© 2024 WXPR
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

New WEAC Leader Says Teacher Recruitment Is Key

Wisconsin Education Association Council

The incoming president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council says teacher recruitment and retention is a key focus as educators gather for the annual National Education Association meeting in the nation's capitol. Ron Martin is a middle school teacher in the Eau Claire area. He says finding and keeping teachers is critical...

".....the biggest issues are teacher recruitment and retention. That's really important, being able to encourage individuals to go into the profession and then how do we keep them in the profession, so that's a big issue...."

He says retaining support staff is as important and working with the local school district leadership teams to encourage local leadership. He says they are looking at a number of ways to attract young people to the profession. He says they are hoping to develop a future teachers club, working with high school students to look at teaching as a profession. He says they will be lobbying to get debt relief for students as Martin says many students coming out of college don't want to go into teaching, given the large amount of student loan debt they have to pay. Martin says the future of schools in general, and especially the rural schools,depend on finding a new state funding formula that works for all districts.

He also attacked the idea of trying to fund to distinct public school systems...

"...we've got to stop funding two systems in Wisconsin. We cannot continue to fund public education and voucher schools. We have to put our money our K-12 public education because we know it's working and we have to make sure we adequately fund that...."

Martin is joining 8,000 other educators in Washington, D.C. this week for the annual National Education Association meeting.

Up North Updates
* indicates required