Okeef Saunders loves his job teaching history to high school students in Jamaica’s capital. But he is getting ready to leave for the United States, where a teaching job with a much bigger paycheck in North Carolina awaits him. “I have four kids to support, a mortgage, bills for food, water, electricity,” said Mr. Saunders, 49, who teaches at a Kingston high school. He said he plans to start out earning about $50,000 a year in United States, doubling his current salary after working as a teacher in Jamaica for the last 28 years. In the United States alone, nearly half of all public schools have been operating without a full teaching staff, according to the U.S. Department of Education, as enrollment in teacher preparation programs plunges.

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Persons: Okeef Saunders, “, ”, Saunders Organizations: Kingston, U.S . Department of Education Locations: Jamaica’s, United States, North Carolina, Jamaica, Canada, Britain