DC Area Schools Struggling to Find Teachers

The Washington Post takes a none-too-subtle jab at NCLB today by saying that the annual scramble to find teachers for local schools system lies more at the feet of the law, rather than the simple over-arching need to find highly qualified teachers.

A little-noticed provision of the federal No Child Left Behind law is raising the stakes this recruiting season for school officials seeking credentialed teachers. By the end of the coming school year, the law requires "highly qualified" teachers in all core academic classes.

Highly qualified teachers is of course always a difficult search because, as with any profession in demand, there is a finite number of such individuals. However, at least in my recollection, this is the fifth or sixth year the last minute search for teachers has occurred in the DC area. In other words, the story is not new. Sure, perhaps the NCLB provision adds a new spin, but in this field, the number of persons highly qualified will always be less than the positions needing to be filled.

This statistical fact therefore, begs the question. If next year all core curriculum classess must be taught by "highly qualified" teachers, what will happen next year?