Photo: Digital Vision
Governor Gavin Newsom has signed an executive order that is aimed at helping schools recruit more teachers amid staffing shortages. The order, signed by the Governor on Tuesday, will create a faster process for student teachers, retired teachers, and other community members to become substitutes in classrooms. Newsom says he signed the order to create more flexibility to help districts with staffing decisions like giving additional hours to subs and rehiring some for short stints.
The California Teachers Association represents roughly 310,000 teachers across the state. Spokesperson for the CTA said this in a statement Tuesday about the Executive Order: “The executive order is by no means the answer to long-term staffing shortages, and we look forward to working with the governor, lawmakers and the education community in rebuilding our educator pipeline, which has been devastated by this pandemic.” This comes at a time when schools across the state are dealing with a shortage of teachers and staff because of the increase in COVID-19 cases. This order expires at the end of March of this year.