Where have all the language teachers gone?

eacher shortages are shrinking world language offerings at schools across New York, and that’s translating into a long-term pipeline issue.

As the number of teacher prep programs across the state has declined, so have the number of programs specifically focused on world language instruction. Between 2019 and 2024, SUNY New Paltz, Fredonia, Potsdam, Buffalo, and Ithaca College cut their undergraduate programs in French and Spanish education and consolidated or cut their world language graduate teaching programs, and SUNY Brockport and Manhattan College phased out French. Today, there are just 18 programs to serve the hiring needs of the entire state.

As a result, school world language departments are often vying for new teachers from a tiny pool of candidates, and if districts can’t find a language teacher for their program, they may be forced to downsize.

“World language teacher shortages often look different than shortages in other disciplines,” said Mike Mitchell, a high school Spanish teacher, member of the Bethlehem Central Teachers Association and executive director of the state Association for Language Teachers. In many cases, Mitchell explained, when vacancies in world languages appear, districts reduce the number of sections, combine levels, eliminate upper-level courses, and even phase out languages completely.

High school French teacher Denise Mahns, a member of the Fayetteville-Manlius TA and the American Association of Teachers of French, has been called on to advocate for keeping language programs in place at schools across the state. Now, her own district is going through a transition. A fairly affluent district, Fayetteville-Manlius offers high schoolers French, Spanish, German and Latin, but due to budget constraints and shifting enrollment, the district has decided to forgo replacing a retiring Spanish teacher. The department will absorb the impact, with class sizes across the grades increasing and some teachers being asked to take on extra courses.

“We’re being stretched to our limits,” Mahns said. Still, she acknowledges, they are in a better position than many.

“I have a colleague in a rural district, and she is the language department,” Mahns said.

Unfortunately, limiting student access to languages only further exacerbates the teacher shortage.

“When students lose access to sustained language study they may also lose pathways to the Seal of Biliteracy, college credit opportunities and, perhaps most importantly, the inspiration to become future language educators themselves,” Mitchell said.

“It’s a vicious cycle,” said Barbara Patterson, United Liverpool Faculty Association and chair of NYSUT’s World Languages Subject Area Committee. “If we’re not creating a learning environment for students, then they’re not going to go into education, and colleges are going to cut more programs, and the cycle is going to keep continuing.”

Patterson said she has seen the patterns play out repeatedly: cash-strapped districts that lose language programs because they can’t compete with more monied districts for new teachers and districts that slash their language programs because bare-bones budgets force them to choose between state-mandated “core” curriculum and so-called “incidentals.”

Only, world languages aren’t incidental, Patterson, Mitchell and Mahns emphasized. World language programs boast substantial benefits for students, and research shows that taking a world language boosts brain function, strengthens vocabulary, results in higher scores in reading, writing and math, opens career paths, and is linked to higher salaries.

But perhaps most importantly, because cultural competence and interpersonal communication are embedded in language standards, students who take world languages develop respect and understanding for people different from themselves.

To increase the supply of world language teachers, educators say the certification process needs to be streamlined. According to NYSUT’s 2026 report, “Forging a New Future: Teacher Recruitment and Certification,” recent changes have reinforced the perception that getting a teaching certificate in New York is “difficult, messy and overly complicated.” The report makes a case for simplifying — not weakening — the tangled certification system and recommends that requirements be communicated more clearly, especially to second-career teachers and transitional certificate holders.

Mitchell agrees. “The solution is not lowering standards, but strengthening the pipeline through paid student teaching, mentorship, university partnerships, and intentional recruitment of multi-lingual and heritage speakers,” he said.

Prospective teachers also need help understanding the certification process, said Patterson. “If you start out with your bachelor’s degree, the college you attend will usually help you navigate the certification process, but people who take other paths to teaching don’t have that same level of assistance,” she said.

In addition to supporting teacher prep programs, funding needs to be restored for study abroad and paid internships, said Mahns. And something more fundamental.

“We need to do a better job communicating the love we have for our profession,” said Mahns.