A national shortage of black and Hispanic teachers will endure at least through 2060, a new report from the Brookings Institution says.

The report, "High hopes and harsh realities," uses U.S. Census projections to predict how long it will take for the teaching profession to mirror the increasingly diverse enrollment in America's schools.

More whites go into teaching, and they stay in the job a little longer, explaining a disproportion between the faces of students and their teachers: about half of students are white yet four out of five teachers are.

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Views of the exterior of Druid Hills High School in Atlanta shown on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. In the plan approved by the DeKalb County school board on Monday, everything but the main building, pictured here, will be demolished in favor of a new school building. (Natrice Miller/ AJC)

Credit: Natrice Miller

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Jo'wan Bellamy taught in the GNETS program for 17 years and recently transferred to Atlanta’s new behavioral program at Crawford Long Middle School. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com