By State Rep. Kyle Hilbert
OKLAHOMA CITY – Evidence of a workforce shortage is everywhere. Placing an online order to finish Christmas shopping recently, I was notified the company could no longer give an exact shipping date due to workforce and supply chain issues. Unfortunately, this problem is bigger than a family member’s Christmas present not delivered before Dec. 25.
This workforce shortage is affecting our health care, students in our classrooms, and many other sectors of society. We must get a handle on this if we want to thrive and make Oklahoma the Top 10 state I believe it can become.
The Legislature can start by looking at three critical areas where shortages existed prior to the pandemic: nursing, teaching and engineering.
Nursing goes without saying. Virtually everyone in this country is aware of the shortage and the challenges it has caused. During multiple spikes in the pandemic, there were Oklahoma hospitals that had physical bedspace yet were unable to take additional patients because they lacked staff.
The bright side is that based on public testimony at our American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Health & Human Services Committee hearings, we have enough students interested in nursing to address this shortage. We just don’t have the capacity at our post-secondary institutions to train them all.
Annually, Oklahoma is graduating only half as many students in our colleges of education as we have teachers retiring; this is according to a recent Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency report. Simultaneously, only half of these graduates are staying in the profession for more than five years. With our colleges of education graduates meeting only 25% of the demand five years post-graduation, our K-12 education system cannot possibly function without alternative and emergency certified teachers.
It is imperative that we support alternative and emergency certified teachers while also increasing the number of education graduates.
Within the last decade the aerospace sector surpassed all but oil and gas to become the second-largest industry in Oklahoma. This diversification of our state’s economy has been a goal of Oklahoma legislators for several generations. However, the energy and aerospace industries – as well as many others – are going to have a difficult time growing in our state if we do not have adequate numbers of engineering graduates from Oklahoma universities.
As a state, we must do a better job of not only increasing interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and match) careers, but also of providing tutoring and other services so that all students with an interest and ability to be engineers have the tools necessary to cross the finish line.
There certainly are other shortage areas that could be addressed – IT jobs, plumbers, truck drivers, etc. – but tackling these first three is a good start. A quality health care workforce is essential to provide the quality of life necessary for our citizens. Without enough skilled K-12 educators to properly train the next generation, it makes addressing all other shortage areas all but impossible. Without enough engineers, our state will not be able to become the Top 10 state we strive to be.
These problems are not unique to Oklahoma, but that doesn’t mean we cannot come up with unique solutions to address them.
In closing, I will share a quote from my good friend, Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols: “No one is dying because we don’t have enough political science graduates. But they are due to a lack of nurses.” Rep. Kyle Hilbert serves state House District 29, which includes parts of Creek and Tulsa counties.