LOS ANGELES – A California teacher shortage is compelling some school districts to rely more on substitutes and intern teachers, although some groups are finding innovative ways to replenish the workforce.

Baby Boomer era teachers retiring, combined with a decline in new teachers and increased state education funding for schools to hire teachers is fueling a mad scramble for educators in the Golden State, Southern California Public Radio reports.

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“We have heard that there is a teacher shortage coming and it started to hit last year, and it’s kind of snowballed right now,” Donna Glassman-Sommer, teacher recruiter for Tulare County Office of Education, told the news site. “What they have predicted has arrived.”

SCPR cites a state report showing the number of new teachers is down 26 percent in the past five years, and ties the problem to “recession-era budget cuts that also drove many experienced teachers from the field.”

The site contends that some schools are employing more interns or substitute teachers to fill vacant teaching spots, but doesn’t quantify or qualify the claim. Regardless, SCPR points to the lower requirements for temporary teachers – interns usually have a bachelor’s and some teacher training while substitutes are typically about half-way to their four-year degree – with the obvious implication that student learning is suffering.

“What is worrisome is that, you know, we’ve worked really hard to place fully credentialed teachers in the classroom and now that is becoming more and more difficult because they just aren’t out there,” Glassman-Sommer said.

Los Angeles Unified School District teacher intern coordinator Patricia Pernin, who’s also president of the California Teacher Corps, anticipates the problem is going to get worse before it gets better.

“I think it’s especially going to be urgent coming July in 2016 as we see all of the baby boomers, we would like to say, retiring and deciding to move on to another part of their life,” Pernin said.

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LAUSD currently has 150 teaching job openings for next school year, including 30 art instructors, SCPR reports.

And while the state report shows enrollment in teacher training programs is down again this year for the twelfth consecutive year, Aimee Nelson, interim director of Cal State Fullerton’s Center for Careers in Teaching, the shortage is creating renewed interest in the field.

“We’re starting to see more of an interest in our incoming freshmen, even in terms of who’s interested in teaching, we’re seeing more students coming in for advising,” she said. “It’s definitely ramping up.”

In the meantime, nonprofits like the EnCorps STEM Teachers Program are stepping in to help fill the current gaps in the state’s teaching ranks. EnCorps recruits experienced private-sector workers in science, technology engineering, and math, and retrains them to teach in public schools, National Journal reports.

According to the site:

Its participants, on average, boast 17 years of work experience in one of those fields (25 percent come from aerospace or engineering, and another 24 percent have high-tech backgrounds). At first, the program was geared toward retraining workers age 50 and older, but EnCorps has recently opened up its ranks to younger workers and to veterans. Not quite half of the participants are 50 years or older.

The program works like this: A STEM worker interested in a teaching career goes through a rigorous application and interview process. This involves several written essay questions, a commitment to work in a school where teachers are needed, and four hours of interviews, in which the applicant must present a sample school lesson. EnCorps accepts fewer than 10 percent of applicants.

The program’s participants run through a three-day professional development institute before enrolling in a teacher credentialing program at their own expense. They’re require to complete the program before EnCorps help place them in a technical school like STEM Academy of Hollywood.

There, principal Paul Hirsch said EnCorps grads are helping inner city students connect what they’re learning in class to the real world.

“There’s a promise there of building career skills for these kids,” Hirsch told National Journal. “Some of the disillusionment in an inner-city school goes away.”