A leader in the community service sector, Rose Padilla Johnson serves as the CEO of the Davis Street Community Center (DSCC) in San Leandro, California. Providing strong leadership to DSCC and the San Leandro community since 1991, Rose Padilla Johnson oversees the Center’s child care program that provides a rich early-learning environment to 1,200 children each month.
Even after acquiring kindergarten readiness skills, some students in California still face the challenge of not having enough qualified teachers. Out of 211 California school districts surveyed by the Learning Policy Institute, nearly 75 percent were unable to find enough teachers to fill their classrooms in 2016. Instead, the districts filled the gap by issuing more than 12,000 provisional or limited assignments to teachers during the 2016-2017 school year.
To rectify the fully-qualified-teacher shortage, California lawmakers are spending more than $200 million. This includes funds for teaching training and recruitment programs, including $45 million to help temporary teachers become credentialed, $10 million for new undergraduate programs, and $9 million for teacher and administrator recruitment and retention. In addition, the 2018 California state education budget allocated $100 million to fund teacher residencies to increase special-education teaching staff, and $25 million more to fund teacher residencies in science, math, and bilingual education.
