(WHTM)– Although Pennsylvania’s population is flat, its supply of new teachers is shrinking fast from 20,000 new teachers a year in Pennsylvania a decade ago to just 5,000 annually now. That is a 75% drop.

School enrollment is declining. Still, leaders say the commonwealth needs more people like Luis Sanchez.

“I like knowing that I maybe can make a difference,” Sanchez said.

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Sanchez is studying at Temple University – to become a teacher. Not enough other people doing that across the commonwealth. So the problem, in short, according to some leaders?

“We need more teachers,” State Rep. Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia/Montgomery) said at a capitol rotunda event where aspiring teachers like Luis and others also spoke. The slightly longer reason for the problem, according to Hughes and other folks there?

“You say you care about education,” Hughes said. “You say you believe that education is the great equalizer. You say that teachers are important. Then let’s treat them like that. Let’s give them the resources.”

In other words – money. That can mean higher teacher salaries – but also – money for people before they become teachers. In other words, stipends for student teachers – like the ones supported by State Rep. Jason Ortitay (R-Allegheny/Washington).

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This Week in Pennsylvania

“So this teacher stipend program was what I was calling for, but unfortunately it wasn’t fully funded,” Ortitay said.

“It would help me a lot because when you’re working as a student teacher, that’s going to be a lot of time and hours,” Sanchez said.

A particular issue for another problem within the bigger problem – an especially small supply of teachers of color. Ortitay says a group of Pittsburgh-area school districts have done a good job addressing that.

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“The goal is to give educators a space to voice their concerns and feel supported, while bolstering the number of teachers of color entering and staying in the field,” Ortitay said.

Back to the student-teacher stipends -those will be the main focus of another bipartisan news conference Wednesday morning.

Governor Josh Shapiro has asked for $15 million for those in his budget.

Republican state senator Ryan Aument of Lancaster will be among the folks at the conference.

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