‘A game changer’: New virtual learning program addresses Mississippi’s teacher shortage

Thanks to a new partnership between the Mississippi Department of Education and Mississippi Public Broadcasting, students across the state will be getting new teachers this year.

But those teachers won’t be in classrooms, sitting behind desks. They’ll be on the screen.

The REACH MS program, also called the Mississippi Virtual Synchronous Learning Initiative, funded by a $2.2 million appropriation from the Legislature, is a response to the teacher shortage afflicting swaths of Mississippi schools.

There are thousands of vacant teaching posts in Mississippi, according to a recent MDE survey. While the virtual-teacher program doesn’t replace recruitment efforts, said associate state superintendent Bryan Marshall, it’s one of the state’s latest attempts to address the teacher shortage. Thos