The Illinois State Board of Education is distributing a million dollars in grants across the state to address Illinois’ teacher shortage.
The Southern Illinois Future Teachers Coalition is partnership between SIU, John A. Logan College, Shawnee Community College and nine area high schools to provide a pathway for high school students to become educators.
Vienna High School Superintendent Joshua Stafford says ever since the state changed its funding model in 2017, that has led to improvements for addressing the states teacher shortage.
“We’ve really seen a major turnaround in terms of how schools in Illinois are funded we literally overnight with the flick of a pen went from the most antiquated school funding model in the entire state of Illinois to premiere school funding model in the nation, we now have other states that come and look at our funding model.”
SCC received a $250 thousand dollar grant from the Illinois State Board of Education to fund the coalition.
The goal is to provide guidance and a career pathway for students interested in becoming and educator. Students will be required to shadow a grade school teacher for 60 hours during a semester.
