LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – WKAR PBS recently wrote a story saying Michigan’s poor academic results were due to a teacher shortage.

The number of teachers in the state has increased from 98,418 in 2016-17 to 117,002 in 2024-25. That’s despite a drop in the student enrollment from 1.5 million to 1.4 million over that span.

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More teachers, fewer students is a teacher shortage? There have always been shortages in hard-to-fill positions, such as special education, foreign languages, and advanced science jobs.

Claims of general teacher shortages have been a consistent drum beat in this state going back more than 100 years.

In 1920, D.B. Waldo, president of Western State Normal School (now Western Michigan University) said higher salaries would solve a teacher shortage in Kalamazoo County.

The more recent claims of teacher shortages has triggered millions in dollars in spending for retention bonuses for teachers.

In 2023, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed legislation to spend $2.3 billion over four years to address the shortage with retention bonuses.