A Road Map for Improving Literacy in Worcester
Part two of "Worcester’s literacy ‘crisis’"
This is the second post in a two-part series. Make sure you catch up on the first if you haven’t: “Worcester’s literacy ‘crisis’ (part 1).”
Also, this reporting is paid for by Worcester Sucks subscribers. Please consider becoming one of them!
A Road Map for Improving Literacy in Worcester
In part one of this literacy series we learned that Worcester is not in a literacy crisis, but that there’s definitely room to improve. I left you with the questions: How can we all get on the same page, and make sure the time and money we are investing—both inside and outside of school—will make the biggest impact on our district? What is our literacy vision for Worcester Public Schools students? How can we make sure our kids are getting the best education they can? Let’s explore some answers to those questions.
Through my conversations with educators and in doing my own research about best practices internationally, there are four key factors (which will probably come as no surprise) in communities that show high achievement in literacy. They are communities where
schools are well-endowed financially
kids have access to books they want to read and they read often
teachers are well-educated and supported
a child’s first language is the language of the school
In Worcester that might look like enhancing and aligning teacher training programs in the city so that graduates can hit the ground running in WPS schools. It looks like putting libraries back in our elementary schools so students have access to books that they actually want to read. It looks like investing in high quality dual language programs. And it looks like advocating to make sure Worcester Public Schools get fully funded at the city, state, and federal levels, especially for mandates. (Simple, right?)
Where schools are well endowed financially.
When then-Superintendent John Durkin said these words in 1989, Worcester was facing a $9 million budget cut––equivalent to $23 million today. Massachusetts was moving into a deep recession, and the compounded impacts of Proposition 2 ½–-which started in 1982 and limited how much cities and towns could raise property taxes––were being felt as inflation and the cost of educating students (mostly due to mandates in special education) was much higher. From 1982 to 1988 Worcester Public Schools had significant cuts, laying off 325 teachers and 300 other employees and closing elementary schools. Then came the $9 million cut in 1989 and in 1990 WPS cut 362 teachers, 175 long-term substitutes, and 30 aides. That same year all athletics were eliminated, along with elementary art, music, and gym. Full-day kindergarten was reduced to half-day.
Even when a change in the state funding formula was passed in 1993, Worcester still struggled. In 2003 there was a $16 million deficit ($27 million in today’s numbers) and WPS would close eight schools over the next four years. And then the 2008 recession hit. Worcester used $24 million in stimulus funds to offset budget shortfalls for the 2009-2010 school year, but faced a $17 million deficit in 2010-2011 and a $7 million deficit in 2011-2012. Despite parents asking for the city to fund the schools above what was required by law, the cycles of budget cuts just kept coming and the city continues to only contribute the bare minimum each year (sometimes slightly below).
The root of how Worcester became the underfunded district it is today goes back to that passage of proposition 2 ½ in 1980. Capping taxes at 2.5 percent meant that a less wealthy community like Worcester had to increasingly rely on state aid, which left it susceptible to economic downturns and changes in state policies, and essentially disenfranchised the city. As we have especially seen in the last few years, inflation in health insurance costs and special education costs have not kept up with the arbitrary 2.5 percent set in the law. 1 Although I need to be clear here that Worcester does not currently tax to that 2.5 percent max—every year there’s unused levee capacity.
The ins and outs of how Worcester Public Schools are funded, and how that funding has changed over the last 40 years, are too complex to detail here. How schools were funded in 1989 is not how schools are funded today. There is more funding from the state, but also more mandates, which disproportionately impact Worcester compared to other districts. The demographics of the Worcester student body today are also drastically different than in 1980. But what I want you to take away from this brief history lesson is that this underfunding has been going on for at least a generation. Rebuilding from decades of continued cycles of deep budget cuts is not easy. A big school district is not that flexible or resilient. And these cuts are not going away. For the current school year Worcester Public Schools had to cut $22 million in order to balance the budget because the inflation figure used in the state funding formula did not match actual inflation.
The truth is, even in a “good” financial year, Worcester is substantially underfunded. Based on enrollment, the district requires about 209 ESL teachers to deliver a state-mandated level of service, and those teachers cost about $18.5 million. The state only provides the district $10.5 million. Even worse, the actual spending for special education by the district exceeds what the state allocates by $52 million. Again, these are mandates, so the district has to find the money for special education and ESL somewhere else. That means taking money from other priorities. The gaps in educational achievement continue to widen between rich and poor students in Massachusetts, more so than any other state between 2019 and 2023. For a state that lauds itself as an educational leader, that’s pretty damning. State officials are happy to tout being in the top of the country for some kids, then blame districts who serve the majority of the most marginalized students for not doing enough.
So why does all this matter when it comes to literacy? Research shows that spending more money does improve education outcomes. If the state fully funds mandates, it would alleviate the stress of exhausting budget cut cycles that take precious time away from other more academic-focused work. Advocating for better funding methods and fully funding our high-need schools is something we could all do, but would be especially meaningful coming from our civic leaders and elected officials.
Where kids have access to books they want to read and they read often.

The Sarah Ella Wilson Library at the Belmont Street Community School is a large space with one wall of shelves full of books. Just by looking at the spines I can tell the books are a mix of new and old. The new books have been mostly acquired through the efforts of sixth grade English language arts teacher Erika Schmitt Boyle, who writes grants year after year to get updated books for the library and for her classroom. Pulling out the older-looking ones, like a set of books about the 50 states, I noticed the copyrights are from the ‘60s and' 70s, when many elementary school students’ grandparents were in school. Still, the space is inviting with lots of sunlight and newer furniture, which I learn from a plaque on the wall was a donation from Abbvie in 2023. Unfortunately, the library does not get much use because the school does not have the resources or the staffing for students to come check out books.
The story of Belmont Street Community School’s library, could be the story of most elementary libraries in Worcester: a space so valued back in 1972 that the community decided to name it for Wilson, a cherished teacher who worked there for 49 years. tBut a lack of funding and a lack of prioritization over the years has rendered it mostly defunct. There is a huge variability in the libraries in Worcester’s 33 elementary schools. How these rooms get used is highly dependent on space, resources, and what a principal and the district think is important. That means Worcester students have had less and less access to quality, age-appropriate books that they want to read. And anyone who has spent significant time with children knows, if kids don’t have books they want to read, they aren’t going to spend time reading. Research backs up that lived experience.
Studies have shown over and over that reading outside of school improves student reading performance. A 2019 study in Hong Kong—which has mandated libraries in its public schools since 2001—showed that the time students spent on out-of-school reading and how often they checked out books from the library were “significant predictors of reading attainment after controlling for the effects of other variables.” For decades researchers have found that reading for fun—or independent reading-—has increased academic achievement. And a recent study showed that if kids start reading for fun before the age of nine, it not only increases cognitive performance, but also improves mental health and brain structure “which are cornerstones of future learning.”
When I asked Schmitt Boyle if she felt like her students had access to books that they want to read she said, “Books are my passion, so I have spent the past nine years writing grants to make my classroom library as accessible and enticing as possible.” She knows that creating a culture of independent reading requires that “children see themselves in what they read, and can make deep connections with the characters they read about.” And book access for vulnerable populations in Worcester, such as English learners and students with disabilities, can be even more critical, as research has shown that at schools with libraries, fewer of those students tested below basic levels in reading. One way Worcester can help students be better readers is to put libraries back in the elementary schools.
The desire to have libraries in elementary schools is not new. Since the removal of the last remaining elementary school librarian in the early 2000s, the Worcester community has come before the school committee and city council asking to find ways for elementary schools to have libraries and librarians. Bandaids have been put on in the form of One City One Library and the Libby and Lilly bookmobiles, but they’re not enough and create even greater inequities in our system. While some might point to technology and e-books as a way to increase access, an international study has shown that paper books are linked to stronger readers and that reading on paper is better for comprehension. There is no district-wide plan or expectation around libraries, but some parents in the new Worcester Elementary School Library Coalition (including me), are advocating to change that. The coalition recently conducted a survey of elementary principals, and 26 out of 32 felt it is important to have a circulating library where children can go and check out books inside elementary schools. And 24 out of 32 felt that weekly library visits/lessons would be valuable to their students. It’s clear that most parents, teachers, and administrators believe in the power of a school library.
There are four elementary schools with libraries that are run, and paid for, by the Worcester Public Library. The “One City, One Library” initiative won all sorts of awards in 2015 for being an innovative collaboration between the city and the schools, but 10 years in and there has not been any in-depth evaluation of whether the branches are working in the way they were intended. When I spoke to Jason Homer, the executive director of The Worcester Public Library, about the model, he stressed that the functions of a school library and a public library are different, and that “it is challenging to do both things at once.”
The four elementary schools—Goddard, Roosevelt, Burncoat, and Tatnuck—have a total enrollment of about 1,585 students and those branches provided about 22.4 visits on average for each student at those schools last school year. Which is great. But for the 11,047 elementary students who don’t go to one of those schools, the bookmobiles provided visits to 5,936 students last school year. That’s an average of .5 visits per student. Not only are there huge disparities in library access for Worcester students as compared to other public school students in Massachusetts, but also within our school system.
There are some schools that have “working libraries” run by parent and community volunteers or teachers/staff. But it takes hours and hours of volunteer time. Quinsigamond, for example, had Rachel Bromage, who volunteered for 16 years in the school library. She was so invested she had her own parking space at the school. When she was interviewed in the Telegram about it in 2013 she said, “There’s nobody else to do it. A lot of these children do not have access to a public library…This (school library) is fantastic, because it gives them an opportunity to explore our books and read, which is such an important part of anything.” These volunteers are doing their best to be a stop-gap, but it’s not sustainable or equitable. We need elementary librarians. Often the line is there isn’t enough money, but in the most recent teacher contract the district added a fifth prep period for elementary teachers. Elementary students now have five specials, and 39 teaching positions were added accordingly. That could have been 39 librarians and a good opportunity to integrate libraries into each elementary school.
While the district figures out the library vision, teachers try to beef up their classroom libraries, but as Lora Barish, a special education teacher at Woodland Academy, told me: “It’s up to teachers to provide books for students to read, but often times our school day is so limited in time that students never have time to actually sit and read a real book. As a teacher, I’ve always understood that we may have to fund our own classroom, but having to have students take my books home isn’t my favorite because I spend so much money and never get them back.”
As it stands, students spend seven or eight years in elementary school, the majority of their time with the district, with no regular access to books they want to read. When I spoke to a WPS high school librarian, she told me that students often walk into her library and ask what it is, or if the books are for sale. Previous school committee member Jermoh Kamara, who attended WPS, also mentioned her lack of familiarity with libraries at a meeting, saying “How I really understood what libraries do for people was when I was in college, when I worked in a library. And that was when I realized all the things I had missed, and all the things the kids are missing in this district.” If we wait until middle school or high school for students to have access to a school library, it’s already too late.
Where teachers are well-educated and supported.
Over time, school reformers have tried to shift the teacher role away from being the expert in the classroom to technicians who implement curriculum. That shift in how we view teachers impacts educational outcomes and doesn’t allow teachers to practice their craft and teach responsively. Teaching kids how to read is complicated and nuanced, especially for English learners, who now make up over 30 percent of students in the district. Teachers are juggling teaching phonemic awareness, phonics to help students understand the letter-sound relationship, expanding student vocabulary and content knowledge, challenging them intellectually, and teaching them to write—all while adapting teaching methods based on student needs and managing a classroom. When you have a class where students have a wide range of skills, like they often do in Worcester, there’s many more balls in the air to juggle.
Karen Campos is one of those teachers with lots of balls in the air. She has taught at Quinsigamond Elementary School for 16 years and currently teaches second grade, but has taught kindergarten and first grade too. Quinsigamond students are 82 percent low income and 45 percent English learner, and it is the largest elementary school in Worcester, enrolling over 700 students. That means school class sizes tend to be much larger than the district average, typically 24 or more students per class. This year Campos has 25 students, and 12 of them are English learners speaking five different languages. Campos told me, “The biggest challenge for me as a teacher in regards to literacy is the ability to effectively meet all students' needs in a short amount of time.”
So, if Worcester teachers are trained, and treated, as technicians who simply implement curriculum without analyzing and adapting to different situations, their teaching won’t be as effective. Canterbury St. School Principal Mary Sealey put it this way, “No program or curriculum is going to get us the desired results if the teachers are not fully prepared to do the job of teaching kids to read and write. You can’t overstate the importance of the humans.”
In a dynamic and diverse district like Worcester, we need teachers to actively engage in critical thinking, adapt teaching methods based on student needs, and demonstrate a deep understanding of their subject. That requires them to be given the support to practice and hone their craft, something that the district is working to implement across all elementary schools with the quadrant team model. It also requires institutions of higher education—of which there are many in Worcester—to offer pre-service training around what it’s like to actually teach in a classroom in Worcester with so many different needs.
In the decade and a half that Campos has taught, she’s seen an increase of English learners at Quinsigamond. In fact, there has been a monumental demographic shift in Worcester over the last 30 years, with English learners increasing five-fold since 1998. The number of ELs peaked in 2015-16 at 38 percent (the highest in the state at the time), with the incoming kindergarten cohort that year—current ninth graders—being 58 percent EL. This shift has completely altered the makeup of elementary school classrooms, with more classrooms having high percentages of English learners.
Principal Sealey told me, “The past few years have been more challenging in that we have a lot more newcomers to the country entering in the intermediate grades. We had 12 newcomers in a fifth grade classroom. That’s a lot of kids and multiple languages that a teacher needs to work through.” It’s not an easy task, even for seasoned teachers, and they have needed more professional development in order to be more inclusive to those multilingual learners. Campos told me that she wished her education program had offered more strategies on how to differentiate for multiple ability levels, as well as the variety of English proficiency levels. And when I asked Barish if her teaching program prepared her to teach in a district like Worcester, she said “absolutely not.”
A lot of the professional development falls on principals and the district to make sure new teachers are fine tuning the skills they need. Principal Suzanna Resendes who heads the Worcester Dual Language Magnet School said, “Teachers come in with a basic understanding of how the brain works for developing reading. When it comes down to practice and being in the classroom to evaluate and diagnose and almost create that treatment plan, they don’t always understand the trajectory. So my job as a principal is teaching teachers how to teach reading, that is one of the biggest and most important pieces of the puzzle. If they can see what’s happening in front of them with a student's reading, they can understand where to begin in the intervention process.”
Woodland Academy Principal Patty Padilla’s school has always had a majority of English learners—between 50-60 percent most years, although it has risen as high as 74 percent. Padilla has been the principal at the Main South neighborhood K-6 school, which is 91 percent low income and 97 percent high needs, for the last 19 years. She brings a lot of experience of working with large populations of EL students. In every single classroom, at least half of the students are English learners, which brings the challenge of huge differences in language levels, adapting instruction to student needs, and assessing comprehension accurately.
For multilingual learners there is a cross-language transfer of literary skills that happens, but it does not happen on the same “third grade” timeline that researchers and policy makers so often push. If a child is literate in their first language, literacy in a second language will come more easily. In fact, research shows that children who are bilingual and biliterate outperform their monolingual peers on standardized tests, something that is true in Worcester, where former ELs in elementary school have the highest percentage meeting or exceeding expectations on the MCAS. Through her day-to-day work Padilla deeply understands how multilingual learners develop literacy differently and that a strong foundation in their home language will help with their English literacy, as they make connections between the two. She told me that it’s really important to her that every student feels valued and she works to create a culture that does not encourage a deficit mindset. “We have to look at what the kids bring with them,” she told me, “Transfer [from their first language] does not always occur naturally like we see in a textbook. We have to go above and beyond to find what our kids need.”
And while Padilla has not seen a big change in the number of multilingual learners over the decades like other Worcester elementary schools have, one change she is seeing over the last few years is an increase in trauma. “Some of the things we see here is a lot of kids are coming with social emotional challenges. They’re preoccupied with a lot of different worries. We have to do a lot of trauma training for teachers so they understand what that does to the brain. Not as a crutch, but so that they understand when they work with a student they may need to approach things differently.” Barish confirmed this: “Reading requires a lot of working memory, and in the student population I work with, I find that their exposure to trauma, which actually changes the makeup of the brain, heavily impacts their ability to retain material.”
Padilla added, “A lot of families are in crisis. That social emotional piece does interfere with learning. Kids are very capable, but when they are doubled up or tripled up in an apartment, their family sharing just one room, that’s hard. That doesn’t show up in the data. If I had a housing development in this neighborhood, it would be one less thing for families to worry about. My kids’ experiences are not even in the same world as most of the other kids in Massachusetts. But my kids have to compete with those kids and they have to be ready. So we owe it to them to do every single thing we can to help them be successful.”
And research shows that the best model to make English learners successful is high quality dual language programs. In fact, it’s the best model for all students regardless of background.
Where a child’s first language is the language of the school.
If you look at standardized testing data both internationally and nationally, the schools that are scoring high are the ones where the vast majority of students have a first language that is also the language of the school. For decades in the U.S., students who are learning English have struggled to do well on the Nation’s Report Card (NAEP). And while just 10 percent of students across the country are English learners, many are concentrated in certain parts of the country (California, Texas, New York City), or in Massachusetts’ case, in the gateway cities.

So one might think that communities like Worcester—where 30 percent of the student body are current English learners and where three in five students speak a language other than, or in addition to, English at home—are at an automatic disadvantage. And while it does take more resources to teach English learners, the value added by having a multilingual community is something most other communities cannot replicate. But Worcester has not had the courage yet to support that multilingualism in a real way.
Worcester doesn’t have a great history when it comes to embracing bilingualism. A lawsuit against the district, brought by Spanish-speaking parents in 1978, led to a 1983 consent decree requiring the district to create a bilingual education program. But again in 2008 the U.S. Department of Justice intervened when the district was in noncompliance, and there have been two other agreements: one in 2012 and one in 2016, a mandate that Worcester is still under today.
Superintendent Monárrez is actively working to change that. Originally from California, a state that has had a long history of bilingual education, Dr. Monárrez brings expertise and an outsider's perspective that Worcester needs. At a January 2024 school committee meeting, the district presented about multilingual learners and the results of an audit conducted by a contracted agency. In that presentation, Monárrez said, “When you see data that shows single digit outcomes for multilingual youth, you should be outraged. You should not be okay with it. We can do so much better, our children can do so much better, and we have to be intentional about what we do…So if you walk away with nothing else from this presentation about what this third party told us, it told us that we had a lot of great activities, but it lacked that intentionality.”
Deliberate, thoughtful changes are being made by the district. At the elementary level there’s the creation of alignment maps with the CKLA curriculum for English learners with targeted goals and multilingual supports by week. But these changes will only get the district so far. Sheltered English Immersion, where English learners are taught in English all day, is not best practice. Research has solidly shown over and over and over again that two-way dual language programs are the only model that closes the gap between ELs and monolingual students. And longitudinal research over decades has shown that dual language programs have an “astounding effectiveness” for ALL students, especially students with disabilities and monolingual students of low socioeconomic status, not just English learners.
Two-way dual language programs are known as “additive” programs, because students maintain their home language, while also learning a new language. In Worcester’s case, there is an English/Spanish two-way dual language immersion program that teaches students in both languages so students who are fluent in Spanish and fluent in English maintain those languages, but also learn the other (there are some families that have a different home language who also enroll their children in the program—in that case students learn two new languages). The two-way program starts at Worcester Dual Language Magnet School (WorDL) and then moves to Burncoat Middle and High School. There is a one-way program for kids who live in the neighborhood of Woodland Academy for grades 1-5, but there was no kindergarten class this year. It is still unclear what is going to happen with the program there.
Dual language programs see improved cognitive abilities in students, such as problem-solving, attention, and memory. Being bilingual also fosters cultural understanding, empathy, and perspective-taking. If we want to educate Worcester students in the most equitable model with research-proven best results for all students, the answer is dual language education.2
The principal of WorDL, Suzanna Resendes, is the daughter of Azorean immigrants and grew up speaking Portuguese at home. “My language and culture is very important to me. I speak Portuguese with my family and can use my language skills with the Portuguese speakers who cross my path. The unfortunate part of the story is that I was never formally taught to read or write in Portuguese so that piece of me is missing. I work hard to self teach, but it’s just not the same. I wish I had the opportunity to be a proficient speaker, reader, writer, and listener of my native language.” Research shows that with each generation of immigrant families there is language attrition, and by the third generation the heritage language is gone. As Resendes points out, this is a huge personal loss, but it is also a loss for the Worcester community, which is made stronger by its multilingualism.
Dual language parent Javier Meléndez agrees. At the January 16 school committee meeting Meléndez spoke about growing up in Puerto Rico and attending an immersion school from kindergarten to 12th grade, saying, “the impact that this education had on me cannot be overstated.” Like many kids who make up the multicultural fabric of Worcester, Meléndez’s children are bicultural. “While my children might be first-generation Americans on my family’s side, they are fourth-generation Worcester natives on my wife’s side,” Meléndez explained, “The dual language program has not only helped me and my children connect to my culture and language in a way that better prepares them for an increasingly multicultural world, this program very directly benefits the city and the people of Worcester, both newcomers like myself, and long time residents.” Unfortunately, that last piece, the benefit to the city as a whole, is not one that most people see clearly.
With all the strong research, I’ve found it an interesting exercise to try to figure out why dual language programs haven’t taken off in Worcester as they have in similar communities. Dual language programs have existed since the 1960s and there’s tons of models with best practices to learn from. Resendes told me, “I think WPS is working hard to elevate and understand the importance of dual language. Identifying the need for a dual language school, evaluating resources, and designing a long term plan across grade levels is the first step. Once we have a district-wide map and plan for the expansion and longevity of the program, we can really begin to identify needs. One major need is the retention of bilingual staff and training of those staff in bilingualism and biliteracy.” In addition to their teaching certification, dual language teachers must also have a bilingual endorsement, and it is one of the biggest obstacles to staffing programs. According to the DESE website only six colleges in Massachusetts offer it and they’re all more than an hour away. A Worcester institute of higher education offering this endorsement could make a huge impact on the future of the dual language program.
Fear may also lay behind resistance to dual-language programs: fear from parents that their kids won’t learn English and fear from the monolingual community that prioritizing bilingualism will exclude them. It comes from the deficit mindset, where dual language flips that mindset. Resendes told me, “Dual language is an equity opportunity to engage speakers of the Spanish language in authentic academic learning where we leverage their native skills and elevate their language skills as an asset and not an obstacle while engaged in learning.” We have to remember that Worcester’s greatest untapped resource is that so many children in our city speak a language other than English. Imagine if they could also read and write at that same academic level and be fully biliterate? If the city could embrace and prioritize dual language education, it could be an incredibly effective way to propel our city forward. We just have to have the gumption to do it.
Moving Forward.
In December, when I sat down to talk to fourth grader Abe Hashesh, it was nine days before his tenth birthday. He told me he doesn’t really remember remote kindergarten, or not being able to read, but he does remember the first book that got him excited about reading—Tia Lola by Julia Alvarez. I asked him why he likes to read and he told me, “You get more details and you think of it in your mind when you’re reading a book.” It unlocks his imagination. I often see Abe holding a book after school; most recently it was The Wild Robot. When I asked him why he always has a book in his hand, he told me that he reads to one of the kindergarteners while he’s waiting to get picked up. It’s a time they both look forward to and he likes to read books that make the kindergartner laugh. Sharing stories brings us together, taps into our imagination, and makes meaning of our lives. Abe and his kindergartner friend are modeling how a shared culture of literacy in our community can connect us in a deep way.
I know all of us in Worcester strive for that connected community where literacy is thriving, where our kids have the skills and knowledge to make sense of the world. Still, how to get there can feel overwhelming. But through committing to fund our schools beyond the bare minimum, advocating for universal preschool, giving kids access to books they want to read, supporting teachers, and embracing multilingualism, we can get there. It’s a reality that is within reach. The question becomes, how much are we willing to reach for it?
Bill here. I love that we were able to publish this series. Aislinn did incredible. WPS in Brief is a 100 percent reader funded column of a 100 percent reader funded local outlet. A paid subscription would help us tremendously! The work is free to read but took a lot of time anud effort to produce. Thank you.
For a more detailed understanding check out this Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report).
I graduated from the two-way bilingual program in Framingham Public Schools, and because of my personal experience I am a huge proponent of the model. If you have kids enrolling in WPS I highly encourage you to enter the dual language lottery.
Excellent Part II on literacy in Worcester and powerful guidance for the future to continue to improve it. Thank you
<Standing ovation>. Brava again. Especially on the school libraries and dual language sections. "SEI is not best practice": You get a gold star. But it is the default practice when the bulk of your teaching corps is English monolingual. And it's the practice endorsed by the state. And it's the practice that our state ESOL organization, MATSOL, pushes (so the profession is complicit in this). Perhaps I missed it, but part of addressing this challenge is developing that multilingual teaching corps (I know that Aislinn talked about the distance to get to an institution that can prepare you as a dual language teacher). We *can* do it. The talent is there: so many of our immigrant WPS parents *were teachers in their home countries*. But there is *so much gatekeeping* in moving from being a paraprofessional, which is where much of this talent ends up (and stuck), to being a licensed teacher (the MTEL). Readers, Aislinn has basically given you all a graduate-level education on this for/the price of a coffee and in less than an hour of your time.
(One little proofreading point: for taxes, it's "levy", not "levee." Gosh darn homophones.)