The New Mexico Public Education Department launched a program to hire retired teachers in order to address teacher shortages across the state.
Albuquerque Public Schools need to fill almost 200 teaching positions, according to KOB 4. Due to the need for qualified educators, officials resorted to creative solutions. This includes a program designed to bring retired teachers back to the classroom while allowing them to keep their retirement benefits.
With legislation recently signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM), school officials hope to fill empty classrooms with retired teachers. The difficulty of finding and hiring new teachers has been an ongoing problem for years.
"We ended the last school year with over a thousand classrooms missing a teacher," Kurt Steinhaus, New Mexico secretary of education, said.
Whitney Holland, president of the American Federation of Teachers of New Mexico, spoke about the issue as well.
“I think in the fall we are going to see quite a few retirees return," she said.
Many teachers are looking forward to returning to work – some full-time and others part-time, because they enjoy the free time that comes with retirement.
"On the flip side, we have retirees who are like, 'No, I am retired and I want to do a couple of weeks or a month here and there,'" Holland said.
Approximately 50,000 retired teachers in New Mexico are being asked to return to work to help fill the gap, KOB 4 reported. The only requirement is that the retirees need an active teaching license. Many former teachers have already signed up for the program and plan to return to the classroom.
"They are ready to go to walk into that classroom and get started immediately," Steinhaus said. "The interest is in the hundreds, which I am really excited about."
There are currently 25 open teaching positions at Rio Rancho Public Schools, according to KOB 4.