YORK, Pa. — The State of Education report was developed by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) in partnership with the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators back in 2017, and this year's report is now available.
“Two of the biggest questions out there are: how are public schools doing? And what are the biggest challenges public schools are facing?" John Callahan, the PSBA’s chief advocacy officer, said. "The report tries to answer those questions through all the data and information collected."
Staffing shortages made the top of the list for the biggest issue across school districts in the Commonwealth.
“One of our biggest challenges right now is 75% of school districts are anticipating a staffing shortage," Andrew Christ, the PSBA’s director of education policy, said.
Another large issue highlighted in the report was budget pressures. Christ said that when schools are struggling budget-wise, it forces administrators to make difficult choices about what gets prioritized in education.
The question remains: how do schools tackle these issues head on?
“On the teacher shortage side, there’s definitely things within the structure of the school building, the school district, that you can change to attract teachers," Callahan said. "Pay teachers a little bit more, renegotiate contracts, those kind of things."
The report also found that over 85% of school districts said that their staffs are feeling "burnt out" as a result of teaching during the pandemic.
A virtual event will be held today to further discuss the findings of the report.