The shortage of teachers within Oklahoma is steadily increasing.
Teacher shortages have become a problem within Oklahoma and there has been work in trying to help solve these issues and prevent them in the future. The Oklahoma State School Boards Association details that from as early as 2017 there have been issues surrounding a lack of educators. The number of teaching vacancies was 563 and 1430 emergency certificates both in 2017 resulting in larger class sizes and fewer courses available to students from the OSSBA. The classes mostly being affected are high school and middle school math, high school science and in general elementary education as well as special education. This number grew to 1019 teacher vacancies in just five years in the 2022-2023 school year according to the OSSBA’s annual teacher staffing survey. This resulted in the emergency teaching certificates increasing by more than half, totaling 2969 in this same year.
OSSBA Executive Director Shawn Hime commented that “Most of us have never lived in a time like this when schools – and the entire country – are still rebounding from pandemic disruptions. This is the right time to make a bold, unprecedented commitment to ensuring every Oklahoma child is in a classroom with a high-quality teacher who has the training and resources they need to help every student succeed,” recorded OSSBA. Findings from the 2022-2023 school year concluded that very little had changed from the previous years findings, that special education remained the most difficult area to fill.
Records show that increased investment for education from 2018 onwards resulted in “increased teacher compensation for a time above the average of surrounding states,” according to OSSBA. However, the other states, which include Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Missouri, Texas and Arkansas continue to invest this money leaving Oklahoma behind the national average. The OSSBA reported that Oklahoma would need an infusion of $1.2 billion annually to reach the average invested per student in these surrounding states mentioned. OSSBA produced a graphic showing that for example Kansas currently spent $5,955,857,000 compared to Oklahoma who spent $6,611,657,000. However, to compare their enrollment rates, Kansas enrolls 497,963 students compared to Oklahoma who enroll 703,719 students according to OSSBA.
Attempts were made to increase teacher salaries in order to reverse the state’s shortage crisis. Back in January of 2025, Senator Ally Seifried, R-Claremore, Vice Chair of the Senate Education Committee and the education appropriations subcommittee prefiled a bill for next session to reduce the teacher shortage. The bill, Senate Bill 7 creates the Oklahoma teacher recruitment academy designed to target higher education providing tuition and fee assistance to those who earn a bachelor’s degree if the individuals commit to teaching and one of the subject areas needed according to the Oklahoma Policy Institute. This bill will anticipate an expenditure of up to $10 million. This preposition would be alongside the “Inspired to teach” programme created in 2023 by house bill 2559 providing $5500 in scholarships over four years at a degree programme college or university within Oklahoma according to Oklahoma Policy Institute. Furthermore this house bill provides a further $4000 stipend for each of the first five years of those graduates teaching in Oklahoma public schools.
Julianna Lynch graduated from the University of Tulsa in May 2025 achieving her degree in education. She now works at the Culver Academies as a humanities instructor. Lynch commented, “As a professional educator and a former student teacher, I have gathered that the declining number of teachers in Oklahoma can be attributed to multiple reasons rather than just one. The first and most obvious reason one might think would be the fact that the average teacher salary in Oklahoma is steadily one of the lowest in the country. However, chronic absenteeism, dropout rates, lack of safety regulations regarding guns, little to no support from families, bans on books and government intrusion in the classroom have all played a factor in the declining number of professional educators in Oklahoma. Chronic absenteeism, lack of support from families and high dropout rates are problems happening within the homes of the students across the state. Oklahoma having the largest incarceration rate for women in the country leads to an unfortunate rate of poverty and illiteracy, thus leading to a lack of sight in the power of Education. The powerful stance against gun regulations in Oklahoma is leading to the exodus of hundreds of educators who no longer feel safe enough to do their jobs. Finally, bans on books and the intrusion of the Oklahoma state government to mandate bibles in every classroom are also forcing many teachers to walk away from education. They feel as though they are unable to teach their students the actual history of the United States through novels as well as forcing their students, who may not be Christian, to read a religious text. Let the record show that most students in Oklahoma read more than one level below their current grade and the state legislation would like for teachers to take time away from bringing said students up to their grade level by reading and journaling sacred scripture of the bible in public schools. Each of these factors have played an unfortunate role in the rate of teachers leaving Oklahoma.”
