This school year, Montana, a state with fewer than 8,000 teachers, had 1,000 unfilled teaching positions. Meanwhile, Dutton-Brady Public Schools, a rural district about an hour from the Canadian border, easily filled its three vacancies.
91心頭istrators credit a blue-hued room strewn with toys and highchairs: Little Diamondbacks Daycare, which is located inside the districts K-12 school, steps from the cafeteria and the library. On a chilly Monday morning, children were trying on costumes, riding rocking horses and enjoying a rowdy game of musical chairs.
Eight-month-old Rowan watched the action from the arms of a staffer. Rowans mother, Jessica Toner, is a rookie teacher who heads the third-fourth grade classroom down the hall. Though Toner was offered four higher-paying positions in Great Falls, where she lives, she could neither find nor afford decent child care. I called probably 15 different day cares, she said, but they either didnt have openings or were too expensive. It was a nightmare.
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