Commentary: How early care apprenticeships can help address California’s dire teacher shortage

California is in the midst of a decade-long and ever-present teacher shortage crisis.

Since 2016, the state has invested $1.2 billion to address the issue, and while this infusion of resources seemed to help make a difference initially, there has been a 33% decline in teachers — over 5,300 total — since the 2020-21 school year. The continued expansion of transitional kindergarten is also adding a tidal wave of more than 11,000 credentialed teachers needed to staff those classrooms.

Translation: The teacher shortage crisis is about to hit a breaking point.

Fortunately, an answer to this need for a teacher pipeline is hidden in plain sight: All we have to do is look at, and learn from, the so-called early care and education system. A proven option to address the teacher shortage, and a new option from the existing pathways to teaching that exist in California, is apprenticeship.

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