PHOENIX — Arizona schools started this academic year with 21% of all teaching positions vacant, and nearly half of the teachers who were on the payroll did not meet the state’s certification standards.
And that was an improvement from last year.
Those are the findings of an Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association survey of 150 school districts and charter schools, which reported 1,443 teaching slots remained open on Aug. 30, just a few weeks into the school year.
In 2018, that number was more than 1,547.
