California will roll out its first state-registered teacher apprenticeship program this fall, a plan designed to let prospective educators earn pay and work toward a credential while filling high-need vacancies. The program comes as California officials and researchers say persistent staffing gaps have pushed districts to rely on underprepared teachers, emergency permits, and substitutes—especially in parts of the Central Valley, far northern regions, and rural areas near the Sierra.
In testimony at a state hearing last month, Mary Vixie Sandy, the executive director of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, said the state is seeing more teachers enter the profession but “too many are leaving.” She linked that turnover to what she called “a continued reliance on underprepared personnel, emergency-type permits, and substitutes to fill persistent vacancies,” describing the scale of the problem facing schools.
The Commission’s most recent report cited by Sandy shows that, in the last academic year, almost 16,000 teachers entered California classrooms underprepared—about 5% of the total teacher workforce. The report also highlights that underprepared-teacher rates are higher in areas including the Central Valley, the far north and rural parts of the state, where districts often struggle to recruit and keep staff.
Becoming a teacher in California requires a credential that can cost more than $30,000 in addition to a bachelor’s degree, and students must spend at least 600 hours in a classroom, often without pay. The combination of tuition costs and unpaid classroom time, along with low starting salaries that are often around $63,000 a year, has left many teachers paying off student debt while trying to remain employed, according to an analysis cited from the Learning Policy Institute.
For districts that cannot find fully credentialed teachers quickly, interim hiring has become common. While some educators in high-need schools receive temporary permits, it can take years to pay off education debt, and retention rates are especially low for teachers who lack the proper credentials, AP reported.
A central goal of the new apprenticeship model is to avoid starting teachers in classrooms before they are fully trained. The apprenticeship effort builds on related programs such as teacher residencies, in which trainees co-teach and receive mentorship before being responsible for a classroom. In preparation for the first apprenticeship cohort, the Tulare and Santa Clara county offices of education spent about two years setting up their programs, with plans to serve eight students in the first year.
At the Hanford schools in California’s Central Valley, the teacher staffing challenge illustrates why training-with-support is viewed as important. Brooke Berrios, who oversees teacher preparation programs at the Tulare County Office of Education, said it can be easier to hire interns but asked “at what cost,” describing the practice of filling classrooms with underqualified teachers in some cases while they work to complete licensing requirements.
Luis Garcia, a special education teacher at Hanford West High School who received a Teacher of the Year award, said he began teaching in 2018 without the proper qualifications. He later mentors residents and interns, and said he can see differences in the training they receive, describing the early period as difficult because he “was on [his] own,” according to the report.
The federal funding landscape has also shaped the pipeline for these training models. The AP report said that in 2024, the Biden administration awarded the Tulare County Office of Education roughly $18 million to expand and improve teacher training, including designing future residencies and apprenticeships. The Trump administration cut that funding last year, saying the grants promoted “divisive ideologies,” including diversity, equity and inclusion, that did not align with U.S. Education Department “priorities.”
That shift affected districts that had planned to grow residency opportunities. In Hanford, local teacher data reviewed by CalMatters showed that about half of the teachers who started without the proper training during the COVID-19 pandemic later left.
For one prospective teacher, Hayden Pulis, the funding cut created uncertainty late in the planning process. He told AP he decided to return to Hanford after finishing his bachelor’s degree and coaching football, applying to join a residency program while preparing to take on teaching responsibilities. After a meeting a few weeks later informed him the money had been cut, the report said the district found a solution using other state funds, but his stipend was reduced to $35,000; he said it relieved pressure about whether the program would proceed.
California has also relied on state spending to address shortages, including about $2.1 billion over the past decade. That funding includes residency programs supported by state stipends, plus the Golden State Teacher Grant, which gives up to $10,000 toward credential costs in exchange for working in certain schools serving students including low-income students, English learners, or foster youth. The report said the Golden State Teacher Grant is set to end this year unless state lawmakers approve new funding, and the state is launching a new grant starting this summer that pays student teachers $10,000 for hundreds of hours of classroom work during their preparation.
In Hanford, residents and apprenticeships are framed as a way to make teaching financially and professionally viable, rather than forcing candidates to accept unpaid training or long periods of delayed earnings. For Garcia, the apprenticeship-residency model represents a more structured path than the one he had when he started; for Pulis, the program’s stipend and Golden State Teacher Grant support made it possible to move to California and cover tuition amid major life expenses.