Tens of thousands of federal workers across the nation suddenly found themselves laid off by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. A similar number of teaching vacancies plague the nation’s K-12 schools. Could districts recruit former federal employees to help fill their vacancies, creating a win-win situation for both unemployed skilled workers and understaffed schools?
At least one state, as well as officials at a large suburban school district, think so—and they’ve already begun recruitment efforts targeting newly unemployed government employees.
“Are you a federal employee seeking a meaningful career change?” a Maryland statewide campaign asks. “Your commitment to public service makes you an asset in shaping the future of education. Teaching offers the opportunity to inspire, lead, and make a lasting impact on the next generation.”
Here’s what these recruiting strategies look like so far, how job seekers are responding to them, and why some education experts are advising caution.
A governor champions a campaign to recruit former federal workers to the classroom
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, has said the online statewide campaign initiative to recruit former federal workers into the teaching workforce aims to address “the over 1,600 Maryland classrooms that remain unstaffed.”
An estimated 160,000 civilian federal workers live in Maryland, comprising about 6 percent of the state’s workforce.
For now, the campaign is focused primarily on raising awareness among former federal workers of the potential career opportunities in teaching.
“We have a teaching shortage, so we’re using this [campaign] as an opportunity to potentially recruit some individuals who have the content and occupational expertise and may want to change their career and come into the profession,” said Kelly Meadows, assistant state superintendent at the Maryland Department of Education.
Meadows said the current circumstances facing Maryland’s workforce have presented an opportunity for the state to examine more broadly how it trains future teachers. That could include former federal workers who may be interested in transferring their skills and experience to the teaching profession.
“This has allowed Maryland and its department of education to really look at our [teacher-preparation] programs and ask ourselves: Are we providing quality, rigorous teacher preparation in a way that the individuals we want to recruit into the profession can consume?” Meadows said. “Not everybody is interested in getting a master’s degree in teaching, and not as many people are going into bachelor degree programs to become teachers. So what do we need to do to change and become more flexible in an effort to recruit these individuals?”
The state doesn’t yet have answers to these questions, but its Professional Standards and Teacher Education Board has identified a subcommittee to examine them more closely, Meadows said.
In the meantime, early responses to the campaign suggest a high level of interest among potential job candidates. In the four weeks since Moore announced the campaign on social media channels, the state’s Teach Maryland website has gotten over 10,000 views and 6,800 individual users, according to Meadows.
Prior to the campaign’s start, the site averaged 350 daily page views; that number has jumped to 1,000 views per day. Now, users see this message when they click on the website’s landing page: “Continue your Career in Public Service and Shape the Future as a Maryland Educator.”
A fast track to a teaching career?
The pathway from a federal agency to the classroom can be brief.
Career changers in Maryland can enroll in alternative programs that offer some initial training before allowing them to serve as the teacher of record while they complete their preparation. Many of those programs are run by school districts, sometimes in connection with colleges and universities.
Alternatively, Maryland districts that can’t recruit a licensed teacher have the option to hire someone who has a bachelor’s degree but no teaching experience. That person is issued a conditional teaching license, which lasts for three to five years.
“I don’t know why it can’t be a fast process if the [teaching] vacancy is available,” said Meadows, suggesting that viable candidates could be in the classroom as early as next fall.
An online recruitment campaign spearheaded by the Fairfax County public schools in Virginia, just 45 minutes from downtown Washington, sends a similar message to former government workers. The headline on the website’s landing page reads: “Continue Your Public Service Journey at FCPS.”
Additional verbiage on the district’s website reads: “If you hold a bachelor’s degree, you can become provisionally licensed to teach in just a few weeks through iteach, a self-paced online teacher-preparation program.”
The iteach program is entirely online, according to the website, which states that its curriculum “covers essential aspects of teaching, including classroom management, instructional strategies, and student assessment, ensuring candidates are well-prepared for the classroom.”
The 183,000-student district did not respond to requests for comment.
Experts advise caution against “fast-track” teacher prep programs
Teacher attrition rates, especially early in educators’ careers, have long been a cause for concern for the nation’s K-12 schools.
While several factors contribute to teachers leaving the profession, feeling ill-prepared ranks high in studies that examine causes of attrition rates—especially among early-career teachers. And these feelings can be traced to inadequate teacher-training programs, said Ron Noble Jr., the chief of teacher preparation at the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington-based research and policy group that advocates for more rigorous teacher preparation.
“For us, critical to our mission is making sure that aspiring teachers have the time they need to acquire the really unique and nuanced content and skills that are necessary to be an effective teacher,” said Noble. “In our long history of looking at teacher-prep programs, we’ve found that there’s a wide range of features and approaches to preparation within the label of alternative certification programs.”
Alternative programs can be a cheaper, quicker pathway into the classroom and are more likely to allow candidates to serve as teachers of record before they are fully certified. But these programs vary significantly.
Some alternative programs offer comprehensive training that doesn’t look much different from traditional programs, while others have minimal standards and requirements. Colleges and universities, nonprofits, school districts, and for-profit companies all run alternative programs.
A recent NCTQ report on online-only prep programs in Texas, which used federal Title II data from the 2021-22 school year, revealed that teachers who completed fully online programs in the state experienced much higher turnover rates and worse five-year retention rates compared to peers who completed traditional or in-person alternative programs. The report also showed that students taught by educators trained in these fully online programs experienced declines in reading and math achievement.
Other studies trying to compare in-person alternative teacher prep to traditional programs have not definitively concluded one is better than the other in terms of effectiveness.
Noble said he applauds creative thinking about how to bolster the teacher workforce right now, but he also expressed concern about “fast-track” teacher-prep programs that may leave new educators ill-prepared for their roles.
“It just creates this endless churn of supply and demand,” he said, “because the lack of quality preparation just doesn’t set up the teacher or the students for any degree of success.”
