Fewer Students And More Teachers Means - A Michigan Teacher Shortage?

Crain’s Detroit Business reported March 28, “K-12 schools in Michigan are already experiencing critical shortages of teachers across all subjects, particularly math, science and special education.”

"It didn't pop up overnight during COVID," said Tina Kerr, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators, according to Crain’s Detroit Business. "This is certainly a problem that's been very alarming to us in the past."

Over the past five years, there has been a 12.5% increase in the number of teachers working in Michigan public schools. During the same time, there has been a 6.2% decrease in student enrollment.

The number of Michigan’s public school teachers increased from 98,481 in 2016-17 to 110,788 in 2020-21, the most recent year state data is available. At the same time, enrollment has declined from 1.53 million to 1.44 million students.