Cooper Hanson, a substitute teacher at the Greenfield Intermediate School in Greenfield, Ind., is photographed Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020.College students are helping fill the gap as teachers across the country are sidelined by COVID-19.
In Indiana, the 4,400-student Greenfield-Central school district about 20 miles east of Indianapolis made a plea for help as its substitute pool shrank. "I said, 'If you've got a student who's in college, maybe they'd like to work even a two-month thing for us - which would be a stopgap, no doubt - but it will help us a whole, whole bunch," said Scott Kern, the Greenfield-Central Community School Corporation director of human resources.
The teaching force already was stretched in many places before the pandemic hit as fewer students entered the profession, and retirees who often fill in as substitutes have been staying home in large numbers because of concerns about their health. As contact tracing forces teachers into quarantine, have become so severe that many schools have had no choice but to switch to distance learning.
Isabel Orozco, a freshman at Wellesley College, is working as a substitute teacher in the Cheshire, Connecticut district, where she graduated high school in June. She said she's considering taking all of her spring semester classes online, so she can continue working in the public schools.College students have been tapped in growing numbers this year by Kelly Education, which contracts with districts to provide substitutes.
Because the state's substitute requirements had been so high, it had relied heavily on retirees in years past, said Jenni Benson, president of the Nebraska State Education Association. But it has been a harder sell this year, with the association finding that only 33% of the 500 retired teachers it surveyed in August planned to sub this year, while the others said no or were unsure.
...to hell in a handbasket.
90% of news about covid and trump