Teacher shortages, layoffs hit
big cities and rural areas hardest
by John Seiler | July 31, 2025
Even $24,764 average spending per student can’t stop the shortage of teachers in California. The number comes from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2025-26, which began on July 1. For a class of 30, it’s $724,920.
A January 2024 study by ProCare Therapy, a teacher and school therapy staffing agency found California suffered the third worst teacher shortages among the states. Enrolled were 24.56 students per teacher in Nevada, the worst, 21.88 in Utah and 21.36 in California. Best was Vermont at 10.
That picture was confirmed last December in a study by the Learning Policy Institute, which found an increase in “teacher preparation program completers,” according to their jargon, yet “in 2022 California graduated only half as many new teachers through a traditional preservice preparation program as it did at its peak in 2004.” And “substandard credentials and permits tripled between 2013 and 2023.”
Especially hit hard were “high-needs schools,” which President Barack Obama’s Every Student Succeeds Act defines as a public K-12 school in which the 30% or more of students are below the poverty level. The LPI study found such schools were nearly three times as likely as lowest-need schools “to fill teaching positions with interns and teachers on emergency-style permits or waivers.”
One big city district hit hard by teacher reductions is San Francisco Unified. The San Francisco Chronicle on February 18 reported a $118 million budget deficit is being reduced by cutting 535 positions, 300 from early retirements. The process reduces the number of teachers garnering high salaries due to seniority, but leaves students with less-experienced classroom instructors.
The San Diego Union-Tribune on February 7 reported similar reductions, with 965 employees taking their Supplemental Early Retirement Plan. Layoffs remain a possibility. On March 14, EdSource listed 55 districts giving preliminary layoff notices, including 351 for Santa Ana Unified, 151 for Santa Rosa Unified and 129 for San Ramon Valley Unified.
Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest, has avoided layoffs largely because it has shed so many students and doesn’t need as many teachers. The Center Square on April 14 reported student enrollment crashed by 29% since the 2012-13 school year. Yet per-student spending is up an incredible 229%, to $45,703, even as staffing rose 21%. That comes to $1.37 million for a class of 30.
Last year’s contract with the United Teachers of Los Angeles boosted average teacher salaries 21% over three years to $106,000, reported the Los Angeles Times. The district projects a $1.3 billion budget deficit by 2028.
On April 7, Voice of San Diego reported recovery from the pandemic has hit San Diego County’s rural districts the hardest. Although the shortage has hurt San Diego Unified, “for small, rural districts, which often can’t pay as well, it’s magnified by high turnover rates,” said Mara Tieken, an associate professor of education at Bates College, “For some teachers, rural jobs feel like a stepping stone. They take a job out here until they can get a quote-unquote ‘better job.’”
In the background is the unknown impact of President Donald Trump making sharp cuts to the federal Department of Education, although he recently released the frozen funds. On March 13, California Attorney General Rob Bonta was one of 21 Democratic attorneys general who sued the Trump administration to stop the cuts.
“The teacher shortage actually is in certain fields,” Lance Izumi told me; he’s the senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute, the publisher of the Free Cities Center. “There’s no shortage of English teachers. There is a shortage in STEM—science, technology, engineering and math.”
He pointed out when the teachers’ unions are asked for solutions, they say more money is needed across-the-board. “If we want to increase the number of science, math and computer science teachers, we have to make their salaries competitive with their counterparts in Silicon Valley,” he said. “But paying English and gym teachers more doesn’t help.”
Of course, in the highly competitive world of Silicon Valley, the best programmers and engineers are paid much more than the worst. Last December, the Los Angeles Times reported one in 48 jobs in Silicon Valley pays $500,000 or more—double the ratio in Austin, Texas, the second highest. Skill pays—except in unionized public education.
Izumi said union contracts include pay “step increases.” Teachers climb the steps with every year on the job, and more steps added for getting a master’s degree or a doctorate. For example, the LAUSD’s chart for the 2024-25 fiscal year shows pay can start at $69,304 a year and “step” up to as high as $142,943. Quality of teaching is irrelevant.
Another factor in hiring and keeping the best teachers is LHFF: Last Hired, First Fired. When layoffs hit, seniority counts, regardless of the teacher’s efficacy in teaching students. “You could have somebody who’s teacher of the year in a district, but is fired because he or she worked only two years, while the less competent teacher with 25 years of seniority is kept on the job,” Izumi said. That discourages young people from going into the profession.
A 2023 UCLA study found violence in California schools has declined by half over the previous 20 years. However, Izumi noted, “It’s harder to staff schools that are the most dangerous. It’s a disincentive for teachers to remain at the school.” The unions also resist paying what’s called “combat pay” to those venturing into such schools. And he said rural schools also have the problem of young teachers likely wanting to work in large cities, where they can enjoy a more active social life.
The disincentive to reward the best teachers shows up not just in the shortages, but in state test scores. The California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress for fiscal year 2023-24, released last October, showed slight increases. But K-12 students scoring advanced or proficient still came to just 47% in English Language Arts, 35.5% in math and 30.7% in science.
Unless the teachers’ unions relent in their rigid job and salary categories and promote and reward the best teachers, the teacher shortage will remain as dismal as the test scores.
John Seiler is on the editorial board of the Southern California News Group.
