Michigan teacher workforce grows, but not fast enough

(The Center Square) – Even as record numbers of teachers enter Michigan’s workforce, it’s still not enough to address the state’s teacher shortage.

This is according to a new report conducted by the Education Policy Innovative Collaborative, which is run by Michigan State University.

While less than 3% of all districts reported vacant full-time positions in the 2024-2025 school year, that number has been steadily increasing since the 2019-2020 school year.

The report found that one of the reasons is the number of teaching positions in Michigan’s public schools is actually growing, and growing much faster than the number of teachers available to work in those positions.

A decade ago, Michigan had 83,000 teaching positions available. Now, that number is 10,000 higher, at more than 93,000 teaching positions available.

Yet, the number of teachers has actually dropped slig...