The teacher shortage in California is acute, and as more educators retire or leave the profession, the need to grow the pipeline of qualified educators to replace them is increasingly urgent.

Many school districts struggle to fill vacancies with fully credentialed teachers, and often end up hiring underprepared or substitute teachers, increasing class sizes, or cutting courses. California has invested more than $1 billion to strengthen the teacher workforce, focusing on increasing teacher supply in shortage areas, improving affordability and access to teacher preparation, and incentivizing skilled teachers to work in high-need schools. But many of these investments rely on one-time funding or funding that expires.

Meanwhile, the educator pipeline is dwindling. According to the Learning Policy Institute, half as many new teachers in 2022 graduated through a California-based traditional teacher prep program as in 2004, the peak year. Surveys have found that aspiring educators are disinclined to pursue a teaching career when they know they will not make a living wage, that their health care coverage will be inadequate, and that their schools lack the necessary staffing and resources for them to do their jobs and for students to learn and succeed.

Our union believes ongoing funding for programs to address teacher education and preparation, and recruitment and retention, are vital to ensure we have a supply of qualified educators now and in the future. We support the $250 million in the Governor’s 2026–27 budget proposal for educator residency programs. Such investments, alongside initiatives like the Golden State Teacher Grant Program, are critical in preparing, recruiting and retaining diverse, highly qualified teachers.

Our union also supports AB 1904 (Gipson), which establishes the Credentialed Educator Apprenticeship Act at the Commission on Teacher Credentialing in partnership with the Division of Apprenticeship Standards. The credentialed teacher apprenticeship program would assist in recruiting a more diverse pool of candidates and be a new pathway that would strengthen the preparation process of new educators; provide a financial incentive to enter the profession; and offer high-quality, ongoing professional learning for candidates
to help ensure they are supported, can be effective, and persist in the profession.

AB 1904 will allow prospective teachers to earn while they learn through paid, on-the-job training and mentorship from experienced educators. It would align California’s existing teacher residency programs with a federal and state apprenticeship framework, enabling participating programs to
leverage both federal and state funding.

In addition, our union has sought to remove barriers that dissuade otherwise talented and qualified aspiring educators from entering the profession by eliminating Teaching Performance Assessments (TPAs). TPAs are time consuming and expensive, do not prepare teachers for the classroom, disproportionately impact BIPOC educator candidates and detract from programs with proven success.

This is part of our Fully Fund Our Schools story. Photo: Elyse Johansson, Lena Hwang and Rachel Herrera at Aptos Middle School in San
Francisco in 2022. Hwang is a mentor teacher; Johansson and Herrera were resident teachers under her and now both teach in the district.