Familiar teachers across Michigan school districts may soon be calling it quits, prompting education leaders to prepare for a wave of retirements and focus on supporting new educators.
- Michigan provides grants to 121 school districts, including St. Johns, to fund teacher mentoring programs as education leaders prepare for an anticipated wave of teacher retirements.
- The Michigan Education Association says the real challenge isn't attracting new teachers but keeping them long-term, emphasizing the need for living wages and listening to educator voices.
- Local districts receiving funding include St. Johns, DeWitt Public Schools, Lansing School District, Olivet Community Schools, and Ovid-Elsie Area Schools.
"We're starting to see down the pipeline that we are going to have a larger amount of teachers retiring," said Michael Winkel, St. Johns Assistant Superintendent.
The St. Johns district is among many noticing this trend and thinking about what comes next, particularly how to support incoming teachers.
"And when we get new teachers, how can we support them," Winkel said.
The state is stepping in to help, providing 121 school districts including St. Johns with grants to provide mentors to new educators.
"Everybody has strengths, areas they can grow, having a dedicated mentor that is going to be checking in on you is really important," Winkel said.
This grant helps address what some call the teacher shortage. However, Thomas Morgan with the Michigan Education Association says keeping teachers long-term is actually the bigger challenge.
"We as a state in the past few years have made some progress when it comes to attracting new talent into the educator pipeline, but we also need make sure we're also holding onto that talent," Morgan said.
Morgan says while investments are helping, real progress will require more comprehensive changes.
"At the end of the day, what we need to do is make sure we are paying our educators a living wage, that we are listening to their voices," Morgan said.
Winkel says it's about looking ahead and doing what's best for the classroom.
"So when we do have new teachers, we're ready to hit the ground running and support them so they can be successful," Winkel said.
Other local schools that received the funding include DeWitt Public Schools, Lansing School District, Olivet Community Schools, and Ovid-Elsie Area Schools.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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