LINCOLN- As teacher shortages plague large portions of the United States, the Nebraska Department of Education, which, according to Chesley Greene, a field specialist at the Department, has been tracking the shortages for over a decade, says the state has a plan to address the issue. "As you can imagine, over the last 10 years, those charts and numbers just continue to trend upward," said Greene.

Finding teachers and retaining them has been a big issue for many Nebraska school districts. According to Greene, teacher pay is one of the biggest reasons why teachers are leaving their positions. However, the Nebraska Department of Education, through several programs, including the Educators Rising Program, seeks to help school districts in the state better hire and retain teachers. Created in 2015, the Educators Rising program is designed to help high school students pursue a career in education, as well as ease shortages.

"We have these education courses where they're learning a variety of things related to being an educator," said Greene of the program, "So certainly the history of education all the way through, you know, thinking about classroom management and best practice for instruction, all of those things." Currently, three chapters of the program exist in Lincoln: North Star, Northwest, and the Career Academy. According to Greene, the Department of Education plans to create more chapters in the hopes of, eventually, alleviating the statewide. teacher shortage.

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