Tim Kaine: “As the skills students need to be successful in the 21st century evolve, so too must the type of instruction they…”

“As the skills students need to be successful in the 21st century evolve, so too must the type of instruction they receive. Educators must provide educational opportunities that teach to the challenging State academic standards that meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. At the start of every school year we see the same news headlines about exploding class sizes and districts facing unfillable openings. Teacher and principal shortages plague the whole country, and are worst in our rural communities, but it's a problem we can solve. In 2015-16, more than half of U.S. States reported shortages of educators in mathematics, science, career and technical education and for English learners. Further, 48 States identified special education as a shortage area in their reports to the U.S. Department of Education and half of all schools and 90% of high-poverty schools are struggling to find qualified special education teachers. If current trends continue, we would see as few as 200,000 available teacher hires each year by 2025, resulting in a gap of more than 100,000 teachers annually. Additionally, in public schools today, the majority of the student population is comprised of students of color; however, teachers of color only comprised 20% of the teacher workforce in 2015-16. African American teachers made up more than 8% of teachers in 1987, but only made up 6.7% in 2015.…”