(From Chalkbeat) More schools are turning to faculty housing development as an approach to teacher retention and recruitment, particularly in urban areas where many teachers would be otherwise unable to afford housing. But for these teachers, can reduced housing and a built-in community be enough to teach, or continue to teach, in urban schools? In one case, the idea for an “Educator’s Village” in Indianapolis did not quite meet the developers’ goals — only seven out of the 15 homes sold are now occupied by teachers. It remains unclear how many of those teachers work in the area schools.
Critics point to several issues that may have led to the development not attracting more teachers, including inadequate compensation and housing laws that prohibit restricting buyers to a particular group of people. The Educators’ Village reflects that existing barriers to teacher recruitment and retention is a difficult goal to achieve through one type of project alone.
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