SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In the northeastern corner of Northern California, in rural Modoc County, a shortage of teachers is creating a serious problem for its school district.

LA Times staff writer Hailey Branson-Potts covers California and joined Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today” to explain why it’s so difficult to recruit teachers to take jobs in shrinking small towns, even when the pay is good and the living is affordable. 

Modoc County is the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, but there are only about 8,500 people living there.

School administrators have had a hard time finding teachers who want to work in a place as isolated as Alturas, California.

“Alturas used to be a logging town. And like many of the communities up there, that was the primary industry. The last sawmills closed about 30 years ago and the town’s never really bounced back. So it’s shrinking, it’s aging, and it’s hard to draw people in,” Branson-Potts said. “There was a teacher who left in February... She quit by email on a Sunday and the school had to scramble. So they split the kids and combined classes and they pieced it together. But it was really tough.”

While the town is isolated, Branson-Potts said teachers make good money, especially compared to other parts of the county. 

“The teaching shortage is nationwide, and one of the big factors is pay. In Modoc County, that’s not exactly the case because, for a small ranching community, teachers make upwards of $100,000, which is really good money. The average home price there is $189,000. It is the lowest in California. So new teachers right out of school have said that they move in there and buy a home. So it’s more of just selling the lifestyle,” she explained.

Administrators have tried to recruit students from out-of-state colleges to come teach in Modoc County. Part of their pitch to prospective hires is the small-town culture and scenic atmosphere of county’s towns. 

With California requiring transitional kindergarten by 2025, rural districts like Modoc County’s may have no choice but to violate the law. 

“And every 4-year-old in the state will be entitled to a chair by [2025]. In Modoc County, they said that they would have to hire three new teachers to be able to take care of that many kids that they would get. They have been put in a position where they have to break the law. They cannot offer it. They said they do not have any applicants,” Branson-Potts said.

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