Maryland officials announced on October 19 that teacher vacancies have fallen to 572 this school year, compared with 2,145 in 2022–23—a reported decline of 73.3%. Governor Wes Moore, State Superintendent Carey M. Wright and State Board of Education President Joshua L. Michael presented the state figures, which WMAR reported from the government’s release.
The administration credits salary improvements, recruitment, retention and programs helping school employees become licensed teachers. That is the state’s explanation, not an independently established measurement of each initiative’s contribution. The announcement reports an overall improvement while also leaving hundreds of positions unfilled.
The state announcement highlighted Anne Arundel County, where vacancies fell from 283 in 2022 to 16 on this year’s first school day. They said the largest statewide year-to-year decline, 45.3%, occurred between 2024–25 and 2025–26. Those comparisons provide context for the four-year total, but one district’s improvement does not establish the staffing position of every Maryland school.
Turning existing staff into licensed teachers
The state’s August awards show one part of the workforce strategy: $14.7 million in a second round of Grow Your Own Educators grants for 13 school systems, intended to support 845 educators. The governor’s office said that round emphasized high-need fields, including special education and early childhood, rather than treating the shortage as a single undifferentiated hiring problem.
According to the Maryland State Department of Education’s program guidance, grants support partnerships among school systems, employee organizations and higher-education institutions or approved alternative models. Noncertified support professionals and provisional teachers can pursue full licensure while continuing to work. Participants receive financial help during preparation and pledge three years of full-time teaching in a high-needs school, grade level or subject within their existing system.
The award record distinguishes those pathways: several districts are supporting paraeducators and other education support staff in earning degrees and licenses, while an Eastern Shore consortium is helping conditionally certified teachers finish licensure requirements. These are training commitments, not a count of teachers who have already completed the programs.
A paid route into the profession
A separate apprenticeship announcement, issued in September 2025, described paid classroom work, mentoring and college partnerships while candidates earn degrees and teaching licenses. Its design combines employment with preparation instead of requiring candidates to complete a traditional program before beginning classroom work. That announcement identified the education department, the Maryland State Education Association and the Department of Labor as partners, building on a framework first used by St. Mary’s County Public Schools in 2024.
For families evaluating the latest news, the key distinction is between statewide progress and a particular classroom’s staffing. For aspiring educators, the licensure pathways offer a concrete explanation of the state’s approach. The reported vacancy decline is significant, but it does not by itself measure teacher qualifications, retention or the effect of any single recruitment program.
