KENNEWICK — Holly Kirkendall was pulled in all different directions recently — by FFA members, advisors and even her own students.
Though only about 200 students attend Burbank’s Columbia High School, Kirkendall’s school was hosting double that number for the annual FFA Evergreen Leadership Tour.
Kirkendall is Columbia High’s only agricultural and career teacher. She’s been with the district about 16 years and wears a lot of hats as an instructor, from FFA advisor to coach and shop teacher.
“We do it because it’s a labor of love and we want the best for these kids,” she told the Tri-City Herald.
Ag teachers like Kirkendall serve as the backbone of career and technical education (CTE) programs in rural school districts across the U.S.
Their time in the classroom — and, often, outside of it — helps prepare the next generation of food producers, business leaders and agricultural researchers.
But what happens when there’s not enough of them?
Since at least the 1960’s there’s been a shortage of ag teachers serving public schools.
And while the number of positions in Washington and the U.S. has grown in the decades following, there remains a concerning gap between the demand for these teachers and the number who are actively filling positions.
Nationally, about 400 positions go unfilled every year.
The National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) reports there were more than 13,000 agriculture teachers employed last year and close to 1,000 open positions in total.
In Washington state, at least 357 ag teachers were employed last year. Of those positions, 63% were full-time. NAAE did not list any reliable data for Washington vacancies.
School districts in Kennewick, Richland and Pasco combined had just four ag teaching positions open over the summer. Three of those were filled, according to job postings that were listed by the Department of Crop and Soil Science at Washington State University.
“If we don’t have enough certified ag teachers, we could see a loss of positions or programs,” said Anna Warner, assistant professor of agricultural education in WSU’s Department of Crop and Soil Science. “Once those programs are lost, it takes a lot for them to get started again.”
In small communities like Burbank, east of Tri-Cities in Walla Walla County, where often it’s just one person teaching hundreds of students, having that position filled could mean the difference between having agricultural education and not.
Agriculture and food and beverage production supports about 164,000 jobs in Washington state and is a $20 billion industry, according to the Tri-City Development Council (TRIDEC).
Those figures don’t include the large swaths of ag research and development that take place in the Tri-Cities and greater Eastern Washington region.
Demand for agriculture teachers continues to rise due to program growth, expansion, retirements and new openings.
Educated consumers
Experts say fewer agricultural teachers in growing public schools means less educated consumers, voters and fewer workers for the industry.
“A lot of people will walk into a grocery store and not think twice when they walk past that gallon of milk,” said Dany Payne, executive director of the Washington FFA Association.
Consumer decisions are a huge driver in influencing what kinds of foods that farmers, ranches and corporations produce — and also how they’re made.
Columbia played host to the sixth of a seven-stop run for the Evergreen Leadership Tour — a week for FFA members to highlight workshops, meeting members and advisors, and to share excitement about the high school program. Ag teachers, Payne said, are the “lifeblood of FFA.”
Among the workshops was a session by WSU ag education students, who were there to raise awareness of the shortages and speak about career opportunities with high schoolers.
“We want to teach them about ag education because there is a shortage, and also (educate them) about the pathways and how to get that knowledge,” said Kaitlynn Davis, a WSU grad student studying agriculture sciences.
Kaitlyn Wright, a program coordinator in WSU’s Department of Animal Sciences, said her high school, Spanaway Lake, didn’t have any ag programs when she attended. She got into ag education while working at WSU’s Knott Dairy Center during her undergraduate.
Warner said while most teachers get into the field with an undergraduate degree and teaching certificate, some will also come over from industries to teach through a Plan 2 certification. But those teachers can only teach within their field of expertise.
Pay, location and hours remain a challenge to recruiting applicants. And with a relatively slim number of jobs per school district, some graduates looking to teach ag education look to other states.
“It’s difficult to recruit people into these smaller communities,” Payne said.
Long careers
The retention rate of ag teachers remains high compared to their peers in the general education space.
Last year, schools saw about 96% of ag teachers return, according to NAAE. That number is at a historic high.
But due to COVID and declining college enrollment, the number of students nationwide majoring in agricultural education dropped last year for the first time in six years.
“It’s critical. People don’t understand the importance of what we do,” Kirkendall said. “It’s not a dying field. It’s an ever-growing field with advancements and technology.”
Kirkendall, who makes about $91,808 in annual base salary, tells her students they can make a good living as a public school teacher and if you put in the years.
A new teacher’s salary in Washington state can start at about $55,000, though that number can vary from district to district.
The debunked myth that teachers get summers off is especially true for Kirkendall and her “department of one.”
Despite only getting paid 25 hours throughout the entire month of August, she spent about 138 hours in curriculum work and getting certified to teach a course her students are interested in.
There’s also the work at summer fairs, where students gather in a culmination of agriculture and skills projects. Teachers can spend hundreds of hours with students throughout the years on these.
But despite all the challenges, Kirkendall says she loves her job and the chance to make a positive impact on students’ lives. Plus, she feels she’s supported.
“I think ag ed is doing a good job at saying, ‘Hey, we need you,’” she said.
