Texas Woman's Magazine - Fall 2022
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What’s the<br />
latest victim of<br />
supply-chain<br />
scarcity?<br />
American<br />
schools.<br />
NOWADAYS, THE national teacher<br />
shortage is hitting close to home.<br />
Currently, <strong>Texas</strong> has 40,000 fewer<br />
teachers than needed in public K-12<br />
schools. Some rural school districts<br />
have even moved to a four-day school<br />
week as a stop-gap measure until they<br />
can hire more teachers.<br />
Having gained a reputation for<br />
training many of <strong>Texas</strong>’ best<br />
educators for over a century, TWU’s<br />
College of Professional Education<br />
(COPE) has devised innovative<br />
strategies to help curb the teacher<br />
shortage — and address the larger<br />
social implications underlying it.<br />
“It’s an ethical and a moral<br />
obligation to support public educators,”<br />
COPE Associate Dean Gina Anderson<br />
noted. “But it’s also absolutely critical<br />
for the economic health of our state<br />
and our nation.”<br />
Public-school leaders applaud<br />
COPE’s commitment. “TWU has a<br />
long history of preparing outstanding<br />
educators for the teaching profession,”<br />
said Jamie Wilson, superintendent<br />
of the Denton Independent School<br />
District. “From its commitment to early<br />
literacy to preparation for master’sdegree<br />
special educators, TWU’s<br />
COPE prepares life-changing teachers<br />
for our classrooms.”<br />
THE SOCIAL COST<br />
Studies show that quality child care<br />
and early-childhood education —<br />
crucial to social and intellectual<br />
development — have a lifelong impact.<br />
In fact, youngsters receiving quality<br />
early-childhood education and care<br />
have better outcomes in adulthood,<br />
including career and earning potential.<br />
Yet many children are missing out.<br />
In addition to the K-12 teacher<br />
shortage, preschool and infant care<br />
remain understaffed and prohibitively<br />
costly. Nearly half of U.S. families<br />
live in “child-care deserts,” in which<br />
one licensed child-care spot exists<br />
for every three children needing<br />
one, according to the Center for<br />
American Progress.<br />
And the numbers can be shocking:<br />
The cost of infant child care in <strong>Texas</strong><br />
exceeds in-state college tuition, as it<br />
does in 32 other states, according to<br />
the Economic Policy Institute.<br />
2 TEXAS WOMAN’S