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Examining efforts to make sure there are enough teachers in the classroom

Posted at 6:41 PM, May 10, 2021
and last updated 2021-05-10 19:20:27-04

(WXYZ) — The coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on in-person learning and making sure there are enough teachers in the classroom.

In tonight's 7 UpFront segment we're highlighting a new project that hopes to address this growing issue. We're being joined by the President of the Michigan Education Association Paula Herbart to talk about it.

You can see the full interview in the video player above.

"One of the things that we've noticed for the past several years is the decline in students going into education and then not being able to fill positions that we've had open across the state for the last four or five years," Herbart says. "One of the things that we're talking about right now is how do we recruit, respect, and retain educators, and so the Michigan Educator Project is something where the community can hear from our educators themselves about why their jobs are tough, why they love their jobs, and why we need more people to become classroom educators and this project is hoping to do just that. We've got several different ways in which we can achieve the recruiting, the respecting, and the retaining of educators that we need to do across the state and the Michigan Education Association is ready to get down to work."