Dallas Needs Hundreds of Good pre-K Teachers Who Can Start at $50K. Here’s the Way We’ll Get Them

Like most of Texas, Dallas County faces an acute shortage of teachers qualified to teach kids under the age of five.Traditional colleges of education and alternative certification programs graduate such teachers, but not in the numbers needed in a state this size nor with a specialized degree or training to effectively teach young children. With the state legislature finally funding full-day pre-kindergarten programs this past session as part of the school finance overhaul, the demand for qualified pre-K teachers is going to explode.This is why we have high hopes for a specialized, four-year degree program being developed at the Dallas County Community College District. Its goal is to funnel more teachers with specialized early childhood education teaching skills into the classroom pipeline.  Continue reading...