Education Sector Hiring: Tackling Teacher Shortages, EdTech Challenges, and Real Workforce Planning

Teachers Are Leaving in Droves - And Schools Can’t Keep Up

In 2025, nearly 1 in 8 teaching positions in the U.S. are either empty or filled by someone not certified to teach that subject. That’s not a glitch. It’s a system in crisis. Across 48 states and Washington, D.C., over 365,000 teachers are working without proper certification. Another 45,000 positions remain completely unfilled. This isn’t just a staffing issue - it’s a breakdown in how we value the people who educate our children.

The problem isn’t new, but it’s accelerating. Between 2015 and 2022, the global rate of teachers leaving the profession nearly doubled - from 4.6% to over 9%. In some countries, half of all teachers under 30 say they plan to quit within five years. In the U.S., Europe, and Canada, up to 90% of teacher shortages come from people walking away, not from not enough new grads entering the field.

Why? Burnout. Low pay. Lack of support. Overwork. Teachers are expected to be counselors, therapists, tech support, and curriculum designers - all while managing classrooms of 30+ students with fewer resources than ever. A teacher in Chicago might earn $55,000 a year. A teacher in rural Alabama might earn $42,000. Meanwhile, the cost of living has surged. Many leave for jobs in retail, healthcare, or even delivery driving - jobs that offer better hours, less stress, and more respect.

EdTech Was Supposed to Help. Instead, It Made Things Harder

When schools rushed to adopt digital tools during the pandemic, they thought technology would ease the burden. AI tutors, automated grading, learning apps - all promised to lighten the load. But here’s what no one talked about: teachers had to learn all of it on their own, without training, without time, and without extra pay.

Now, in 2025, teachers are drowning in platforms. One educator in Ohio told me she uses seven different apps just to track attendance, assignments, grades, and parent communication. She spends 12 hours a week just logging into systems - time that should be spent planning lessons or helping struggling students.

And it’s not just the tools. It’s the pressure to use them. Districts demand data from learning platforms, but rarely ask if the tools actually improve learning. A 2024 OECD report found that schools using the most EdTech often have the highest teacher stress levels - not because tech is bad, but because it’s being pushed without support.

The real solution isn’t more apps. It’s better training. It’s giving teachers time to learn new tools. It’s letting them choose what works - not being forced into systems that add to their workload.

Workforce Planning Isn’t About Numbers - It’s About People

Most school districts still plan their hiring like they’re ordering pencils. They look at enrollment numbers, count how many teachers they had last year, and guess how many they need next year. That’s not planning. That’s guessing.

True workforce planning looks at attrition rates, retirement waves, certification gaps, and regional imbalances. For example, in Japan and Austria, the number of teachers under 30 has gone up - not because teaching is popular, but because older teachers are staying longer and younger people are entering later in life. In Brazil and Poland, the opposite is happening. Fewer young people are entering the field at all.

And certification? It’s a mess. In some states, you can teach math with a degree in biology. In others, you need a special license just to teach a gifted class. There’s no national standard. No clear path. No consistency. That’s why 411,549 positions in the U.S. are either vacant or filled by underqualified staff - and why that number grew by 4,600 in just one year.

Workforce planning needs to stop treating teachers as interchangeable parts. It needs to treat them as professionals - with careers, needs, and limits.

The Money Problem Is Bigger Than You Think

UNESCO says we need $120 billion a year just to pay teachers enough to keep them in the classroom - globally. That’s not for buildings. Not for textbooks. Just for salaries. And yet, global education funding is expected to drop by 25% by 2027.

This creates a vicious cycle: low pay → high turnover → more hiring → more budget strain → even lower pay. Schools in poor districts are hit hardest. They can’t compete with suburban districts that offer $10,000 more in salary and better benefits. So they hire underqualified candidates. Or they double up classes. Or they cut electives. Or they rely on substitutes who rotate every week.

The result? Students lose. In 2022, nearly half of all schools worldwide reported that lack of qualified teachers was hurting instruction - up from 26% in 2018. Countries like Australia, France, and Poland saw increases of over 30 percentage points. That’s not a trend. That’s a collapse.

Fixing this isn’t about small grants or one-time bonuses. It’s about long-term investment. It’s about taxing the wealthy fairly. It’s about governments choosing education over tax breaks for corporations. Education International says it plainly: we need tax justice to fund public education.

What Actually Works? Three Real Solutions

There’s no magic bullet. But there are proven paths forward - and a few countries are already walking them.

• Dignify the job. Finland pays teachers like professionals. They require a master’s degree. They give them autonomy. They don’t test them every year. Result? Teachers stay. Students thrive.
• Diversify the workforce. In the U.S., 80% of teachers are white women. But nearly half of all students are non-white. When students see teachers who look like them, they perform better. Programs that recruit paraprofessionals, military veterans, and community members into teaching - and pay them to get certified - are working in states like California and North Carolina.
• Let teachers lead. Too many decisions are made by administrators who’ve never taught. Schools that include teachers in budgeting, curriculum design, and tech purchases see lower turnover and higher morale. In Maryland, a teacher-led committee redesigned the district’s tech rollout. Result? Adoption jumped from 42% to 89% in one year.

These aren’t theoretical ideas. They’re happening now. And they’re working.

What Happens If We Don’t Act?

If nothing changes, we won’t just have more vacancies. We’ll have worse education. More inequality. More students falling behind. By 2030, UNESCO warns, we’ll be 44 million teachers short globally. That’s enough to fill every classroom in Germany, France, and the UK - and still have room left over.

The most vulnerable kids - in rural areas, low-income neighborhoods, conflict zones - will suffer the most. They’ll get the least qualified teachers. The most overwhelmed staff. The least support.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about basic human dignity. Teaching is one of the most important jobs on earth. If we don’t treat it that way, we’re not just failing our schools. We’re failing our future.

What Comes Next?

If you’re a school leader, start by asking your teachers: What’s making your job harder? What would make you stay? Don’t assume you know. Listen. Then act - even if it’s small. Give them one less app to use. Let them pick their own PD. Offer a 30-minute planning block every day.

If you’re a policymaker, stop funding flashy tech projects. Start funding salaries. Start funding mentorship programs. Start taxing the wealthy to pay for public education. The money is there. It’s just not being spent where it matters.

If you’re a parent, demand transparency. Ask your school board: How many positions are vacant? How many teachers are underqualified? What are you doing to fix it? Silence isn’t support. It’s complicity.

This isn’t a problem that will fix itself. It won’t get better with time. It will get worse - unless we choose to act, now, with urgency and honesty.