," said Dr. Nikolai Vitti, “Every year, commitment to improve.”
“What we've been able to do is one get aggressive on salaries, top dollar,” added Vitti.
“Being intentional about pipeline development DPSCD alternative teacher education provider, to be certified,” said Vitti.