There is arguably nothing more important to our future economy than the quality of our education system, and there is nothing more important to that than the quality and availability of teachers. But as anyone who's followed the news in the last couple of years knows, we are currently facing something of a crisis in the availability of qualified teachers.

Here are some stats to put that crisis into perspective. According to EdWeek, there are over 3.1 million full-time equivalent teachers in public schools in the fall of 2022.

But the National Education Association estimates that there is a shortage of roughly 300,000 teachers in public schools. So 10% of needed teachers are missing. We should have 3.4 million. But in fact, the number of full-time—not full-time equivalent teachers—is less than 3.1 million. That full-time equivalent number, includes aides and part-time teachers, so in fact, the missing 300,000—maybe more like missing 20% of full-time teachers.

According to EdWeek, again, there are nearly 50 million students in public schools across the country. So using the teacher-to-student ratio of 50 million students and 3.4 million teachers, that works out to just under about 15 kids per teacher. So missing 300,000 teachers works out to about four and a half million kids without sufficient teacher-led instruction. Without a major shift in education policy, there is not much that can change on the demand side that is in the school system to attract much more supply.

But our guest today, Mallory Dwinal-Palisch, has come up with not one but two initiatives. One, to help increase the supply of trained teachers, and the other, to remove friction in the system so supply can better meet demand. She has an MBA, but also a Ph.D., and her dissertation was about labor supply and Teach for America. She's taught in the classroom and founded charter schools. She is the Chancellor of Reach University and the CEO of Craft Education Systems.

Enjoy part 1 of the episode and Thanks for Being Curious!