This week the SUNY Student Assembly endorsed TeachNY initiatives as a means to combat statewide teacher shortages.
“TeachNY is a movement to lift up the teaching profession so that we can better serve students and teachers at every stage of their education,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher in a recent press release.
TeachNY, a joint initiative between SUNY and the state education department, aims to uplift the teaching profession and ensure a high quality of teachers in the future.
The SUNY Student Assembly, which aims to empower students on a national and state level, promotes the initiatives to help alleviate statewide teacher shortages with support for TeachNY. SUNY SA is a student organization comprised of student leaders elected by their peers from across the organization’s 64 campuses.
Statistics show that New York State currently hosts 2,649,039 K-12 public school students with a total of 207,379 public school teachers, according to The New York State Education Department website.
According to the TeachNY advisory council, the state’s need for teachers is expected to increase by 5.8 percent by 2022. An additional call for more than 1.6 million teachers is expected over the next decade to replace those who are on the verge of retirement.
Enrollment in teacher preparation programs has seen a 31 percent decline nationally and a 40 percent decline in New York State alone.
SUNY Trustee and Student Assembly President Marc J. Cohen hopes to challenge teacher shortages with support for TeachNY. “Good teaching at an early age inspires students to become teachers themselves. This is a positive cycle that can only be realized as we better prepare more well qualified teachers,” said Cohen in a press release.
Educators face low compensation and limited career advancement opportunities, contributing to a decline in the stature of the teaching profession. TeachNY calls for a public service campaign to accentuate pride in the teaching vocation with a goal of recruiting the next generation of New York teachers, the “New 5000.”
The initiative also addresses increasing teacher diversity, incentivizing schools to host pre-service teachers, establishing a new Urban-Rural Teacher Corps and creating a new system to recognize professional milestones in education.
The demand for teachers and the demands on teachers have changed drastically. The extent of preparation teachers receive is not sufficient to serve student and community needs today. “What matters most in the classroom is the teacher,” said Zimpher in a video posted on the TeachNY website.