LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s not news that Kentucky is facing a teaching shortage. In fact, a 2017-2018 academic year Council on Postsecondary Education report showed education degrees experienced the largest five-year decline at just over 13 percent. However, in a career where some teachers are leaving the profession due to low salaries, working conditions, and lack of advancement and support, Chris Stein decided to jump in.

“I felt like I got burnt out a little bit, kind of the cubicle day-to-day job and decided I wanted to make a change,” Stein explained. The first year Byck Elementary second grade teacher previously worked in IT, fixing computers.

At the time Stein was looking for a new path, his wife was pursuing a Masters of Arts in Teaching at Bellarmine University. She encouraged him to look into the program. Fast forward to spring 2019, and they both walked across the stage at graduation. As a requirement to graduate, Stein student taught at Byck Elementary.

“There’s a pretty high teacher demand, and for an elementary school only have two positions open was another sign,” the now second grade teacher told Spectrum News 1. “This was a place that has great support, great [administration] staff, great teachers, that want to work together and collaborate.”

The 29-year-old said he’ll also participate in the U.S. Department’s Teacher Loan Forgiveness program , since Byck Elementary is an eligible low-income school. This means after he teaches for five years, up to $5,000 of his student loans could be written off.

Go Teach KY, a campaign to recruit educators in the Bluegrass State, also touts a loan forgiveness program called Kentucky Academy for Equity Teaching (KAET). According to the website, KAET is a program “designed to identify and prepare effective, experienced and diverse public educators in the Commonwealth.” Undergraduates can receive up to $5,000 per semester and graduate students can receive up to $2,500 per semester in loan forgiveness.

Teach Kentucky, an AmeriCorps program, also offers tuition reimbursement for new teachers who are largely from out-of-state.

Stein said that with a master’s degree, his salary is competitive. He believes that by year two his salary will actually be comparable to what he made in IT. However, financials were not initially part of his decision-making process.

“As soon as I got into the classroom I was sold,” he said. “For me, personally, changing the lives of students and future citizens is something that really drives me.”

Stein also said a shortage of male teachers was a main factor in choosing to teach elementary school because he wants to be a healthy male role model for “future citizens.”

When asked if he would ever look back, Stein was confident he would keep walking forward.

He said, “I think this is a vocation, a calling, and it’s something that I feel like I really am meant to do for sure.”

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