New Mexico Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday asked state employees and members of the National Guard to volunteer to serve as substitute teachers in schools around the state that are battling staff shortages due to a coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reports.
The move would allow schools and daycares to continue to operate, even as their professional staffs are unavailable, so that their parents’ schedules are not disrupted. “We’ve heard from multiple districts that a lack of substitute teachers is among the most critical staffing issues right now,” New Mexico Public Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus said in a statement.
Around 60 schools in New Mexico have gone into remote learning schedules and 75 daycares have had to suspend operations because of the level of coronavirus infection among the staff, the governor’s office reported. More than two-thirds of New Mexico’s population is fully vaccinated, and only 17% report not getting at least one vaccine dosage.