SUN VALLEY, Calif. — Showing students where he’s been is just one part of how David Montoya hopes to inspire them.

“I want students to see that they can also go to these places. I want students to see that they can go to UCLA. I want students to know they can go to the university of their dreams. They can travel to wherever they want,” he said as he established his classroom.

Montoya is a first year teacher at Alliance MIT, a charter school in Sun Valley. He came to the United States at 10-years old from Mexico and says it was his teachers that inspired him to pursue a career in education.

“The connections key teachers had in my life had a significant impact on me pursuing higher education. It’s because of those teachers that inspired me, I want to give back to my community and tell them they can also be someone in life,” he said.

Montoya is one of the 140 new educators in LA County recruited and placed in a school by Teach For America. It’s a two-year program that coaches, trains and guides people through the process of becoming a teacher and pays them a stipend. 

Lida Jennings is the Teach for America executive director in Los Angeles.

“That wrap-around of both the support system and that stipend means they don’t have to do four or five things at once while they are also trying to become the best possible teacher and build up all their required skills,” she said.

In the most recent report by the California commission on teacher credentialing, the fiscal year 2021-2022 marked a first-time decrease in the number of new credentials issued after a steady increase in the last seven years. 

It is working with nonprofits like Teach for America that helped Jonathan Tiongco, the founding principal and executive director of Alliance MIT, to get all his positions filled before school amid a statewide teacher shortage.

Through Teach for America, new teachers commit to teaching at Title 1 schools, those with a high percentage of lower-income students, for a minimum of two years.

“The teacher shortage impacts all schools, but in particular your lower-performing or lower-income communities of color is where you see most of the teacher shortage hitting,” Tiongco said.

As for Montoya, he believes pay increases would help bring more teachers into the profession.

“Having more support, training from organizations like teach for America where they have been providing me mentors,” he said.

Montoya said this support makes him feel confident as he heads into his first year of teaching.