National FFA Organization faces greatest challenge in securing qualified agriculture teachers amid a national shortage.
As agriculture education programs continue to grow, schools and FFA chapters are struggling to secure qualified agriculture teachers amid a national shortage. The National FFA Organization identifies the shortage as the greatest challenge facing FFA and agriculture education, which rely on certified agriculture teachers to cultivate students’ knowledge, manage FFA chapters, and guide leadership development.
«We look over the history of agricultural education, and the identification and recruitment of high-quality, talented ag teachers have been a longstanding challenge,» said Dr. Travis Park, National FFA Advisor and Director of Agricultural Education, who also chairs the National FFA Board of Directors. «Especially as FFA membership and ag programs have grown in the last 10 years, we really feel the pinch for ag teachers.»
According to Park, growth is the primary factor for the shortage, as about 150 new FFA chapters are chartered each year, and from 2023 to 2024 there was a net increase of almost 300 agriculture teaching positions nationwide, representing a 2 percent growth rate.
Still, recent data indicates that the shortage isn’t only tied to expansion. The 2024 National Agricultural Education Supply & Demand Study Executive Summary reported that while nearly 400 teaching positions and 236 programs were added nationwide, 107 teaching positions were lost and 58 programs closed. The most common reasons included a lack of available teachers, low enrollment, and insufficient funding; funding-related losses in particular rose from 5 percent in 2023 to 21 percent in 2024.