Credit Women Advance
Kentucky’s education workforce is expected to grow 3% over the next decade. However, colleges and universities need to train thousands of more teachers to address shortfalls in schools and help increase diversity among educators.
The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education unveiled those findings today as part of an in-depth look at the state’s public and private education sector. The report shows that, overall, the education field is on pace to support close to 93,300 jobs in Kentucky by 2030.
The state is already facing shortages in the education workforce, which includes teachers, administrators and counselors, and those gaps could potentially grow larger unless Kentucky produces more workers with degrees in education. The report projects that annual job openings will exceed the number of new graduates with at least a bachelor’s degree in education by more than 2,200 jobs by the end of the decade.
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Murray State University is halfway through the spring semester and, MSU President Bob Jackson says, is looking forward to a semblance of normalcy on the horizon. He joins WKMS News Director Rachel Collins to chat about vaccines on campus, potential impacts of a Kentucky employee pension bill and the need for more federal stimulus funding.
Jackson noted on-campus COVID-19 vaccine clinics for university faculty, staff and graduate assistants are taking place this week, and more received the vaccine even ahead of those clinics. By the end of this week, he said, he believes most of the faculty and staff who wanted a vaccine will have received it. In light of that, he said the university is holding off on looking into policies regarding vaccine requirements for faculty, staff and students.
The Kentucky lieutenant governor emphasized that the budget rolled out by Beshear in January will be âeducation first.â
âLet me be very clear, the governor and I are very committed to raises for teachers, and we are committed to raises for school employees, as well, and youâre going to see that in this upcoming budget,â Coleman notes.
The governor announced earlier this month the Commonwealth Commonwealth Education Continuum, a multi-agency consortium to help execute education initiatives in 2021.
âYou always hear folks in business or in politics talk about building pipelines or creating new jobs, and thatâs important, but I always take them back to the beginning. The foundation of all of that development is in education.â Coleman said. âTo create that Continuum, those public, private partnerships, partnerships across the entire education system are critical to every individual kid, every family, and to the future of Kentuckyâs eco