All indications suggest the U.S. will soon face a massive teacher shortage. A potent combination of expected and early retirements, burnout, and waning interest in the profession among young people may leave us short by several hundred thousand teachers in the coming years. As a result, the coming teacher shortage will lead – inevitably and very soon – to school ‘brownouts.’ Schools will be forced to cope with teacher shortages in a number of ways including shortening school weeks, school days and turning to more virtual learning for students. Perhaps schools will require existing teachers to teach more subjects and/or outsource certain subjects to alternative online solutions. [ed note: is higher ed prepared to help online?]
