LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Claims of teacher shortages in Michigan have been going on for more than 100 years.

Teacher shortage claims.

The most recent was Feb. 13 in the Lansing State Journal that had the headline, “Even as Michigan graduated record number of new K-12 teachers, shortages persist”.

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The article stated, “Post-pandemic, more teachers are leaving their districts or the profession than anytime in the last decade, according to a report released last month from the Michigan State University Education Policy Innovation Collaborative.”

The article doesn’t cite data on the number of overall teaching jobs over the past five years to support the claim of a shortage.

There are more teachers and fewer students in the state’s public schools since the pandemic began, according to data provided by the Michigan Department of Education.

The number of public school teachers, as defined by the Michigan Department of Education, has increased from 97,304 in 2019-20 to 100,585 in 2023-24.The number of public school students had dropped from 2019-20 to 2023-24, going from 1,499,522 students to 1,429,895.

More teachers, fewer students.

The same trend happened at the Lansing public school district, which was profiled in the Lansing State Journal article.

Lansing’s teaching stock has increased from 732 full-time positions in 2019-20 to 741 full-time teaching jobs. Over that same time span, Lansing enrollment dropped from 10,661 in 2019-20 to 10,229 in 2023-24.

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That doesn’t mean school districts don’t have trouble filling certain teaching positions. Historically, according to state reports, special education positions and positions that require a specialized skill, such as foreign languages or advanced science classes, have had shortages of applicants.