Kansas City nonprofit addressing teaching shortage through real estate
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — One Kansas City nonprofit is building up a unique way to get teachers into metro schools by acquiring real estate and creating a built-in community.
Teachers Like Me was planning to build affordable housing for recruited teachers before the COVID pandemic put those new construction plans on hold.
Still, Dr. Trinity Davis’ organization bought its first home, before eventually building two others in the Manheim Neighborhood.
“If you just look at who’s coming out of college with education degrees right now, we don’t have enough to fill the needs in the classrooms,” Davis said.
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She experienced that challenge first hand as a teachers and former administrator in the Kansas City Public Schools system.
Her program is three years long, recruiting teachers from across the nation to come to Kansas City. When they’re here, they get extra professional development and support in and out of the classroom, while they work towards additional certifications and degrees. Partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) bring teachers who can identify with their students on a deeper level.
“I know growing up, I didn’t have a lot of black educators and I think for my students, when they see someone who looks like them, it gives them a calm and a peace that, this person gets it, this person cares about me,” said Alexandria Millet, who teaches 10th grade in Kansas City.
Millet initially planned to only stay for a year when she came to Kansas City for AmeriCorps. Teachers Like Me will keep her in KC for at least the next three years, while roughly 16 empty lots around her home will also be developed into homes for roughly 70 educators.
“Education just moves the needle in so many ways in our community so to have black educators in the space that they also serve, students see that, they really do there and it just goes without saying,” Millet said.
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Davis hopes to have those other homes built by 2026 or 2027.
“It’s amazing but it just shows Kansas City is wrapping its arms around teachers but also around making sure that we have teachers of color,” Davis said.
