Dupage Policy Journal

Illinois public schools have been dealing with constant educator shortages, pushing districts to offer incentives to new and current teachers.

“When teachers are saying, ‘I can go to Amazon and make $22 an hour — I’m out of here,’ how do we respond?” Nancy Latham, associate dean for the College of Education and executive director for the Council on Teacher Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said to the Chicago Tribune. “It will be very interesting to see how we’re going to respond. What will a school do if it has 50 kindergartners signed up for two classes, but the school has only one kindergarten teacher? Do you combine classes?”

School districts are also lacking bus drivers.

“We’re not sure what the COVID guidelines are going to be for next year for bus transportation, but we are very concerned about the number of drivers we have," Paul Novack, chief financial officer for the Bensenville School District, said during a recent meeting. The driver shortage continues in Northeast Illinois. At least one of ours has indicated he’s going to retire.”

Bensenville currently has 19 employed bus drivers and a mechanic in their garage, though not all will be returning in the fall. The district has 21 buses in its fleet that regularly run routes. The head of the transportation division is Claire Cooper. The district encompasses about 6.7 square miles and has an enrollment of just under 2,400 students. 

A growing concern is how schools will handle millions of students returning in August. Not only will schools need to transport students, but they will also need to have an adequate number of educators.

Districts all over Illinois and the country are desperately trying to recruit more bus drivers amidst the shortage, according to CBS Chicago. Some districts are offering sign-up bonuses of up to $5,000 for experienced drivers. Previous bonuses were around $1,000, but efforts are being revamped as many districts have had to combine routes or cancel them altogether. One school even raffled off a car as a part of a hiring promotion.

WQAD 8 reported that Illinois schools had approximately 4,000 vacancies, the majority of which were teaching jobs, in the 2021 academic year.

Governor J.B. Pritzker recently signed a new law into effect in Illinois to attempt to relieve some of the bus driver shortage. The new legislation allows drivers who previously lost their license due to unpaid child support to get back their certification. They were previously unable to do so if they had ever fallen behind on child support, even if they paid what they owed.