Who Will Teach Montana’s Kids?
Out of concern for the future of the profession, I paused my work on “How To Not Start a Cult (Probably)” to see what could be done to address my concerns.
In the spring of 2026, we (Janet and Aaron) noticed that music programs across eastern Montana were struggling. A nearby program was cut simply due to being unable to fill the music teacher vacancy.
Furthermore, there were very few fully qualified music teachers in eastern Montana that were younger than us, who have been in education for over 20 years.
Upon digging into our suspicions, it appears the problems run deeper than we thought, and the situation is much more dire than anticipated.
We need to come together to secure the future of Montana’s educational system.
Asking the Right Questions
I had concerns. We definitely had problems just based on my observations, but I didn’t have enough information to really know what we were facing.
To address these concerns, I had several questions, which in turn created more questions and concerns that needed to be answered.
Will Montana’s music teacher shortage worsen, get better, or stay the same in the coming years?
It takes 4-5 years to fully train a teacher, so waiting until the shortage worsens to take action will be too little, too late.
When do our current music teachers plan to retire or otherwise leave the profession?
Many of the music teachers I know are my age. When we leave will there be enough teachers to replace us?
Is the shortage as severe as I fear it will be in the coming years, or am I missing something critical that makes the picture a little less dire?
Are teachers in general (not just music teachers) facing the same dire numbers?
Principals know it’s hard to fill CTE, music, math, and SPED.
It’s likely the shortage is more severe in some specialties than others.
What is causing teachers to leave?
Most teachers can tell you exactly why they are leaving.
Teachers face:
Low pay and expensive benefits
Aggression from students
Aggression from community members
Bullying (relational aggression) from colleagues and supervisors
Constantly being portrayed negatively in the media, especially in relation to political issues
Constantly changing educational initiatives
Being expected to take on all sorts of social issues and responsibilities that are outside of actual teaching
Brutal working conditions
The State of Montana has to be aware of this, right?
The state is aware there is a teacher shortage. Kind of.
I contacted both the Office of Public Instruction and the Department of Labor with my concerns.
I’ve attached the only documents I can find that somewhat address my concerns (see buttons to the right on desktop and at the bottom of this section on mobile.)
The Department of Labor analysis doesn’t separate the kinds of teachers we have, and they lump teachers together somewhat with daycare providers, so they seem to be unaware of how desperate some of the shortages are.
It’s very hard to find CTE, Math, SPED, and music teachers.
The OPI document is several years old.
Judging by the info in the OPI document, OPI is only tracking current open positions and if they are filled by people with emergency certifications/retirees.
They don’t appear to be looking ahead.
The REL report is the closest to addressing my concerns, but all of the information is from before COVID, which really has changed everything in education.
If you know something pertinent to these issues that I haven’t found, please contact me at dapper.jackalope@gmail.com.
They don’t seem to be aware of a few things, however.
I cannot find evidence that they are looking past the current year to predict a worsening shortage. I don’t think they are noticing that most current teachers are older, meaning when my generation retires or leaves that the shortage will rapidly worsen.
While teacher pay is an enormous part of the problem and steps have been (somewhat) taken to address it, I strongly suspect the working conditions are also part of it. Not addressing working conditions for teachers will allow the shortage to worsen or persist.
To the best of my knowledge, all measures being taken by the state to address the shortage are bandaids and do nothing to actually address the systemic issues that are causing teachers to leave and students to fail.
Talking with my colleagues has only deepened my concerns.
As of October 2026, there are 29 music positions statewide that have gone unfilled. (Our best estimate from working with the Montana Music Mentor Program.)
As of October 2026, there are only two music student teachers statewide.
It should be noted that there will likely be more student teachers in the spring of 2027, but I doubt there will be enough to fill both the backlog of vacancies and future vacancies.
Action Plan
I met with colleagues I respect through several of the professional organizations I am a part of, including Montana Bandmasters and the Montana Music Mentor Program.
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With input from several colleagues and an expert on relational aggression, it became clear we needed more information to make a plan.
Using my training in sociology I developed two surveys.* I am operating these two surveys using my media company’s resources (Dapper Jackalope) to avoid utilizing school resources for a personal project.
One survey seeks to predict the future of the music teacher shortage and has been distributed throughout our professional organization. This survey is for music teachers only.
The second survey is for any teacher who has taught or student taught at any time in the state of Montana since the fall of 2023. It seeks to establish correlations between pay, positive working conditions, negative working conditions, and the likelihood of retaining a teacher in their position.
We need to hear from:
Teachers who are still teaching.
Teachers who are happy with their jobs.
Teachers who are unhappy with their jobs.
Teachers who left the state since the fall of 2023 to teach elsewhere.
Teachers who began or finished student teaching but never entered the profession.
Teachers who retired early.
Teachers who left the profession entirely.
*Montana Bandmasters, or any other part of the MMEA organization, has not officially requested any of my actions regarding a survey or any other kinds of research that I am doing. They have been a wonderful sounding board, but I am largely working on this issue by myself because I care about the future of Montana educators. My son wants to be a teacher, and I want him to have a better experience than most of us have had.
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Once we have enough survey responses, we will crunch the numbers and publish the results. We need to get the results in front of policy makers, principals, and the public so they can all understand that the shortage is about much more than teacher pay.
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Once the teacher surveys are complete, we need to survey colleges in the state to see how many teachers will be joining the profession.
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We need a group of people, teachers, principals, lawmakers, and community members, to come together to design systemic changes to Montana’s schools.
This group needs to be guided by pragmatism over politics. Neither party has clean hands for why we are where we are today, but engaging in a blame game will waste precious time, resources and energy that we can ill afford.
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How Can You Help?
Take the working conditions survey if you have taught or student taught in public schools (Pre-K-College) since the fall of 2023.
Email Janet at dapper.jackalope@gmail.com to request a survey link.
Join my mailing list to get updates on survey results.
You can sign up with your contact info below.
You can also join my private Facebook Group that addresses this issue.
Volunteer to help with the survey, the policy group, or to help get the results in front of legislators and school boards.
You can sign up to volunteer below.