Priorities:

Oklahoma has set a new record this school year for issuing emergency teaching certifications, a sign the state’s teacher shortage has progressed.

The state issued a new all-time high of 4,676 emergency certifications from June through December, representing teaching hires for the 2023-24 school year. The previous record was set last school year with 4,574.

The certificates permit a person with at least a bachelor’s degree to work in public schools without having any teacher training in the grade level or subject area they want to teach.

[…]

About 30,000 teachers left Oklahoma’s public school system between 2012 and 2018. Meanwhile, the number of people studying to become teachers fell nationwide since 2010, most steeply in Oklahoma.

Those are just the statistics on emergency certified teachers, who must have a degree. There are adjunct positions where a high school diploma lets you teach high school.

I remember during a teacher meeting one of our e-certs telling us that one of his students had told him that she had been raped the night before. He had no idea that he was a mandatory reporter