HSU: E-Learning is an essential tool for improving the public teacher corps - Hui-Yin Hsu, Your Houston News

As classes start, public schools across the country are staring down crisis-level teacher shortages. Rapid City, S.D., schools have 50 unfilled teaching positions. Georgia's Houston County has 90. San Francisco has over 100. Florida's Orange County: a whopping 300. As older educators steadily retire, there's a desperate need for new blood in America's teacher corps. Worse still, too many young teachers lack the knowledge required to educate effectively. And the teacher corps remains remarkably homogenous, failing to reflect this nation's diversity. Online teacher certification is the silver-bullet solution to all these challenges. E-learning portals empower people from less traditional career tracks to join the teaching profession, bringing unique perspectives, skills, and backgrounds into the classroom. More universities should offer online teacher training. And public school systems should value these degrees and recruit from these new pools. http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/sugar_land/opinion/hsu-e-learning-is-an-essential-tool-for-improving-the/article_b909ab56-6bc9-11e6-9cf7-2fb4f5bc43a4.html