Tuesday, August 16, 2016

CA teacher shortage forces districts to recruit from Mexico, Starbucks, dog park

Eag News reports:
The Fresno school district is “being creative” in luring in hundreds of new teachers amid a statewide teacher shortage, and administrators are turning to Mexico, Starbucks, grocery stores and other unusual places for new recruits.

Fresno Unified School District is hiring more than 300 new teachers for the 2016-17 school year, an undertaking district human relations director Cyndy Quintana said required her team to take aggressive action, the Fresno Bee reports.

“We’ve recruited from the dog park, from The Cheesecake Factory and Starbucks. Wherever we go, we recruit constantly,” Quintana said. “There is a teacher shortage, but Fresno Unified is alive and well and being creative. Everyday is an interview.”

Quintana told the news site she’s flown to New York, Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico over the last year to bring in educators, and even had three teachers from Mexico living in her house this summer as they transitioned into teaching positions.

In Mexico, teachers make about $700 a month, while Fresno County teachers bring in $65,000 to $80,000 a year, said Lucero Escareno, a 28-year-old from Coahuila, Mexico who starts this week at Fresno’s Sunset Elementary School.
The struggles of government education.