CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming Department of Education is preparing to launch a pilot teacher apprenticeship program and eventually offer it across the state to help school districts struggling to get educators into classrooms.
The idea for the apprenticeship program is one of the first things new Wyoming Superintendent Brian Schroeder started working on when he took the helm in February after the resignation of former Superintendent Jillian Balow. During his first few weeks in office, a district superintendent informed Schroeder that her school district was expecting to lose up to 50 teachers before the start of the 2022–2023 school year.
“Her question to me, [me] being new but [her district] in desperation, was, ‘How do I replace that many teachers next year?’” Schroeder said in an interview Wednesday.
