Kentucky education officials say the state is facing a teacher shortage. A Department of Education program puts numbers to the crisis in the west Kentucky Purchase and Pennyrile regions.
The Kentucky Educator Placement Service shows there are currently 71 teaching vacancies at Purchase area schools, with 25 posted in the last 30 days. The program also says Pennyrile region schools have 125 vacancies, with 26 posted in the last 30 days.
Kentucky Department of Education spokeswoman Jessica Fletcher says critical shortages throughout the state are in special education, career and technical education and world languages. Special education teaching positions account for 14 of the vacancies in the Purchase area. There are six career and technical education postings and two postings for world language instructors in the Purchase. In the Pennyrile region, there are 25 special education, 10 career and technical education, and 5 world language instructor vacancies.
