Virginia is facing a worsening teacher shortage. However, the focus on pure numbers has directed attention away from another problem: a shortage of diverse teachers. Troops-to-Teachers (TTT), a program that helps veterans obtain teaching licenses, offers solutions to both crises, bringing demographic and life experience diversity into our classrooms.
Walter Pincus wrote a brilliant piece on the evidential success of TTT. He explains how the program works, the number of teachers TTT has produced, the increased diversity among those teachers, and how it’s filling positions in high-need schools.
Karen Hogue, the interim director for the Troops-to-Teachers Virginia Center (TTTVC), says the program is currently working with 3,200 individuals at various points in pursuing teaching positions. For context, the state Department of Education reports 3,650 public teaching positions in Virginia were unfilled in the 2023-24 school year. Despite the immense value TTTVC produces, the program will run out of resources and be forced to shut down if it is not allocated funds in the state budget.
Teachers undertake the formidable task of instilling knowledge in our kids, preparing a future generation of leaders and protecting this nation’s democracy. Here are the stories of just a few among the many teachers that have passed through TTTVC, people I’m asking you to fight for.
Keith Morris is a rookie first-grade teacher at J Blaine Blayton Elementary in Williamsburg-James City County. After serving for 20 years in the Air Force, with the help of TTTVC, he was able to enter the classroom as an aide and is now a fully licensed teacher. He says a lot of his students have “chaotic home lives,” express “behavioral issues,” or are identified as “at-risk.” He teaches because he wants to be “that one person that makes these kids want to come to school.”
David Pitre teaches social studies at Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach. He served for 20 years in the Navy as a firearms instructor. He says being in the military helped him “teach beyond just the subject matter.” He emphasizes that “You’re teaching the kids about life through your life experiences.” With a national teaching shortage, he says it would be “ridiculous to think about shutting down [Troops-to-Teachers].”
Roy Love is working on his Ph.D. at the University of Southern Mississippi and will start as a Spanish teacher in Prince William County in the fall. He served for 30 years in the Navy. After retiring, he said his next endeavor needed to be “something meaningful; something that gives back.” He chose to teach because “there’s nothing more valuable than preparing the next generation.” He says that shutting down Troops-to-Teachers would “immediately eliminate a lot of qualified folks from [teaching].”
After speaking with these teachers, I see what makes a great teacher. It’s not the prestigious diploma or the eloquent language that traditional four-year degrees provide. It’s their passion and experience in the real world. Each of the veterans I spoke to offered something different; something I never had in school. Are you willing to give up the opportunities that veterans offer as teachers?
The loss of TTTVC would not only be a blow to the dire need to reduce teacher shortages, but also to our need for a diverse pool of educators. Fortunately, Hogue says there is still hope for funding from Virginia, but they need voters’ support to push it through. An allocation of funding in the state budget is the last opportunity TTTVC has to keep its doors open.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin and lawmakers are working on a new budget now. Contact the governor’s office here to tell them you want them to fund TTTVC; tell them you want more teachers like Keith Morris, David Pitre and Roy Love in our classrooms.
Alexander Zaccardelli is an elementary education undergraduate at William & Mary and an ALL-IN tutor at J. Blaine Blayton Elementary in Williamsburg.
